If diplomats didn’t lie to their own people and insult each other and their contrary associates in “private”, then the publishing of these “classified” documents by WikiLeaks wouldn’t get much attention or there wouldn’t be many such “secrets” to publish. As long as diplomats from both sides of the “battle lines” feel that they have to communicate with each other in such ways in order to maintain and to strengthen their personal positions of power and pleasure, then such private remarks will be waiting to be published.
The struggles for power, control, and personal and corporate riches and comforts are well recognized and generally acknowledged by most people around the world who see and experience their pressures everyday. Everyone wants to be on the “winning” side in these struggles, but the real “games” are extremely dangerous to the participants and they have severe consequences for even their fellow associates and citizens.
WikiLeaks allow us to see deeper
It might help if diplomats would only discuss the facts regarding what they and their political leaders and fellow citizens are doing in these “struggles”, keeping their personal opinions and verbal “bullets” to themselves. Total honesty and transparency between the diplomats and the “players” in these “games” for power is probably not possible or even wise on the “playing fields” of this world. But there certainly must be a better way for grown up diplomats to communicate with each other regarding these serious struggles than what they are currently practicing.
The leaking of these documents by WikiLeaks appears to me be quite similar to the playing of some audio tapes that some kids have been able to make as they secretly recorded some frank conversations of their relatives regarding the family squabbles or conflicts that trouble some family relationships and hamper the peace of the family.
What to do about the Wikileaks?
I wonder when our diplomats and leaders are going to grow up and begin to communicate with us and with each other in intelligent and mature ways of diplomacy to seek to resolve these powerful struggles that threaten us all. These WikiLeaks are clear evidence that many of our diplomats and world leaders don’t know how to do this and they haven’t reached a sufficient level of maturity to even recognize the dangers of their “gaming strategies”. And censorship and more secrecy are not the solutions to this problem.
What do you think of this matter? Should those who “leaked” these documents and published them be prosecuted as criminals or terrorists? How can we teach our diplomats a more mature way to conduct our diplomatic business? Let’s talk about this.