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Media around the world have reacted to the release of almost 400,000 secret US military logs by the whistleblowing website Wikileaks.

The . It said they showed "a grim portrait of civilian deaths".

"The pace of civilian deaths served as a kind of pulse, whose steady beat told of the success, or failure, of America's war effort. Americans on both sides of the war debate argued bitterly over facts that grew hazier as the war deepened.
The archive does not put that argument to rest by giving a precise count."

When it came to the reports of abuse,

"It is a frightening portrait of violence by any standards, but particularly disturbing because Iraq's army and police are central to President Obama's plan to draw down American troops in Iraq.

The the Iraq was one of the most bloodily divisive international conflicts of the past decade.

Today's gigantic leak from that long-running battleground, of 391,832 previously secret US military field reports, details the unvarnished and often unknown realities of the war in Iraq. It is history in the raw. The story these documents tell is ugly and often shocking.

Also that the Iraqi people have a right to know the full details of all the incidents.

It is time for governments to realise that the early, voluntary release of casualty information in the conflicts they are embroiled in is the correct thing to do, both from a moral and a pragmatic standpoint. Whatever is holding them back is surely a minor concern when set against the public's right to know the immediate human consequences of war.

In the the importance of the information:

The leaks are important because they prove much of what was previously only suspected but never admitted by the US army or explained in detail.

He goes on to warn that any leaked information from war zones should be treated with caution:

Information about Iraq leaked, like that about Afghanistan, should come with a health warning. The Americans were often told by Iraqis, low level agents or high level ministers, what they supposed the Americans wanted to hear, notably that an Iranian hand was behind many anti-American actions. Much of this is likely to be nonsense.

through news reports, books and films,

Spiegel nevertheless decided to publish the documents because they expose additional dimensions to the war. The brief, matter-of-fact incident reports offer an unusual perspective on a war that lasted longer than World War II.

The

There appear to be no major revelations in the latest logs. Much like those WikiLeaks released earlier this year on the war in Afghanistan, the Iraq documents are mainly low-level field reports that reflect a soldier's-eye view of the conflict but do not contain the most sensitive secrets held by U.S. forces or intelligence agencies.

However, the paper adds:

The spilling of so many once-secret files into public view allows for a fine-grained examination of the war.

Britain's

Assange claims to believe in making available every piece of information about the military operations, to ensure that the powerful are accountable for their actions. But he himself operates amid a cult of secrecy, with no accountability to anyone. There is no doubt that the eccentric Assange has made himself a powerful force in the world today, but whether he is a force for good remains to be seen."

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