With this rec
ent eruption of international diplomatic scandal, WikiLeaks.org has demonstrated the awesome and awful power of free speech. Though little has been revealed that can be deemed truly shocking, the reports on Admiral Qhadafi’s or Silvio Berlusconi’s sexual escapades from the pens of American diplomats are enough to shake the brittle frameworks of international diplomacy.
While ordinary citizens might shake their heads at the mostly harmless nature of these documents, and comment that the leaks are only stating the obvious in most cases, it is the case with good diplomacy as it is with any good marriage; the more smiles that are faked, the better. These documents, along with the recent surveillance scandals in Europe, are likely to cause a diplomatic crisis for America, the likes, perhaps, of which we have not seen since the Cold War.
This should be cause for celebration. However, the western media (with the Rupert Murdoch battleship at the forefront) have painted a clear, yet distorted, picture; that of the alleged sex-offender Julian Assange on the run from Lady Justice and the disturbed, fanatical homo Bradley Manning, with his hubris and contempt for national security. While the right-wing media extremists are calling for capital punishment for the hackers and administrators, Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck going as far as accusing multi-millionaire George Soros of aiding and abetting these” traitors”, the left-wing does not applaud Assange and co.’s efforts either.
The whole situation is in reality a reminder of what happens to the naïve and careless idealist; if he raises his hand he is in danger of seeing it chopped off. It is a reminder that those who expose the truth will be hunted and painted black by those who conceal and distort it.
