Despite widespread anticipation that the release of Wikileaks' Afghanistan logs would lead to the deaths of Afghan citizens who had helped the U.S. military, fueled by both official statements from the U.S. government and the Taliban itself, Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently told Sen. Carl Levin that the worst hasn't happened:
As far as broader intelligence gathering, Mr. Gates told Mr. Levin, “Our initial review indicates most of the information contained in these documents relates to tactical military operations.” He added: “The initial assessment in no way discounts the risk to national security; however, the review to date has not revealed any sensitive intelligence sources and methods compromised by this disclosure.”
I think the government obviously had reason to worry about what might happen as a result of the disclosures, but it's also clear that they used Wikileaks' recklessness as a way to pivot away from a discussion of an unpopular war. Then there were the reactions from the torture wing of the GOP, some of whose advocates literally suggested declaring war on the organization for doing what media outlets do fairly frequently, if more responsibly.
