News

...The latest round of WikiLeaks revelations could be called a diplomatic 9/11. Hyperbolic as this might seem, the term seems to be justified in the light of the rush by U.S. and British diplomats to rectify their public image... The signficance of the WikiLeaks documents post is yet to be assayed, but much of the information that has been published so far has been reported before. It's the language of the diplomacy that U.S. officials and their allies employ in their official communications that reveals the most....These statements reveal a level of hypocrisy and deceit we ordinary folks did not expect of our heads of states, some of whom we are told to address as "Your Highness," "Your Majesty," "Your Excellency," or "Honorable Lords." ...From the infelicities of the British royal family to the "incentives" the U.S. diplomats had on offer -- an audience with President Obama to Slovenia...and "a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe" by accepting inmates from Guantanamo -- it's all there for us to have our eyes opened to the low level of discourse at the highest levels....The poetic justice of the WikiLeaks dump is to provide a correction, so that ordinary citizens, many under surveillance, can eavesdrop on their elected and unelected officials and learn about the reckless language and demeanor with which these officials endanger our lives and callously put our planet in peril.