Word

(from the wonderful XKCD - my M/W/F morning opener)

I haven't written anything on the whole Wikileaks affair here, other than a comment last weekend.  Basically, I've said,

"... my view of the whole Wikileaks thing is not positive toward Assange. ... In a nutshell, I am extremely skeptical that their motives are good. That, in turn, probably makes me see people attacking the world in their defense as not working from good motives as well. The tactic of leaking classified documents that make an opponent look bad, after all, is straight from Alinsky ("4. Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. 5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.")

I have not tried to wade through the leaked documents; I just don't have the time. I've only come across the occasional reference to an item that is not at its core anti-US, though, and it could simply be accident that they let out something that isn't anti-US. "

It's a crude statement, but you can consider things that happen less than 5% of the time to be random events.  It looks to me like Assange and his group is virulently anti-American, and they simply let out some items that aren't anti-American every now and then - either by accident, incompetence, or (possibly) to make it appear they're not just anti-American.  Probably random events. Add to that the fact that organizations supporting Julian Assange are supported by George Soros, and it just smells too much like yesterday's fish. 

I know a lot of (small "L") libertarians have no problem with what Assange has done, and believe there's no need for secrets in the world.  While the general answer to all political questions is more individual liberty, no matter how much I think about this it, I also know that wanting a world with no secrets and complete openness is a "skittles crapping unicorns" mindset: idealistic to a fault.  Sun Tzu said, "all war is based on deception" and it's absolutely imperative for nations to have secrets. 

No surprise: there are some really heinous governments in this world.  You don't have to look farther than Cuba or Venezuela - and from where I'm sitting, Cuba is closer than Washington DC.  Seen any really close looks at what goes on in Venezuela coming out of Wikileaks?  Cuba?  Read Babalu any day and you'll find stories leaking out of the Castro regime daily.  What about truly secretive governments like Myanmar (Burma) or North Korea.  The NorKs regime is horrific.   China routinely violates human rights. Seen any Wikileaks out of Burma?  How about China?  Any mention of any of these I've seen relates to things the US is saying about them. 

I'm not saying the US is perfect.  If you've spent any time here at all, you know that I'm not a fan of much of what's going on in the US.  But trying to make us look like the source of all evil in the world makes the person doing so appear not to have a tremendous attraction to truth and openness at all.  It makes them look like just another anti-US operative trying to destroy us.