Real face of the war

In what is widely believed to be the biggest disclosure of secret information in history, WikiLeaks revealed about 400,000 secret war logs on Friday night.

The leaked documents touch upon a wide range of issues concerning the United States-led invasion of Iraq. They made public details of civilian deaths, torture of detainees and summary executions. For example, the deaths of Iraqi civilians are apparently much bigger than the numbers given by the US and British authorities. While both countries insist that no official record of civilian casualties exists, the leaked documents suggest that there were more than 109,000 violent deaths from all causes between 2004 and the end of 2009.

The magnitude of the crimes should make every righteous person angry. It again puts a big question mark against the US self-proclaimed image as the world human rights champion. For years, the US has been wielding the banner of human rights to criticize others, especially the developing countries. It regularly publishes reports on human rights records in other countries in the world.