Leaked Pentagon Documents Could Have Dire Consequences for 2024 Elections
Over the past week, a number of classified Pentagon documents were leaked on various social media platforms, including Twitter and Discord. Key information has been exposed not just about the United States’ plans for a joint offensive against Russia alongside Ukraine and NATO in the upcoming months, but about various U.S. operations in Asia-Pacific and Africa. Other documents exposed unfiltered military information about Ukraine’s military capacity, China’s covert aid to Russia for their war effort, and operations being carried out by the Wagner Group.
The U.S. government has made it clear that this was not a hack by any adversaries, but rather an internal leak within the Pentagon. The leak itself was “old school”, as experts suggest that paper briefings were taken out of classified areas, photographed, and uploaded to the internet.
Besides the consequences that these leaks will have on NATO and U.S. operations within the Russia-Ukraine war, this may have a much more significant impact on the 2024 U.S. Presidential election and Biden’s reelection prospects. History has shown that leaks of classified information and foreign policy scandals have doomed reelection campaigns. Most famously, the Watergate Scandal caused Nixon’s resignation only two years into his term. While he was forced to resign due to the risk of prosecution, even if this had not been the case, his reelection prospects would undoubtedly have been low.
Similarly, the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 consumed the remainder of Carter’s presidency (1977-1981). Because of the repercussions on his standings as a global leader and the public’s faith in his ability to achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives, he was defeated by Reagan, whose administration negotiated the release of these hostages within 24 hours of his presidency. However, the process by which this was achieved caused a similar foreign policy upset with the Iran Contra Scandal in 1986.
There is a huge cache of evidence that suggests we need a President who can take us to war with China in 2025. While the intelligence leaks are not necessarily directly the fault of the Biden administration, optics are everything in politics. The American people need someone to hold accountable, a key figure whom they are familiar with– someone they feel they have placed their trust in, and who has therefore let us down. Thus, the American people do not want a president whose administration cannot contain key documents outlining the nation’s foreign policy goals and strategies.
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