The last time I cared about this sort of thing was when the Nixon White House was denouncing as traitors those who leaked the news that we were secretly at war in Cambodia. Big military secret. The North Vietnamese didn't have to read the New York Times to know they were being bombed, but the American people did.

When politicians start waving the flag, pointing hysterically and yelling "traitor"....you can fill in the rest. Real security lapses are handled by ignoring them, stonewalling and misinformation campaigns. In truth, it is the nature of covert operations that the enemy already knows they are going on, the only questions they have are their extent and effectiveness.

The natural and correct need for obscuring military details from your enemies quickly devolves into the need to cover up incompetence and to engage in activities which would not be normally tolerated by the electorate.