The initial response to Airman Jack Teixeira’s alleged leak of highly classified documents was, as one government source told me, “Ho. Ly. Shit.” Every day, a new revelation—that the U.S. was spying on its ally South Korea, that the Pentagon had doubts about the success of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, that the U.A.E. was cozying up to Russia as America pulled out of the Middle East—exploded from a trove of highly classified documents that had been hanging out on a server for video-gamers. Journalists dubbed it the biggest intelligence breach since WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden.

But now, nearly two weeks later and with the benefit of some hindsight—and a firmer grasp of what was leaked—Washington is finally breathing again. “It’s serious, but it’s not the end of the world,” said retired C.I.A. clandestine officer Marc Polymeropoulos. “Nobody in my intelligence circles thinks it’s the end of the world. They think it’s serious, but it’s not catastrophic.”