WikiLeaks is probably the best thing that could have happened at the time it did – at least for those who value truth above bullshit. I mean like just about anyone who could get a glimpse of the mindset of George Bush knew that the whole ‘WMD’s in Iraq’ was a bunch of unadulterated crap – particularly if folk knew the background about Saddam, Bush Snr and Dubbya’s vow to get Saddam. Perhaps if WikiLeaks happened prior to the war in Iraq, Bush would have been too exposed to wreak the havoc that the USA did, and continues to do, in that country. And this is just the sort of exposé that could well have led to his impeachment. Unfortunately the WikiLeaks exposures that proved Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld lied through their teeth didn’t happen in time.
The heads of various governments and their supporters are adamant that ‘secrecy’ is crucial to their respective foreign policies, which also means that they think hoodwinking their citizens and the rest of the world is perfectly cool and acceptable. In other words, anything goes to further their interests – regardless of the consequences. What Julian Assange and WikiLeaks has done is to create a whole new scenario that enables you and me to have access to ‘sensitive’ material concerning global events, which is resulting in a scramble of the ‘secrecy police’ – not only to cover whatever tracks have not yet been discovered, but also to devise new means of transmitting ‘sensitive’ information.
But what if ‘secrecy’ concerning the foreign policies of countries disappears and ‘transparency’ becomes the order of the day? Would that be feasible, or even desirable? For sure this would do away with a whole slew of ‘clandestine operations’ that go completely against the professed promises that enabled heads of states to have been voted into power in the first place. Plots to assassinate important individuals to further the ‘foreign policies’ of certain countries would no longer be possible and bogus reasons for waging wars would not stand the test of the people.
There is also the matter of governments spying on their citizens for myriad reasons – not all of them for reasons of law-enforcement or to prevent civil-disobedience or for other reasons that have their citizens’ interests at heart – a matter of ‘Big Brother’ as foretold by George Orwell. So then what’s the big deal about the people ‘watching’ Big Brother? Isn’t this the right of citizens that voted their leaders into power based on their professed policies and promises?
In the end it appears to be a matter of a desire for ‘power’ that spurs nations on to secretly connive with each other that results in massive suffering and destruction. So would doing away with ‘secrecy’ and ushering in a civilization based on transparency and truth be beneficial to the human race? If so, and it does come to pass (unlikely though it may be) Julian Assange is surely a super-hero – even though the power-brokers disagree and together with the ultra-right-wingers (Sara Palin for one) want him terminated ASAP.
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December 6, 2010 at 5:19 am
Chavie
“Perhaps if WikiLeaks happened prior to the war in Iraq, Bush would have been too exposed to wreak the havoc that the USA did”
Imagine the amount of lives that could’ve been saved. I’m thankful for Assange and the people who release these leaks at great personal peril. Would love to hear what the Chinese have planned for the Indian Ocean too. 😉
December 6, 2010 at 5:39 am
javajones
Hey Chavie – hopefully more people on the planet will see this the way we do, although the ‘powers that be’ have all sorts of insidious ways of clinging to their spheres of influence. It will be interesting to see just how this goes…
Cheers!
December 6, 2010 at 11:50 am
RD
Hello Java. I guess these people are correct that secrecy is essential for them to operate successfully but I think one of the lessons learned might be that they should expect everything will come out at some stage.
To answer your q about transparency becoming the order of the day, my opinion is that it would be highly desirable but not entirely feasible. In this internet age we live in it seems that just about everything lasts in some form anyhow. The days of a chap writing a letter which gets read and then thrown away are long gone.
This comment will self destruct after the 31st read.
December 6, 2010 at 12:51 pm
javajones
Hi RD – “I guess these people are correct that secrecy is essential for them to operate successfully”.
I guess “successfully” is the key word for “these people”, but what the leaks are doing is making it difficult for “these people” to be “successful” at all the subversive and other shite they promote that creates more destruction and suffering, rather than working towards the betterment of the planet and everything on it (as they pretend to do).
June 9, 2011 at 9:30 am
Jack Point
I disagree.
I started writing a reply and it grew too long so I turned it into a blog post:
http://jestforkicks.blogspot.com/2011/06/wikileaks.html