Look, I drank the Kool-Aid on the subject of classified documents many years ago so don't expect me to be all yippee about leaking the secrets in the diplomatic pouch. WikiLeaks can squeal all it wants about Australian porn filters or miscreant bankers but, as I've said before, as far as I'm concerned this leaking of State Department documents is a leak too far.
It is also, as far as I've been able to see (if you expect me to read all 200,000 documents you need to refill your meds) a lot of fuss about not very much at all. It's got the newspapers clucking for a few days but hey, Paris Hilton can do that all by herself.
What the present leaks appear to reveal is that the State Department is supporting U.S. policy around the globe. Which is exactly what they're supposed to do. This is not to say I agree with the policy, but simply that the place to wrestle with it is not at State.
Take, for example, the "revelation" (yes, those are sarcastic quotes) that the Obama administration pressured Spain to drop a legal proceeding against Dubya Bush. So what? Obama has never made any secret of his disinclination to prosecute the Bushies, his "Justice" (ditto) Department has appeared in defense of thugs, and to all appearances he has not only continued but extended some of the least savory Bush policies. Yeah, I think all that needs to change too. But I do not give a fig about what happens in Spain.
Nor am I outraged that diplomats report the government of Afghanistan is corrupt - I'd be outraged if they didn't - or that the Saudis have more than one iron in the fire, or that the leaders of China are unhappy with what they find on Google. Something something blah blah. Not much. You see what I mean.
But listen. I continue to believe that in the case of our differences with Iran a diplomatic solution would be preferable to a war. Ditto North Korea. Ditto Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, here and there - mostly, wherever. And to the extent WikiLeaks has made diplomatic solutions less likely - even just a little - and war more, I think the WikiGeeks, no matter how passionately they believe they're really living in the Matrix (and no matter how cool it is to have servers in a cave), have done us all a big disservice.
Your mileage may vary, of course.
But just so you know, I am also in favor of reinstating the draft.
No comments:
Post a Comment