Comments on Cables

All Quotes from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contents_of_the_United_States_diplomatic_cables_leak

on or about 12/9/2010

I hand picked these from the source above to prove my points. If you want to counter-argue, find your own quotes. My points are:

• The U.S. government breaks the law too much, and people should know about it.
• The U.S. government is hypocritical, and we should practice what we preach.
• The diplomats and leaders of the political world are a bunch of immature little boys, and maybe it's time we tried something else.

I think America is too important to let these things go on in our name and with our tax dollars. I love my country. It's the government I don't trust.

If Wikileaks is willing to step up to the plate and get this information out there, we should applaud them for doing the job the mainstream media should be doing.

The U.S. is hypocritical, form 1 (preach rule of law, practice all's fair in love and war):

In July 2009, a confidential originating from the State Department ordered U.S. diplomats to spy on the leader of the United Nations, Secretary general Ban Ki-moon, and other top U.N. Officials. The intelligence info the diplomats were ordered to gather included biometric information, passwords, and personal encryption keys used in private and commercial networks for official communications. the UN had previously declared that spying on the Secretary general was illegal, as a breach of the 1946 UN convention. Former UN diplomats commented that UN officials already work under the assumption that they are spied on and are used to getting around it, but the surprise in this case was that it was done by other diplomats rather than intelligence agencies. This scenario therefore blurs the line between diplomats and spies.

Why is this a secret? Wouldn't the Russians knowing about this plan act as a deterrent? Do you really think it would surprise or offend them?

NATO created plans to defend the Baltic states and Poland against a Russian attack. Nine British, German, US, Polish divisions have been designated for combat operations in the event of a Russian attack. In 2011 NATO wants to conduct exercises for this new plan.

Why is this a secret? Shouldn't all citizens of the world know this?

A Chinese official revealed that both public opinion in China and the government are "increasingly critical" of North Korea, stating that "China's influence with the North was frequently overestimated". The Chinese mentioned that they do not "like" North Korea, but "they are a neighbor".

Why is this a secret? Making contingency plans is a good thing. Telling Kim Jong-il that he's going to be irrelevant someday is a good thing.

U.S. and South Korea officials have discussed reunification of the two Koreas should the North ultimately collapse, according to the American ambassador to Seoul.

People have a right to know when their government is involved in fucked up shit like this:

According to a cable from the American Embassy in Kabul, Vice President of Afghanistan, Ahmad Zia Massoud, was found carrying $52 million in cash that he “was ultimately allowed to keep without revealing the money’s origin or destination”.

WTF?

The U.S. military took 15 percent of the €50 million the German government gave to a trust fund to build up the Afghan National Army.

Other countries are two-faced also. And exposing this is a problem how? Outing international leaders as, basically, liars, seems likely to only improve the level of honesty in diplomacy. And no, I don't think diplomacy requires keeping secrets. Secretiveness is only one approach to diplomacy. One which gave us the war-torn, despot-filled, terrorized world we have now. How about we try something else, like behaving as adults and working out our differences, instead of bluffing and boasting our way to personal glory for our leaders?

The cables reveal some Arab distrust for Iran, and encouragement from pro-US Arab leaders for a military strike on the nuclear facilities in Iran. Saudi King Abdullah has repeatedly urged the U.S. to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. In one diplomatic cable, King Abdullah said it was necessary to "cut the head of the snake", in reference to Iran's nuclear program. This remains problematic, as many Arab leaders have refrained from publicly criticizing Iran, due to popular support for the country.

In Saudi Arabia,

Diplomats claim that Saudi donors remain chief financiers of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, Taliban and LeT.

Shouldn't the public have a right to know who our enemies are?

Sounds reasonable. Why secret?

Muhammad bin Zayed (Crown Prince of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi) described a nuclear armed Iran as absolutely untenable. He suggested that the key to containing Iran revolves around progress on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He argued that it will be essential to bring Arab public opinion in line with the leadership in any conflict with Iran and that roughly 80% of the public is amenable to persuasion. To win them over, the U.S. would have to quickly bring about a two state solution over the objections of the Netanyahu government. He suggested working with moderate Palestinians that support the road map, and forget about the others as there is no time to waste.

The U.S. government thinks it rules the world, and can do so without transparency and without regard to law. This is not how I want my government to behave, and I think Sweden betrayed its own citizens here.

The United States Government was very concerned about file-sharing related issues in Sweden. The US Embassy actively worked with the Swedish authorities to reduce file-sharing related threats, including The Pirate Bay, which was raided in 2006 following US pressure. The diplomatic cables reveal how the United States pressured Sweden, despite the Swedish prosecutors' claim that there had been no political interference. According to the Swedish Left Party the secret cooperation was unconstitutional

US diplomats lobbied Russian politicians for US credit card companies Mastercard and Visa. A law proposal currently undergoing discussion in the Russian State Duma proposes a National Payment Card System (NPCS) to collect all credit card fees for domestic transactions. This would result in a revenue loss for Visa and Mastercard.

Is this the responsibility of the U.S. Government? My tax dollars were spent on this? Where's my share of the profits?

Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, has a reputation among Chinese diplomats as being "quite a good drinker".

Awesome. Now I know what to get him for Christmas.