EDITORIAL: WikiLeaks makes real diplomacy tougher
For all the excitement over the quarter-million American diplomatic communications being exposed by WikiLeaks this week, the truly surprising thing about them so far is how unsurprising they are.
If you imagine each of these documents as a tile, the mosaic they form could only shock the naive. Corrupt officials in Afghanistan? Erratic behavior by Gaddafi? Americans alternately wheedling and strong-arming foreign potentates, however unsavory? It's nice that voters can glimpse some vivid details, but the big picture is less than startling.
What's really surprising is the possibility that a low-ranking soldier in the U.S. Army may have had access to all this stuff - and that the Obama administration, however stung, should make things so much worse by portraying the document release as more than a minor embarrassment. Most of the material, after all, was marked for a modest level of confidentiality - or wasn't even classified at all.
But attention is precisely what WikiLeaks' mercurial founder, Julian Assange, craves. Thus, an overreaction from the Obama administration is no more helpful than the pronouncement by Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) who called for WikiLeaks to be deemed a "foreign terrorist organization" - a label better reserved for bigger and more dangerous fish.
The leaks are, of course, a major embarrassment. The U.S. government sponsored the invention of the Internet and should know better than anyone the importance of securing electronic data. What foreign leader will venture a frank discussion with any U.S. diplomat now?
All governments are too secretive, ours included, and document leaks can be a valuable means of exposing wrongdoing. But in this case, there is little benefit - and a high cost. Private diplomatic exchanges are crucial for avoiding conflict, but they won't happen unless all parties know the exchanges will be kept private until after the issues and individuals have passed from the scene. The notion that absolutely everything must occur in the public eye reflects the kind of childish utopianism the Internet itself should have cured us of by now.
WikiLeaks' utopianism isn't just childish; it's also tragic. The site's idealistic rhetoric faults U.S. officials for failing to live up to George Washington's ideal of honesty, as if the world were just some dicey kindergarten. But instead of promoting peace, the latest WikiLeaks release is more likely to disrupt global harmony (such as it is) by driving a wedge between allies and chilling honest dialogue between diplomats. U.S. foreign policy professionals may become less forthcoming in dealing with one another as well, suppressing the unfettered give-and-take that is more, rather than less, likely to head off such misadventures as the invasion of Iraq.
It will take years for all the documents to be mined. Meanwhile, Washington must move fast to tighten security and prosecute the leaker. hN
