The recent release of over 250,000 private diplomatic cables from US embassies on WikiLeaks is equivalent to someone releasing the contents of your private text messages to those people who you were talk trash about.
Although embarrassing, the US should be relieved. It's like a giant weight was lifted off its shoulders. Now everyone is saying aloud what the US really felt inside about certain countries and leaders. Since the Cold War, the lines between diplomacy and espionage have been blurred. You have spies posing as diplomats under the protection of the host country they are spying on.
One of the funniest cables is about the President of Kazakhstan and how he likes to dance at nightclubs alone and get wildly drunk. He also hired Elton John for his son-in-law’s birthday party (for a record $1.5M) and Nelly Furtado for his daughter. The real outrage should be that Elton John can make $1.5M in one night but still manage to beg for money for all the charities that are dear to his heart.
But back to the release of private communication, imagine what would happen if people who thought they were your friends, found out what you really thought about them? Mark might not invite you over to his potluck holiday party if he found out you resented having to cook a meal for yourself AND strangers. The purpose of a party is to party, not slave over an oven trying to balance the dietary needs of strangers?
Sally would be so embarrassed of the realization that her body odor is not just in her imagination and that you have assigned Homeland Security-style codes to her worst days. "CODE ORANGE = Sally used the all natural deodorant today, watch out!"
The US should be breathing a sigh of relief. No longer does it have to act fake in front of these nations. We might have fewer friends around the world, but at least we don’t have to live a lie and act like we enjoy when the President of Kazakhstan gets drunk and feeds a washed-up musician’s coke habits.
But the bigger story that people are ignoring is that the State Department is using embassy staff to collect information on foreign leaders and sending it back to the CIA, the Pentagon and NSA. That’s a little disrespectful to your host country if you ask me. If you invited me to your house, I wouldn’t take mental notes of the prescriptions in your medicine cabinet and publish that information. Or go through your internet search history and try to connect the dots between “When is Miley Cyrus turning 18?” and “cute birthday gifts”.
Whatever STD you are trying to cure before her birthday is your business. Hope you at least got her a nice card!
