WikiLeaks is in the process of dramatically transforming foreign affairs and international relations. It is revealing over 250,000 cables from US embassies worldwide to the State department and other classified documents. The consequences of this 'mega-scoop' will be very far reaching indeed.
For the United States the issues are both strategic as well as ethical. On a strategic level the leaks -- which expose frank assessment of foreign leaders by senior American officials and American thinking on many critical issues -- will complicate Obama administration's ability to deal with its allies and may increase global cynicism about US intentions.
Many of the allies will be angry and distrustful. They will also be afraid of being candid in the future. All players in the future will be trying to second-guess each other, unwilling to articulate what their real intentions and goals are. After all, nobody wishes to read a summary of their confidential dialogue with Americans in the New York Times. The revelations may also reverse many of the hard earned diplomatic gains made by the State department over the years in acquiring support for US policies from many nations.
On the ethical level, the key question is: What will the American public do with the knowledge that the US government has allies who are known criminals; that it says one thing in public and pursues another policy in reality; that bullying seems to be a standard operating procedure and intervening in every affair seems to be a natural instinct of US foreign policy. Will the Senate, or the House, call for hearings to hold the administration accountable? Will there be a public outcry?
The revelations so far about the Muslim world are eye opening. Muslims, even some American Muslims have raised criticism of American foreign policy to the level of religious ritual. Often Muslim radicalism and alienation is explained as a direct consequence of US foreign policy alone (the point being that US foreign policy is anti-Islam and subversive to Muslim nations). Therefore Muslim anger and radicalism against the U.S. while often expressed in unjustifiable ways is still understandable.
But now that the shenanigans of Muslim nations, most importantly their collusion with America's so called anti-Islam foreign policy, is exposed, what will Muslims do? Will they also hate Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Qatar and other nations just as much as they hate America? Or will they recognize that nation states have interests and they pursue them in whatever ways they can; and understand that US foreign policy neither advances nor targets any religion?
The preliminary review of the cables by New York Times and the Guardian reveals the duplicity of many Arab nations on foreign policy -- especially in the case of Iran. For example, in the past few years, Arab nations have publicly countered Israeli propaganda that Iran is a bigger threat to the world, than the resolution of the Palestinian issue, with claims that the failure to bring a just solution to the Palestinians was the number one issue for Arabs and Muslims. But apparently, privately these same nations have been parroting Bibi Netanyahu's mantra to the U.S., repeatedly asking the US to bomb Iran and even invade it with ground troops.
The Saudis refer to Iran -- a fellow "Islamic nation" -- as "evil", and have asked the U.S. to "cut off the head of the snake". The same cables also reveal that even now the main financiers of al Qaeda are Saudi donors. American presidents George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama have identified al Qaeda as the biggest threat to the U.S., and yet they collude with the nation whose citizens are its biggest financiers. Why don't the Saudis cut off the head of the real snake by arresting and imprisoning al Qaeda's financiers? Most Americans know that fifteen of the nineteen terrorists that attacked the US on September 11, 2001, were Saudis. None were Iranians. A significant number of foreign fighters who joined al Qaeda in Iraq were Saudis. This is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.
(Do not interpret my criticism of Saudi Arabia as support for Iran. Its current leaders are a bunch of thugs who stole governance from their own people by force and made a mockery out of the idea of an Islamic democracy.)
It seems that on key issues Arab foreign policy is the same as Israel. Except Israel is open, and Arab states are not. In the future, if we wish to understand Arab foreign policy, all we have to do is take Israeli foreign policy and add hypocrisy (nifaaq) to it; voila.
Another level of hypocrisy that Muslim nations seem to be practicing is in their dealings with their own populations. While the US is worried that WikiLeaks latest revelations will undermine its relations with its allies, Muslim governments are worried that these same leaks will expose the extent to which they routinely lie to their own people.
Nation after Muslim nation has been supporting and collaborating with the U.S. and lying to its public about the extent of its support for US foreign policy. For example, the Yemeni president acknowledged that he would continue to lie to his people and claim that American military operations in Yemen are Yemeni operations; the Pakistani government does not want its people to know the extent to which it cooperates with the U.S. on nuclear issues.
It is amazing how Muslim governments engage in policies of which they know their citizens will not approve.
Now, thanks to WikiLeaks, at least Muslims who hate America for its foreign policy must realize that their own countries are collaborators. Perhaps their hatred will now be more evenly spread rather than just focusing on the U.S. If not, then they are hypocrites, too.
Any adult in the US who did not already know that these things were going on is naive and not paying attention. This is why even the mall freedoms we have with the internet are so important. The more information spreads the less control govt has. This is why so many countries work to limit the communication networks. To paraphrase a Disney character, Teach them to read the internet and “...Soon they’ll start thinking...”
do you want me to go out there and yell something that is known to ppl... wiki leaks is useless and wont change a thing, however I am keeping eyes on the movement of power and trade b.w China, and its allies...which is practically all places (Africa, SA, NA, M/E, and Europe)... reminds me of America playing the isolationist game back in WW2, an here we have China doing the exact same thing......screw the politics... ALL EYES ON CHINA
In spite of that we are shocked when we observe what that means through the lense of foreign theocracies as exampled in the Middle East, and especially Africa. We are shocked by stoning’s, and genocide, and rape, and eye gouging, and hands being cut off, public beatings and executions.
Innately we want to do something, we want such barbarism to stop. I know that I certainly do. I am pained when I see such barbarism visited on another human being.
Send in the troops! And be sure there are many who want us not just in the ME, but in Africa.
Interestingly, that directly conflicts with the rational and intellectual heritage of choice, of freedom of religion and conscience. Unless of course we think it our obligation to impose our interpretations on others.
Do we?
Isn't that what they are practicing, their version of freedom of religion?
When we send in the troops we are called colonists, invaders, greedy, ruthless. And yes, war is ruthless, make no mistake about it. Having entered the slippery slope, we must set up some sort of government, and so we are accused of supporting dictatorships.
God forbid, that even one of these countries or people, acknowledged that most Americans are generous, kind, people who are miserable watching others suffer such atrocities, and acted, however foolishly, on behalf of others.
I hear similar things about Sharia Law; it is perfect, except for the fact that in 1400 years, no one has ever implemented it, even for a day, in a single country or region anywhere on the planet.
Somehow, these sorts of arguments are just not that convincing to me. Can you understand why?
Can you understand why?
Also, the Terrorists know who to hate as well. The main goal of international terrorists isn't to destroy America, but to overthrow the puppet governments and dictatorships in the middle-east. Those dictators ARE the main target already, partially for the reasons these leaks describe, but also for their sheer repressiveness.
I think it's more that oppressive governments tend to react to boat-rockers by imprisoning, torturing and/or killing them.
This serves as a deterrent for the vast majority of people, in any such country.
See: Iran, 2009 elections, final results.
For instance, in Iran, 2009, we had:
1 person = 7 ... or 17 ... or 170 votes (for Ahmadinejad), *several* times.
And yes, the "person" in my example is fictitious ...... but so was the "person" in Iran, in 2009.
Wonderful!
Hellelulah!
There is a God!
Praise the Lord!
Thank you Jesus! And all that sort of stuff.........
Divide and conquer! Let them basta*ds sweat! Let them earn an honest living by the sweat of their brows, and quit bringing pain and suffering to women and children.
Thank you wiki leaks.
Of course the Saudis do not want Iran to become energy independent that would allow them to once again dominate the Middle East since a bankrupt West will eventually have to leave.
One suspects that the 'snake' they want to cut the head off of is the Shiite sect. No Sunni nation would ever feel kinship as a fellow Islamic nation with a Shiite nation.
By the way, even the Iranian Sunnis do not like the US supported puppet Arab regimes.