Maybe it's my dumb rightie brain but when I saw the recaps of the grand Wikileaks exposures, I didn't see really anything of significant revelations, pretty much only a brat who enjoys seeing the world pissed off. Not a single thing did I look at and feel grateful that Assange is out there fighting the good fight for mankind.
The goal of Wikileaks is to DISRUPT the ability of powerful bureaucracies to conspire for evil in secret, by publishing leaks.
It's not to say, 'oh, look, there's a holocaust being done', it's to say 'the Mubarak regime and the US have a far closer, more cynical relationship at the expense of the people than is understood, let's make it harder for them to continue conspiriing by being a bit afraid what they say might not stay secret'.
Wikileaks exposing things about the Tunisian government not only did that, it helped lead to the popular reaction forcing the regime to fall - which was contagious.
When in the US the Church commission exposed widespread wrongdoing by the CIA abroad and at home, it also led to restricting the ability of the government to do wrong.
Not enough, but a help.
There's only so much a few people on the internet can do. Look at the big whistleblowers - Daniel Ellsberg found the government was lying to the American people about Vietnam, and faced life in prison for exposing the truth. Bradley Manning, whatever his motivation but it seemed at least in part to be that he felt he'd seen evidence of crimes and coverup, has been treated horribly in prison for a year, facing a long time in prison.
How would you like to be the next whistleblower, if you were put into a government position and learned of wrongdoing and wanted to serve the American people?
I'm sure you would jump at the chance to 'do the right thing' and tell the American people of the wrongdoing, and face decades in prison. Right?
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