And by "fun", I mean "horrific".
Whoops.
(10 posts) (8 voices)-
As I kept reading, the "oh shit" just kept getting worse, and worse, and worse. It is going to be interesting to see how Obama handles this.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Elemenope
ModeratorI remember when I thought wikileaks was doing something useful, even admirable. The more I find out about them, the stupider that seems.
I'm of an entirely split mind about it. From the widest angle lens, governments have few *legitimate* reasons to lie to their citizens or make things secret. One thing that has been made provably clear by Wikileaks is that the US, at least, hides much more from its own people and the world than is necessary, mostly for the reason of hiding mistakes or embarrassments or crimes. Also, since US policy affects people all over the world, it is instructive from the outside perspective to know what the US institutionally thinks about you, your country, and its own desires and intentions towards you. Some of the information even has local utility; the private intelligence assessment of whether your leaders and lawmakers are corrupt and in what way can beneficially inform whether you'll vote for and/or support them in the future.
On the other hand, unilateral and indiscriminate declassification is likely to spill some things that are secret for very good reason. And now is *not* the moment to damage the diplomatic capacities of the US (Korea, anyone?). This is likely to cause real world harm in the form of frosty relations world-wide, and possibly dead bodies. And Julian Assange is a complete asshat.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Mark the Pilgrim
MemberSome of them really weren't that shocking:
-US has been spying on other countries. I thought it was an accepted fact that all the big nations spied on each other.
-Putin is an alpha dog. Well duh.
-Hamid Karzai is paranoid. As should anyone from Afghanistan!
-US gov't wants to resettle Guantanamo inmates. Yawn.
-Gadaffi is followed by a Ukrainian 'voluptuous young blonde' acting as his nurse. Well if I were world leader I'd want to be pimpin' as well!
-China annoyed with North Korea? Well if my puppet state was acting violent without MY consent, I'd be pretty pissed too.
- British Royal Family member acted inappropriate. I'm guessing it was Prince Philip or Prince Harry.
-US becoming fed-up with some Arab nation's reluctance to tackle terrorism.
- US documents that Obama is more concerned with the East than Europe.Some of them are generally interesting/worrying:
- Iran gaining missiles that could reach Europe.
- Saudi Arabia wanting to "cut the head off the snake" from Iran. The Saudis want the US to seek war with Iran? That should be interesting.You can find an awesome description by the Guardian with the links to the actual cables.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2010/nov/28/us-embassy-cables-wikileaks
Posted 2 years ago # -
And Julian Assange is a complete asshat."
QFT
Posted 2 years ago #
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