On Wednesday, President Trump seemed to blast the publication of reports prepared by the Office of the Inspector General on the continued troubles of American military operations. But there are good reasons for those reports to be public. Just look at what happened when they weren’t.

During a televised Cabinet meeting, Trump told his newly acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan: “Some I.G. goes over there who — mostly appointed by President Obama, but we’ll have ours too — and he goes over there, and they do a report telling every single thing that’s happening and they release it to the public.”