Loose Lips... & Ships??

This just makes me (and the DH) absolutely head spinning CRAZY!

WASHINGTON - For the third consecutive year, a classified Pentagon assessment has concluded there is a significant risk that the US military could not respond quickly and fully to any new crisis, the Associated Press has learned.

[snip]

Senior military officials spoke about the report on condition of anonymity because it is a classified document.

What part of CLASSIFIED did they not understand??!! (Not confidential... not embargoed info to be published at some later time -- but CLASSIFIED!!!) Find the "senior military officials", try them and then HANG them or put them IN FRONT of a firing squad. I bet that would end these "anonymous" leaks PDQ. It's not that I think the information that was leaked (or at least published) is not something we all know (generally), but let's start with the PRINCIPLE of classified... Perhaps we need to dumb down the instructions: CLASSIFIED means SECRET information that you do not discuss with the media, the public or anyone that does not have the appropriate SECURITY clearance (as in secure... as in keeping us safe...)

On the other hand, if the report really isn't classified in the sense that those in the military or the [professional] Intelligence community might understand (that would exclude DiFi HERE and HERE among other places calling her out) but is, instead, only confidential until sent to Congress (whose members can't keep a secret and haven't the wherewithal to parse through more than the media's opinion of legislation and all things governmental (the Congressional Recovery Assistance Program, for example) and this report has been leaked to underscore the stupidity and folly of calling for budget cuts to force readiness initiatives in the DoD budget... well, then OK. But CLASSIFIED?? CLASSIFIED??

And lastly, the truly important part of the assessment isn't that the military is stretched thin, but these:

The assessment finds that the United States continues to face persistent terrorist threats...

and

This year's assessment finds many of the same global security issues as previous years - ranging from terrorist organizations and unstable governments to the potential for high-tech cyber attacks.

and

"This is a chairman who looks around the world and sees - right now, today - immediate, near-term problems like North Korea, the larger questions of Pakistan and its future, Iran and what is going on there, Russia and Georgia, Venezuela, which has a close relationship with Russia and is buying arms all over the place, and Cuba," Goure said.

In case you can't suss the message in those quotes: you cannot get rid of crime by getting rid of the police or reducing the weapons available to them. I was going to say that it was not a suggestion that the U.S. be the policeman of the world, but then it occurred to me: "If not us, then who??" (Just a gentle reminder that WE ARE THE GOOD GUYS! even if imanutjob, hugobaby, vladimir, et al. don't seem to think so.)