Is U.S. crying ‘wolf?’
It remains to be seen if any of the leaks of U.S. State Department cables will do real damage to the country.
Gathered by WikiLeaks, an online firm, the leaked data follows an earlier release of military documents regarding U.S. forces in the Middle East.
While the release of such documents can do harm, it’s also true that the government classifies far too many documents as “secret” that really should be open. Government officials at all levels don’t like the public peeking behind the veil; often, looking behind the curtain is a Wizard of Oz moment when the public realizes that great power is little more than a small man manipulating the system.
That’s not to say these diplomatic leaks aren’t embarrassing. In the world of diplomacy, governments seldom say what they really mean. It’s all double-speak, shades of meanings hidden behind code words. So for the real closed-door assessments to be released to the public is a major embarrassing event.
Still, the U.S. has nobody to blame but itself. It’s a fair bet that most of this information is already known by both our allies and enemies. With access to this information available to tens of thousands of people, most of it has probably already been seen by both our friends and foes. That the U.S. has such a lax system of data access is the real story here.
WikiLeaks promises to release more information in the coming months. Some of that may do real damage.
But for now, most of what we’re seeing is just red-faced diplomats whose world has been opened in a way they never expected. And they’re crying loud and long about it.
The question is, are they right, or are they just crying “wolf?”
While the release of such documents can do harm, it’s also true that the government classifies far too many documents as “secret” that really should be open. Government officials at all levels don’t like the public peeking behind the veil; often, looking behind the curtain is a Wizard of Oz moment when the public realizes that great power is little more than a small man manipulating the system.
That’s not to say these diplomatic leaks aren’t embarrassing. In the world of diplomacy, governments seldom say what they really mean. It’s all double-speak, shades of meanings hidden behind code words. So for the real closed-door assessments to be released to the public is a major embarrassing event.
Still, the U.S. has nobody to blame but itself. It’s a fair bet that most of this information is already known by both our allies and enemies. With access to this information available to tens of thousands of people, most of it has probably already been seen by both our friends and foes. That the U.S. has such a lax system of data access is the real story here.
WikiLeaks promises to release more information in the coming months. Some of that may do real damage.
But for now, most of what we’re seeing is just red-faced diplomats whose world has been opened in a way they never expected. And they’re crying loud and long about it.
The question is, are they right, or are they just crying “wolf?”
True enough. But they also don't want you to see just how many illegal and immoral things that they do. How many times have we all heard someone say "That is classified" when asked hard questions? While not everyone is corrupt, the government is full of abuse and corruption, from minor and petty things like stealing office supplies and showing up for "work" but doing nothing all day, to major and criminal things like back room deals (at the average American's expense), torture of "prisioners of war", and violations of our basic freedoms and rights at the highest level (because like Dick Cheney likes to believe, laws don't apply to the president)!
Who watches the watchers? In this country, apparently nobody...because the only people who have "clearance" are the ones who have things that they want to keep hidden.
And the worst possible thing that you can do to the powerful is to embarrass them. Wikileaks creator is a marked man because he has put light on what the government wanted kept in the dark. One way or the other, they WILL "get" him.
Should he have posted "sensitive" information? I wouldn't have. I don't think anyone should post information that could put other people's lives at risk. But that is really beside the point. Does his "right of free speech" give him the right to post this information? After all, OUR government is supposed to be BY the people, FOR the people. How can it have secrets FROM the people? Our government should be transparent, there should be no secrets. In a perfect world. But we don't live in a perfect world, do we? So, which is more important? Our right to know, or the government's need to keep secrets so that it can operate in a world of governments that are NOT by the people nor for the people?
I have heard that the rest of the world hates the U.S.A. because of the arrogant, heavy handed, high pressure tactics that "we" use. People around me look confused when I talk about this, they have no idea why people from other countries would feel this way.
I guess now that some of the truth about how our government runs rough shod over the rest of the world has come out, people don't have an excuse to remain ignorant. But it really won't matter, will it? Nothing will change. A few months will go by, this incident will be forgotten, the government will find a way to punish Wikileaks, and "we" will go back to business as usual.
So, when the President goes abroad and tries to get other countries to help stop China from ruining our economy with its economic policies, and none of our "allies" will help...will we all still be shocked and suprised? (Oh, wait, he just did that, didn't he!)
Hello and welcome to the "real world" people. It ain't pretty out here, is it?
A government without secrets? What kind of fantasy is that?!
As far as the publisher of these documents. He has committed crimes also. Because he is not a U.S. Citizen I would recommend the C.I.A. do its duty and silence him anyway possible. (This is how the real world operates, like it or not.)
This lax security is going to cost us one day. We're lucky this time with little more than Hillary Clinton being embarrassed.