There is a very interesting period in the history of conflict, unfolding now as I see it.

To be absolutely realistic about State secrecy for one moment, and to look at the reasons Joe Q Public on average does not get too close to what happens in this area, we have to be fairly open minded as to what is perpertrated in order to keep the World Order roughly where it is.
To be realistic, does not require us to be complicit with it.

If things are going to be 'more open' as a result of this war, then some people are going to get a few illusions shattered fairly quickly, and we will see that it will not really matter which party is sitting in the White House, or in Downing Street at the time, because a lot of it will be condoned 'on high', if for no other reason, than for they have no other choice.
The country will do whatever the country believes it has to do, in other words, and if it is nasty, then that's too badit, but the sensitivities of the public, voter, whichever nerve in them you want to avoid pinching, have to be taken into account, and so it all has to be kept fairly low-key, at the very least.

The 'Information Age' is certainly here, as Rumsfeld's position now, clearly demonstrates. A Democrat Defense Secretary will be privvy to exactly the same knowledge as his Republican counterpart, and will more than likely have to make the same 'judgements'.

I think people will continue to be horrible to others; just as we (as a race) always have been.
In the realm of the secret, where we can imagine the manouverings that take place. We can only imagine what is nodded and winked at behind the closed doors.

The more of it that comes out into the public domain, the more the average Joe gets to join his own dots.

It could spell the end of Democracy, as we know it.

Jim