I don’t think we are anywhere near as bad as the Taliban.
I think this Assange fellow deserves at least as much criticism from the left as we threw at Scooter Libby and Dick Cheney for the Valerie Plame affair.
We’re not (well, most of us) aren’t Afghans, but we would rather not see innocent Afghan interpreters or sources of intelligence - along with their families - be murdered because some Australian thinks that the US military/government is teh evil.
Interpreters? I thought it was informants, but either way, they are hardly innocent. They have conspired with foreign forces against their own government. They are guilty of treason. Assange is not.
I agree that it was a bad move by WikiLeaks, mainly because there was nothing particularly interesting in the files they released; but the fact (?) remains no crime was commited. He was under no obligation to keep the files secret, the same way a US citizen would be under no obligation to keep secret documents relating to Ecuadorian national security. A person cannot commit treason against a country he has no ties to. Calling for him to be hanged is ridiculous. For what? For putting lives at risk? You’re in the middle of a war for Christ’s sake, and a war where the main casualties seem to be Afghani civilians. If anyone put lives at risk, it was GWB (although let’s not go there).
Personally, if I was Assange, I would not have leaked the documents. But I really hate this attitude some Americans seem to have; thinking their jurisdiction is the whole world.
as for the op: nobel peace prize - not a chance!