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Our understanding of what's happened in Iraq has been shaped by the rare leaks of visual evidence of war crimes by U.S. forces. You can dislike Assange for justifiable reasons, but the video Chelsea Manning leaked to him, and that Wikileaks published, is stunningly important. 
The leaked video from U.S. attack helicopters showed an onslaught in which civilians, including children and journalists, were killed and injured. The pilots were exultant : "Let's shoot...Light 'em all up...Come on, fire!" Here's the transcript --collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/en/transcript.…
The video didn't just show what many legal experts believe was a war crime. It also revealed a cover-up by the Pentagon. The video, published in 2010, showed an attack in Baghdad that occurred in 2007, in which, among others, two Iraqis working for Reuters were killed.
The U.S. military had for years claimed the killings were justified, though it refused to release evidence it had, such as the video, that proved otherwise. The leak of this video -- Manning providing it to Assange, who published it via Wikileaks -- showed the lie and the crime.
I covered the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath. War reporters have done tremendous work on abuses by U.S. forces. Haditha, Nisour Square, Mahmudiyah, etc. But visual evidence of crimes as they happen has been elusive; on the rare occasions it emerges, its power is immense.
Think, for example, of the photos of U.S. torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Without those images, who would have believed what happened there? Who would have known?
When we debate the arrest of Julian Assange and whether he violated U.S. laws, we must keep in mind the real-world impact of what was accomplished by the leak and publication of that video (and the mass of other files leaked by Manning). That video showed us the face of U.S. war.
Here's a link to the Guardian's story about the video when it was leaked in 2010. The video is embedded in the story. theguardian.com/world/2010/apr…
