Well, here we are: no one yet dead as a result of the latest WikiLeaks release, so far as I can tell, but a lot of egg on political faces. I remarked to a friend on Saturday that it’d probably contain depressing proofs of things we’d long suspected, and it looks like I wasn’t far off the mark… though that’s hardly an act of staggering insight and prescience on my part.
I’m going to leave the punditry and predictions to the professionals (or at least those with far more of the pertinent specialist knowledge than myself), but the one thing I’ll assert without any hesitation is that, while it may cause friction and difficulty in the political short- and medium-term, this leak – and others like it, past and future – is a good thing for us, the people of the world. Sure, nothing’s going to change overnight, and the removal of the public facades of diplomacy from the theatres of contemporary conflicts – be they physical, ideological, economic or all three – will certainly make things more difficult for all parties involved in them… but maybe that’ll mean said parties are less willing to start such conflicts in the first place.
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” in other words. But what do you lot think?
I’ll be honest, I’m rather disappointed so far. I’ve not seen anything so far that I didn’t already know or suspect. I mean, who didn’t realise that the US government couldn’t actually stand any other country?
I agree that all the leaks are is proof of stuff everyone should have already suspected. But I’ve always gotten the impression that most people are stupid and don’t realize that the politics of the modern state – even modern democratic states – is nasty. It’s definitely worthwhile to shine a light on the dirt, at least to demonstrate that conspiracy is the core of diplomacy.
I don’t know if it’s so good for the rest of us. Seems like the leaks are making nations hate one another even more, which will create strains on all of us, since the folks who are making the kinds of charges found in the leaks are likely not going to be affected in any significant way by any potential ramifications.
But I’m a pessimist…