I’m less fascinated than some by theWikileaks diplomatic cable-palooza. It *is* interesting stuff but mostly shows that international and US dignitaries can be as petty, vindictive and self-serving as those of us in the general population.
The leaks include some things that I could have told you just based on reading the Guardian, which is less fastidious than the American media about cleaning up after its political class.
Here’s my list of un-shocking things:
- The Saudis want the US to bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran. They always want us to do their dirty work and we often fall for it. Bibi, who seems to think he’s King Herod or some such shit, wants us to do likewise. So it goes.
- The UK’s Prince Andrew is an idiot who is apt to say daft and prejudiced things. That’s part of being a Royal: it’s in the Windsor gene pool. He’s dotty Prince Charles’ bro for fucksake.
- Vladimir Putin is corrupt and in cahoots with the Caviar crime syndicate. Who the hell does everyone think put this dull apparatchik in power? It sure as hell wasn’t because of his manly chest.
- My main man Silvio Berlusconi is corrupt and has a sleazy relationship with the aforementioned Putin. Does Silvio have any other kind of relationship? This could mean that Vlad is a pimp…
- U.S. diplomats trash talk foreign leaders, their bosses and American politicians. it’s called human nature. We all trash talk our bosses and gossip about people we know. From what I’ve seen they’ve got nothing on theReal Housewives Of Atlanta. Nene is a one woman international incident and her last name is Leakes. Hmm, where did she get extra vowel? Pat Sajak? Julian Assange? Only the Shadow knows and he ain’t talking…
I don’t mean to minimize some of the other revelations that will come out as reporters pour over the endless documents that were leaked.. My mockery was aimed more at officialdom (dumb?) who are busy telling us that this gossip is going to damage the national security. That last phrase, even when used by Robert Gibbs, sets my bullshit detector a beeping. I suspect it will go off repeatedly in the next few weeks.
Let the games begin.
The thing I hope we all get out of this is that “classified” is largely meant to keep information from us, not from our “enemies”. Who would vote for any of those bozos if we knew what they were really doing in Washington? Our politicians recognize that their major enemies are we, the voters.
Agree with you both, and am reminded of Nixon’s “secret” Cambodian war, which wasn’t exactly a secret to the Cambodians, for instance.
I don’t object to diplomatic tact, but at a certain point overdoing the classified stuff becomes an excuse to just plain lie…as Colin Powell did in his 2003 UN speech…
leak overload. and sort of meh after the 1st load.
corruption is the norm.
“The UK’s Prince Andrew is an idiot who is apt to say daft and prejudiced things. That’s part of being a Royal: it’s in the Windsor gene pool. He’s dotty Prince Charles’ bro for fucksake.”
more to the point, he’s prince philip’s son. ole phil has always had a tendency to say the most ridiculously, mostly racist stuff.
True dat, mellow john. Of course ole Phil is the Queen’s cousin so. Hillbillies and royals have a lot in common.
Fascist Italian Berlusconi loves fascist Russian Putin? Surely you can’t be serious.
(RIP Leslie Nielsen.)
It is shocking, Tom. And I have now posted a brief tribute to Mr. Nielsen.
I must say, speaking as a Canadian, that it is sort of fun watching the American establishment get its freakout on about these cables. Like ZOMG the world is ending because now people know what our diplomats were gossiping about! As though no other country has an intelligence service capable of finding this stuff out already; and some of the stuff is, if you’ll excuse me, pretty much in the “open secret” category already.