Monday, February 07, 2011
Noam Chomsky writes on Wikileaks
"Perhaps the most remarkable WikiLeaks revelations have to do with Pakistan, reviewed by foreign policy analyst Fred Branfman in Truthdig. The cables reveal that the US embassy is well aware that Washington's war in Afghanistan and Pakistan not only intensifies rampant anti-Americanism but also "risks destabilising the Pakistani state" and even raises a threat of the ultimate nightmare: that nuclear weapons might fall into the hands of Islamic terrorists. Again, the revelations "should create a comforting feeling … that officials are not asleep at the switch" (Heilbrunn's words) – while Washington marches stalwartly toward disaster."
IMO: Perhaps even more alarmingly, Heilbrunn also says "The truth is that the American government engages in gross overclassification of documents, something that the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan inveighed against and that the redoubtable Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists continually battles. Maybe the WikiLeaks is a way of circumventing those restrictions. Getting American threats on record, while pretending to deplore the loss of secrecy, could be a potent weapon. If this is the case, then Obama may be craftier than anyone has assumed."
IMO: When I was a conscript in the Army doing jungle warfare training, the sergeant would say. "Do not hide behind that stump. I always say this, and every time, someone does". Quite so. A pity Washington are not given reasons to learn such matters in the hardest way. Wikileaks is a very soft lesson for politicians, and people like Sarah Palin and the Tea Party clearly cannot stand the small amount of heat that provides. And I have very little faith in Obama either, apparently unlike Chomsky.
IMO: Perhaps even more alarmingly, Heilbrunn also says "The truth is that the American government engages in gross overclassification of documents, something that the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan inveighed against and that the redoubtable Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists continually battles. Maybe the WikiLeaks is a way of circumventing those restrictions. Getting American threats on record, while pretending to deplore the loss of secrecy, could be a potent weapon. If this is the case, then Obama may be craftier than anyone has assumed."
IMO: When I was a conscript in the Army doing jungle warfare training, the sergeant would say. "Do not hide behind that stump. I always say this, and every time, someone does". Quite so. A pity Washington are not given reasons to learn such matters in the hardest way. Wikileaks is a very soft lesson for politicians, and people like Sarah Palin and the Tea Party clearly cannot stand the small amount of heat that provides. And I have very little faith in Obama either, apparently unlike Chomsky.
# posted by uv : 7:34 PM
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