We also have learned that government officials are not very intelligent when it comes to keeping affairs confidential. Where have diplomats been these last years? Anyone using a computer, even our kids, knows that every email, attachment, document, IM, chat, text, voice mail, memo or cable is on a hard drive or server somewhere and is vulnerable to infiltration and compromise. Hackers are everywhere and experts have been warning for years that cyber warfare was on the horizon. Did the U.S. government think it was immune?
Those two points aside, I must admit, I am not very surprised by anything that has been revealed in the documents. We hear voluminous amounts of information in the 24-hour news cycle, in press releases, in statements and in speeches about the positions of governments around the world. Read between the lines and it is all there in plain view.
Is it any great surprise that Iran's Arab neighbors fear her nuclear ambitions and brazen aggression? Are you shocked that China is upset by North Korea's diabolical and erratic behavior? Are you perplexed that Afghan President Karzai might be paranoid? Who wouldn't be if they lead a dysfunctional, corrupt country where suicide bombers are heroes. Is it of concern that the U.S. publicly wonders about the loyalty of Pakistan military, is it with the U.S. or with the Taliban? And the thought of Russia as a Mafia state, hasn't it always been that way whether it is the Putin oligarchs, the Soviets or the Czars?
What is disturbing is that the nations of the world are still so pathetically primitive, competing and bribing for resources, making dubious arms deals, conspiring against each other for political gain, plotting against each other and poised at the brink of nuclear attack in many corners of the globe.
This philosophy and mindset of power, the taint of secrecy, policies of conspiracy and evil alliances have created terrible wars in just about every generation for centuries now. Tens of millions of people have lost their lives in those wars. Tens of millions more have been wounded either physically or emotionally through these conflicts that arise as secret deals and a quest for power results in confrontation, death and destruction.
Today we face the long simmering conflict in Asia between the two Koreas, China and Japan. India and Pakistan have had each other in the cross hairs for 60 years. The Middle East is a cauldron of hate between Sunni and S'hia, despotic monarchs and fundamentalists, Jews and Arabs.
Latin America teeters as the landed gentry, drug cartels and indigenous people vie for control. In Africa nasty civil wars are being fought in most of that continent's nations with rape and pillage being the mantra of the day. In America, we still have impoverished ghettos, the highest prison incarceration rate per capita than any other nation and murder on our streets is a given. All of this casts a dark and bleak shadow over humanity decade after decade, century after century.
In these very uncertain times, we commit trillions of dollars to weaponry while the masses in the world have little to eat, no clean water, breathe toxic air and are stripping the earth bare of resources we need to sustain the planet.
It is time for the diplomats to really become diplomatic and start working with each other to truly end this ludicrous and deadly strife? Is there not a way for the nations of the world to come together to end the deprivation and violence that is in our midst?
What is the fight for? Which nation must gain hegemony and to what end? What nation deserves to have power over another? Why are so many people subjugated by oppression and poverty? Why don't the diplomats and heads of state start pressing to reduce the arms buildup, work toward civil rights for all peoples, fight to purify our shared environment, stop global warming before it consumes us and end oppression of women, ethnic and religious minorities?
It's time for the nations of the world to step up and begin managing their reputations as citizens of the world. If we pursued that goal we wouldn't need to keep dirty little secrets about each other that are bound to find their way into the light of day and cause new conflicts and confrontations.
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