Originally posted by DethDriver
I'm very torn as to what should happen to Assange because it comes down to how you look at the cables being leaked. The way I'm looking at it is that it goes without saying that there are certain things the general public shouldn't know about their Government, and there are certain things countries shouldn't know about other ones. It's the nature of the beast, and embarrassment may have something to do with it, but there are greater things at stake.
As far as the US is concerned, this isn't the days of George Washington & Thomas Jefferson with that 'government is best which governs least'; mentality. I wish it were, but that's changed now and this is where we're at. Nations must have secrets to a certain extent. It is necessary for a number reasons, some of which are obvious and for others not so much. Assange seems like an intelligent person, and he knew what he was doing and now he got his ass in a jam because of it. Some are going to try to turn this guy into a martyr for all the wrong reasons.
Personally I don't feel sorry for him because it's not like he got fooled into it. This goes beyond the realm of "free speech", what was leaked has International implications, there is a difference between wanting to 'expose the man' and irresponsibility. Okay, we have the right to freedom of speech, but nowhere does it say that we are free from the consequences that come along with that freedom.
This is a fine example.edit on 19-8-2012 by DethDriver because: coding error
There is a difference between secrets that protect a nation and it's allies(troop locations, equipment, military plans, technology, agent's and their missions/locations) from their enemies, and secrets created to protect a nations leadership from their citizenry.
Now what did Assange leak? What kind of secrets? By and large they where the bad type of secrets, things that never should of been made secret in the first place. I could sympathize with people like you, but people like you don't seem to mind when the Democrats hand Communist nations nuclear technology, stealth technology and other military secrets. Or when Neo Conservatives leak information on undercover agents.

