"Dishonorable Disclosures"

"Dishonorable Disclosures" is a short film by an organization called Special Operations OPSEC about how the Obama administration has willfully leaked intelligence that has compromised America's future operations. Some on the left have compared it to the "Swift Boat" ads against John Kerry. The big difference between these two films is that while the anti-Kerry stuff was significantly unverifiable, this film is entirely verifiably true.

Yes, it's an attack on Obama, and certainly funded by many Republicans and conservatives. It is, in essence, a campaign ad against the President. And the film's biggest failing is that because it is an attack on Obama, it leaves out information and arguments that a viewer might use to challenge whether some of the disclosures were reasonable, such as that we might have something greater to gain in our extremely complex relationship with Pakistan by giving up the doctor, or that some disclosures -- despite the military and intelligence communities disliking them -- are good for democracy (like with the existence of a "kill list").

But the bottom line is that the leaks the film is criticizing are very real, and whatever the reasons, many of the leaks -- about the Pakistani doctor, about how the Bin Laden mission was conducted and the names of the units involved, about Stuxnet, and more -- have been intentional, and have caused severe damage to our ability to conduct similar operations in the future.

The doctor disclosure is particularly troubling, because it eliminates untold numbers of potential intelligence assets who will rightfully question whether they will be offered up on a silver platter to our enemies once their usefulness is complete.

Even Democrat Dianne Feinstein, one of Obama's biggest supporters in the Senate, has said the leaks in the last few years have been worse than she's ever seen, and have caused tremendous damage. There's no serious debate about that.

While we're all talking about and debating the President's record on civil liberties, taxes, jobs, debt, and so on, it's good that this film is reminding us of a less-publicized, but very important, problem with the President's first term.