Firstly, you assume its a government inflicting DDoS attacks. To be quite honest, highly unlikely. It would be easier for the government to collude with favorable vendors (and they have many) to outright blacklist any DNS requests, etc., for example, its already been established that the NSA and AT&T have friendly Naurus relationships, so that would be an indicator that it would be more EFFECTIVE and cost effective to throw up an emergency "state ordered" block on the site via DNS requests and blacklisting. Irrelevant to some degree, but let's place this in your perspective: "A government is DDoS'ing Wikileaks..."

1) So what. This occurs quite more than most know. In fact, once upon a time, it was rumored that Electronic Disturbance Theatre was "funded." (too lazy to find their link, feel free to Google, EDT)
2) Its obvious since Wikileaks is still up, that they (whichever government you attribute this to) aren't doing an effective job - they need cyberwarfare guidance. Hell I have some 0days I can sell em.
3) Finally, to be honest and blunt... Who cares? (a, b)

(a) The world doesn't and won't stop for a website nor "horrible news." Never has, never will. There is no "catastrophic" fallout from Wikileaks' disclosure. Sure it made some people cringe but it seems more of a "schoolyard: he said she said" scenario where someone said something in the hopes the other person would never find out. Guess what they found out!!! "OMG? Are they gonna hate me in the morning?" Life goes on.

(b) The realistic perception of what Assange is doing with his "leaks" seems to be that of an orchestrated "targeting" of America. I read quite a few intelligence lists (OSINT) and I see a lot of information on MI6, SAS, Mossad plots of assassination games, espionage, etc., yet I haven't seen an iota of this on Wikileaks. So more for "world intel sharing" eh?

Which brings me to a (c)

(c) If I were in the military (ANY MILITARY), I'd DDoS him on my own accord. For one he is putting a lot of lives in danger contrary to what those sitting at home on a couch/computer know. Terrorist organizations and the individuals in them weren't born yesterday. There are PLENTY with tangible technical skills capable of dissecting this data and using it against EVERYONE. Not just the American military/government/citizens. Shame on Assange for not using his brains.

That in itself could bring up a (d) which has already been discussed and disclosed where Wikileaks was once seeking a "payday" by soliciting money from intel community (CIA, Mossad, etc.) in the hopes of some of those guys (Assange, et al) "retiring" with a pretty full pocket. Funny thing is, the intel agencies snubbed them (Wikileaks) and that's when Assange's "attitude" shifted to "Robin Hood." (http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20011106-281.html)

Moving along to criminalities....

1) Right now Assange could literally get away with murder. There is nothing stopping him from robbing a bank, killing a slew of tellers, leaving to another country and crying: "They're persecuting me..." There is so much distortion that is going on with the entire site/himself that he could generate a slew of zombie followers crying "Free Assange" without the vast majority understanding the truth (he robbed a bank and killed tellers)

2) I've been to Sweden and lived there for some time. I know their laws are EXTREMELY fair so much so they're almost passively laughable. If Assange did no wrong, he should go back and plead his case. By him "running" and "crying foul" he makes me think that he is even MORE guilty than he is being made out to be. All this because if he did no wrong, he should go back and defend himself period. I don't care if you need to sell your last piece of clothes to pay for a lawyer, if you committed no crime, then you fight to clear your name PERIOD. You don't run and cry foul.

I would like to see some details bout the bad thinks that happen now and will affect our future (conspiration teory like  ).
We all know that US gouv have done some nasty things in the past, but I am sure that the russians weren't angels. So yes, I agree with Sil that the guy targeting US gouv, and he is using anything against them. I don't even live in US, so I don't defend them.
It is too bad that such a good ideea as wikileaks is used in the wrong direction (not 100% wrong anyway  ).

I wrote the post for the primary purpose of being a "firestarter". The views expressed don't necessarily express my own and I agree with a lot of your comments, thanks for the replies.

Either way (a) government(s) has a heavy hand in all of this. Sometimes they over reach some times they are too conservative. Interesting topic though.

Brings to the forefront Cyber Warfare and its role in the future.

Now heres my own opinion. I think that a division of the government should be allowed to attack with bits with no remorse. The black side of the field doesn't show any remorse why should we?

Sil is 100% on the money about cyber attacks not being affective.  It is almost impossible to 100% confirm where an attack came from.  Also, with everything being so interconnected, an attack could do damage to an unintentional target.