It's tough to avoid feeling a bit conflicted about WikiLeaks. I can't applaud the release of information that endangers anyone's life, but as a child of the 1960's, I hesitate to stand up in favor of government secrecy.
The recent release of diplomatic messages, in truth, seems a bit comic. We're provided with "revelations" that Vladimir Putin's prime minister Dmitri Medvedev is a puppet, that Italian head of state Sylvio Berlusconi is vain and useless, that Saudi Arabia wants the U.S. to attack Iran but won't do any of the dirty work itself and that Angela Merkel is uncreative - and we're expected to be surprised in some way. Anyone who wasn't already quite aware of the above must have spent the last ten years on a foreign planet.
The one overarching insight that seems to emerge is that everyone in the middle east is so apprehensive about Iran that even old enemies seem inclined to join together to try and resist it. It all confirms the grand mistake the U.S. made by starting the war in Iraq, and creating a regional power vacuum that Iran has clearly exploited.
The next revelation, delivered by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in an interview with Forbes, is that WikiLeaks has a trove of emails from a U.S. bank that will be released shortly, which "could take down a bank or two." He adds that some "flagrant violations and unethical practices" will be revealed in the emails. Can anyone feel sympathetic toward the bankers about the be outed?
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