How can you possibly know that it’s in all of our best interests for all of this stuff to be hidden away from our knowing?
Do you get your certitude from the same source which was plumbed so profitably to bring about our expensive and pointless conquest of Iraq? It sure seems like you literally pulled that self-righteous outrage right out of your ass.
And what’s up with talk of the ‘collective’ anyway?
Are you a communist or a socialist or something?
Your words make me suspicious of you.
No, attacking another country without provocation, and at the behest of a 3rd country, is what leads to wars.
If this led to a war, it’s highly unlikely that it would involve anyone but Iran and Saudi Arabia, and if that happens, well, fuck them both. Saudia Arabia clearly wanted a war with Iran, but without having to use their own resources. And I have no great affection for Iran, so if some other country wants to try and kick their ass: good luck.
But keeping it all a secret? That’s what makes people say, after the war starts, “gee, why did this happen?” And that lets the people in charge start lying to the populace about why they’re at war. Which can only lead to future suffering, as no one is really dealing with reality, only with dark fantasies.
This stuff was pretty widely reported prior to the leaks using anonymous sources. It didn’t cause a war then, it won’t now. Even with no reporting, I doubt Iran is under any illusions about its popularity with the various Sunni Muslim and Jewish gov’ts in the region.
I think a measure of how insignificant the current leaks are is how much of the reporting and discussion have focused on Assange rather then on the actual content of the cables. Assange’s contribution to this story has been that he A) took some files someone gave him and B) put those files on the internet. He’s not exactly irreplaceable.
How can you know that it is in the best interest of your country. All it takes is one scintilla of information to compromise a foreign policy, which normally is delicate enough.
Is it in the best interest of a football team to make their playbook public ?
Maybe in light of US history I think inducing some transparency and accountability in my country’s government would be in it’s ultimate best interest, regardless of whether it does so willingly or kicking and screaming.
How might the Bush Treason worked out if we the people better knew what the incompetent deceptive asshat was up to?
The OP is Canadian. For some reason, at least on the SDMB, conservative Canadians seem to be very much more interested in U.S. politics than liberal Canadians are. Taking lessons, perhaps.
If I can’t know, then you sure as hell can’t, as at least I was smart enough to know that a pre-emptive invasion of Iraq was a stupid waste of time, lives (mostly Iraqi civilians, unfortunately), and resources. And for fuck’s sake, I actually am a citizen of the country in question, so, while foreigners like yourself have every right to speak your mind, you certainly have no right to speak for me.
When the decisions of a football coach start costing tens or hundreds of thousands of lives, then it might be a good analogy. Nah, it would still suck.
Past 10 years or so, US foreign policy has sucked donkey balls, and has not been conducted in the interest of most Americans.
Where did you ever get the idea that government is your friend? Or is it just that the torturing warmongering bastards who ran the US much of this past decade are your friends, and you don’t want to see them embarassed?
Just grit your teeth, and think of the release discomfitting the Kenyan socialist in chief too, as well as decreasing our collective confidence in big Government.
I don’t think this is correct at all. As long as there is sufficient plausible deniability he could meet with a sticky end. I don’t think it matters, though (except in the personal sense). Assange is just a guy doing something that is now easy to do: if he and Wikileaks vanish, that won’t halt the simple fact that in the Information Age if someone decides to leak they will be able to spread information far and wide regardless of attempts by government to stop them.
No, don’t you know that VPs can suddenly decide that important secrets suddenly don’t need to be secret anymore (especially if they have a personal vendetta against someone), and therefore, no harm? It’s one of their constitutional duties or something.