As the Riders and Alouettes battle to see who’s best at moving a disappointed sphere up and down a cold field, the world is chewing over the juice-filled details from Wikileaks’ release of 250,000 US embassy cables. Did you that Gadaffi worries about fine lines and wrinkles (via Boing Boing)? I would too if I lived under the Libyan sun.
By far my favourite reaction to the leaks comes from Simon Jenkins of the Guardian:
America’s foreign policy is revealed as a slave to rightwing drift, terrified of a bomb exploding abroad or of a pro-Israeli congressman at home. If the cables tell of the progress to war over Iran or Pakistan or Gaza or Yemen, their revelation might help debate the inanity of policies which, as Patterson says, seem to be leading in just that direction. Perhaps we can now see how catastrophe unfolds when there is time to avert it, rather than having to await a Chilcot report after the event. If that is not in the public’s interest, I fail to see what is.
Clearly, it is for governments, not journalists, to protect public secrets. Were there some overriding national jeopardy in revealing them, greater restraint might be in order. There is no such overriding jeopardy, except from the policies themselves as revealed. Where it is doing the right thing, a great power should be robust against embarrassment.
Expect much bluster in the weeks to come. And then much indifference as America continues to bomb its way to safety.
