The United States is fortunate indeed that Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic magazine – and the surprise beneficiary of a leak of sensitive military plans – is a man of sound judgement. Had he not been, and had recklessly made public the top-secret details of US attacks on Houthi rebels, then the consequences would have been serious and possibly even fatal for US service personnel.
The irony is that the great care taken by Mr Goldberg when he inadvertently learnt the operational details stands in stark and shaming contrast to reckless blunders made by various senior members of the Trump administration. They should have known better than to have communicated this topic in this unclassified way, let alone neglected to check with whom they were talking and sharing secrets. The participants in the insecure chat group included national security adviser Mike Waltz; vice-president JD Vance; director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; and defence secretary Pete Hegseth.
