Protections are for the People, so Why so Much Classified Info?

   Thirteen times, then, that our own nuclear weapons almost blew us up? And, in most situations, we were not told until long after the fact when the information was finally declassified?
   A free and open society does not withhold this type of information from its people. They, the people, were almost killed -- in large numbers. That's news. To suppress it is wrong. They, the people, have a right to know that they were almost killed. Rather than the government having the right to protect itself from embarrassing and unflattering information, it is the people who have rights.
   When you find yourself drifting towards currying the image of government officials at the expense of the public's right to know, perhaps you are drifting back to the ages when kings and queens ruled, and they suppressed information that would compromise their reputations. This is America. This is another age. Our protections are for the people, not so much the ruling class. And certainly we should not have protections against disclosing unflattering information of government officials at the expense of the people having the right to know something as essential as that they just about got blown to bits.