The worm’s eye view of our diplomatic dithering points out an aspect of diplomacy and US public policy that is worth discussing, LIES! Does our government tell them? Constantly, should they? In some cases, yeah.
Sec. Def. Gates has been quoted lately saying that claims the leaks had done significant damage to our national security were “significantly overwrought.” Now you can say that he was simply deflecting the question as is customary, or you could say that he knows that those leaks have done hugely significant damage to our national security and ability to conduct foreign policy, and so his answer was an official lie. It is not in our interest to have him say “Of course it knees us in the nads.” So he tap dances and occasionally just flat out lies.
That’s fine, and if this was only done in situations like this it would be properly ignored. But we now live in such a trust-less world that the very idea of secrets, state or personal, is being questioned. There are so many examples of government and political corruption that the very idea of trusting any of the practitioners starts out damaged by the knives already in our backs. But…we gotta be able to separate the truth we deserve and can demand from public servants, and the secrecy and freedom of action we must cede to those we entrust to take care of us in a dangerous world.
We used to do this, we used to spy on our enemies, we used to use disinformation to disorient them, we used to kill them (well that is our only remaining strong suit). But we used to take the self defense of this nation and its people as the number one responsibility of our government. And we expected them to act like it. Our enemies do many heinous and repulsive things that we would never even consider, but that doesn’t mean we should restrict our actions against them as if they played by our rules. And when we do something intersting, on occasion it will require a spokesweasel (I vote for me) to stand in front of the cameras, smile and say :
UJ: Sorry, wuddint us.
Press (howling): But there are witnesses!!
UJ: Seriously folks, we were busy volunteering at the orphanage and then we had multi-faith, non-denominational, holy book study.
Press (apoplectic): But there is video!!!!!
UJ: You know I wonder about that, there is this other guy, looks a lot like us, real troublemaker, I bet that was him on your video. Hell I bet you hired him to make us look bad.
Press (at critical mass): YEEEEAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!
UJ: Well I guess my work here is done. Screw Alinsky all you need to know is- Admit nothing, deny everything and make counter-accusations. OK fellas let’s get the jackals out of here, we got the school kids coming in for a Rock Band II contest and I am gonna kick me some elementary ass.
jimbo at uncle jimbo I do press briefings, corp board meetings and arraignment hearings
“For when you can’t handle the truth“
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