There are a couple of people with sober takes on this article and you’re one of them. The rest seem to have decided long ago that the entire military is full of mustachio-twirling evildoers, and building their whole mental model of what’s going on with that as the foundation of it.

The facts of the matter are probably much closer to what you’re saying, but some people have become so radicalized (including those who got that way due to Trump-era buffoonery) that they can’t accept even the possibility that most of the actors are operating to protect our collective legitimate best interests.

Most of the people in government and the military are not political appointees, are not political hacks, and are doing tough and sometimes high-risk jobs, from a motivation other than evil. On the other hand, many politicians are motivated mainly by political partisanship and will do anything to try to score political points, including trying to cause outrage about what’s being kept secret, even if it’s been explained to them why it must remain secret.