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May 22, 2013
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 Leaks Disclose Complicated U.S. StrategyPosted on Dec 8, 2010Editor’s note: This column has been revised since it was originally posted. The WikiLeaks thus far published are less interesting for their content, which reveals very little that was not already obvious or predictable to anyone who follows American foreign policy and international relations, as for the motivation for collecting all this information (and gossip). Its reporting must have burdened the State Department’s communications system and clogged its analytic capacities ever since the system was established by the Bush administration to centralize information. Why is all this necessary? It obviously originated in the American government belief that for the nation to be saved from terrorist enemies it was necessary that Washington D.C. have extensive intelligence about, and with that, the possibility of control or potential control, over all possible American enemies: the hostile big nations, but especially the minor Islamic states seen as vulnerable to religious extremism, and therefore to infiltration and exploitation by terrorist movements. U.S. officials took seriously Harvard professor Samuel Huntington’s theory about a forthcoming war between civilizations, irresponsible and biased as the theory was. The elaborated information-gathering system, based on traditional diplomatic note-taking and analytic reporting, provided material for intimidation or blackmail as well as the general and background information necessary to policy-making in Washington. But what policy was all this meant to serve? Initially, it was President Bush’s dramatic but intellectually puerile “Global War on Terror.” It was the war in Iraq that dominated policy between 2003 and last year (and may dominate it again). Beyond that war, and the parallel Israeli-inspired preoccupation with the supposed nuclear threat from Iran, what did American policy become? The WikiLeaks reveal the irrelevance in much of what was being reported by American diplomats. There was no recognizable pattern or purpose. To make use of Churchill’s famous comment on a dessert (as the American language has it) set before him to close a dinner: “This pudding has no theme.” Churchill sent it back. Today, American foreign policy can’t be sent back to be given a coherent theme. That is what the 2008 election was supposed to do—but it didn’t, as last November’s election confirmed. Advertisement During the Cold War, these described clear military issues. Since, they have become compendiums of things to be done, not to achieve a positive goal, but to prevent other countries from interfering with unfocused American military actions anywhere and for whatever reason. The three principal listed missions in the last Bush-era Defense Strategy statement were first to conduct “a global struggle against a violent extremist ideology.” Next was to deal with “the rogue nation quest for nuclear weapons” (specific enough: except that there are rogue nations and rogue nations; under both Bush and Obama presidencies, India and Pakistan have possessed secretly and illegally constructed nuclear forces. But they are America’s good friends. Pakistan has posed a trickier question). The third strategy statement mission was to confront “the rising military power of other states.” Well, yes. When it got to specifics, the last-named category ordered the military services to develop “creative approaches to deny extremists the opportunity to gain footholds” in “ungoverned, under-governed, misgoverned and contested areas” that affect local stability and regional security. With respect to powerful states, America’s forces were told that they confronted “the possibility of challenges ... to the United States in some or all domains of traditional warfare [and foreign efforts] to gain an advantage by developing capabilities that offset our own [as well as by choosing] niche areas of military capability and competition in which [such states] might find a strategic or operational advantage,” even though some of these competitors may also be “diplomatic, commercial or security partners of the United States.” So, watch out, Europe! The above quotations are from the 2008 NDS, replaced in May 2010 by the Obama administration with a document that easily surpasses the earlier one in platitudinous mission statements. It orders the Pentagon to invest in “a strong, agile, well-trained, and well-equipped U.S. military that can fight and win the nation’s wars.” Which wars? American generals, and the international public, need to know this military’s missions in Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, the Western Sahara—to name just a few of the countries reported upon in the WikiLeaks. President Barack Obama said last week that the most important task in Afghanistan is to “defeat” al-Qaida. What does this mean? Osama bin Laden or the Mullah Omar under a white flag at the gate of the presidential residence in Kabul? Or the Iraq-style American mega-embassy scheduled to be built? In a country with a population of over 31 million people, 38 percent of them ethnic Pashtuns, the latter all theoretically susceptible to the appeal of their Taliban kinsmen to join the fight against the infidel American invaders and occupiers, how are they expected to surrender to Gen. Petraeus? Get in a line? Or will Petraeus find a new assignment? The WikiLeaks have done Americans and others the service of revealing the global, and yet ultimately futile, surveillance and power ambitions of the American government. It disguises these to itself, as well as to the public, as a mission to install global democracy. The actual result is the installation of a version of mounting anarchy in the Middle East and Central and South Asia, from which all will tragically suffer. Eventually, the U.S. is likely to suffer the most. Morally and politically, it already has. Visit William Pfaff’s website for more on his latest book, “The Irony of Manifest Destiny: The Tragedy of America’s Foreign Policy,” at www.williampfaff.com. © 2010 Tribune Media Services Inc.  TAGS:
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Another Memorial Day in This Endless War
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By MarthaA, December 13, 2010 at 2:16 am Link to this comment
The neocon “Project for the New American Century” is being carried out by DLC Obama and the DLC Clintons: http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Project_for_the_New_American_Century
http://www.newamericancentury.org/
Report thisBy jasonkk, December 13, 2010 at 12:41 am Link to this comment
Hmm, I have heard that you have an exit strategy or exit plan for a business that is starting to become unprofitable, but in this case it’s more that it’s time for someone else to take over a business or a government which is supposed to be profitable for everyone. I actually think we should send the troops home to the U.S. before Christmas, and see how the government there can do on its own. If it erupts into worse civil war again, then I would feel justified in sending in a large international force of say 300,000 troops or more. But I don’t think it should be the Americans’ job to support this long-term with the sheer number of troops who are there right now. I don’t want to see something unspeakable happen to other soldiers like what happened to Thomas Tucker and Kristian Mendaka. Iraq may need a stricter force to keep order, but the people have to decide to turn in anyone they know who keeps engaging in terrorism. They ought to require permits for any weapons or else confiscate them - anything larger than a slingshot, I mean.
Report thisXtreme No
By wulewuu, December 12, 2010 at 3:57 am Link to this comment
The publication of these data showed me, that there is no strategic thinking in the
US administrations foreign policy. The US diplomats seem to do their job without
being in contact with the real life of the countries they are observing. Most time
written down gossip is the result of their work.
For whom all this stuff is meant? For president Obama, secretary of state Clinton?
Report thisDoes someboy, some day cancel all this stuff?
By citizen34243, December 12, 2010 at 3:49 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
We NEED transparency for our global society to survive.
To many crises, our steering mechanism/leadership cannot switch fast enough.
We’d never gone to Iraq if we read the cables first?
How can a few wise leaders understand complex global issues and explain why to ?
China outcompetes us. Small bad countries drain our resourses.
We can redesign our economies and win.
If democracy fails, the only solution is More democracy.
WL to much Change for Obama?
Believe your core values, xx harder for our totalitarian enemies.
People need to be involved/need same info.
It’s your Duty to spread your thoughts.
just lazy vote, won’t save your world this time.
Tech changes the world and WWW is the biggest change ever.
DAMAGE cyber WW3 result: 500k hurt diplomats worldwide,
Report thisfinal 200 nations restuctured. Left is only 1 global transparent free society survives ..... never thought WW3 as a joke. Yeah all wars are surprises.
The only way is UP.
greets from citzen WL232.
read my book!
By Stig, December 11, 2010 at 1:14 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Thanks to Wikileaks, it is becoming clear why America is hated around the world; they treat their friends -democracies- with condescending contempt, and their enemies as play things, to be used in whatever way it see as necessary, even against their friends. And in both cases the citizens are left out, in the cold, to be bemused and abused by their so-called betters.
You may jail the messenger America, but its too late, the message is out: collect and disseminate all information, about all institutions and their operations, especially those who use this resource, to take advantage of an unaware and overly trusting population. Assange and Wikileaks is just the beginning, the real fireworks are readying and armed to be launched from all sides.
Report thisBy jack, December 11, 2010 at 12:56 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
no more usb’s or smart phones or pieces of paper & pens
Report thisespecially,in fact just put a big fat “rubber” over
YOUR head and call it good (think pink,the social
wall)
By Robert, December 11, 2010 at 5:43 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
The American strategy, in a word, ‘GREED’. Not as a cohesive thing but in everything it touches, from contractors to informers, from corporate contracts to government contacts and from foreign governments appointed by the US government to the US government appointed by corporations.
Report thisBy berniem, December 9, 2010 at 5:51 pm Link to this comment
America’s “management” viz-a-viz the rest of the world often looks like what one sees in a typical high school classroom being overseen by a not too competent substitute teacher on a Friday afternoon!
Report thisBy fearnotruth, December 9, 2010 at 12:06 am Link to this comment
RE: [...]
motivation for collecting all this information.
serious conisderation: how did the media managed to find related choice nuggets so quickly?
Gordon Duff ponders it here
ITS ALL IN THE WIKI-MATH
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
http://tinyurl.com/39gs4mp
If it looks too good to be true, trust me on this, run like hell!
REPORTER ANALOGY
Put yourself in the place of a decent and honest reporter. You wait, your pulse
pounding, 92,000 documents. You have your entire staff, the obits guy, the
restaurant critic, all sitting up at your house, pounding down tequila and
espresso. Five of you and 92,000 documents, that’s 18,400 each. You can
each scan only 500 documents an hour, that’s a day and a half, but you have a
deadline and your Wikileaks lead story has to be in for the morning paper.
You get a text message to check your email. You have a list of articles there,
the real “gold” among the senseless time wasting “chaff.” You have one of those
moments of moral dilemma. For a real reporter, in the real world, that
moment came and went without notice.
You can now make the deadline, and you have the lead story, Pakistan is
running the Taiban, murdering American troops, Iranians are swimming the
Euphrates, bringing IED’s into Iraq and a 74 year old grandfather from
Rawalpindi is managing world terrorism when he isn’t on CNN.
_________________________ E.G.
Pakistan Aids Insurgency in Afghanistan, Reports Assert
By MARK MAZZETTI, JANE PERLEZ, ERIC SCHMITT and ANDREW W. LEHREN
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/asia/26isi.html
Published: July 25, 2010
Americans fighting the war in Afghanistan have long harbored strong suspicions that Pakistan’s military spy service has guided the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its help combating the militants, according to a trove of secret military field reports made public Sunday.
The documents, made available by an organization called WikiLeaks, suggest that Pakistan, an ostensible ally of the United States, allows representatives of its spy service to meet directly with the Taliban in secret strategy sessions to organize networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders.
___________________
ITS ALL IN THE WIKI-MATH (cont.)
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
http://tinyurl.com/39gs4mp
GOLFING ANALOGY
With reporters finding, just the right places in Wikileaks, we wanted to look at
the odds. Golfing is a good comparison, so we checked the odds of someone
getting a “hole in one” playing golf. Is finding the right articles in Wikileaks
easier or harder than getting a “hole in one” playing golf?
In 1999, Golf Digest reported, “One insurance company puts a PGA Tour pro’s
chances at 1 in 3,756 and an amateur’s at 1 in 12,750.”
That same issue reported that the “odds of an amateur making two holes-in-
one in a round are 9,222,500 to 1.”
Ireland’s National Hole in One Club puts the odds a little lower for one ace:
“The estimated odds of acing a hole with any given swing are one in 33,000.”
And an article in the magazine Navy Newsstand, citing Sports Illustrated as its
source, put the odds at 45,000 to 1 for “scoring a hole-in-one on a typical
par-3 golf hole.”
This is the comparison we came up with. With our odds, were there only one
Report thisWikileak, at 4,130 compared to “hole in one” odds for a golfing pro at 3,756,
the analogy works. Thus, 38 out of 92,000 articles is about the same as
getting a hole in one. However, when you consider this is the 3rd straight hole
in one for Wikileaks, the odds figure to be well over 20 million to one against.
Wikileaks beats the odds bigtime.
By prosefights, December 8, 2010 at 10:58 pm Link to this comment
Wikileaks may have revealed how the liberal arts educated ‘think?’
Report thisBy gerard, December 8, 2010 at 9:09 pm Link to this comment
When those who want to burn Manning and ASsange at the stake and start citing instances of “persons injured or killed because of the leaks,” I just hope everybody will remember the tens of thousands of people have been deliberately killed by American wars in Iraq and Afghaistan. That particular comparison is going to be extremely important Much effort will be exerted by those wishing to hide it.
Report thisBut those responsible for the ordering and continuation of the wars are far more culpable than Manning and Assange. That Manning and Assange are even being accused with “betrayal of national interests” is gross overstatement, and if the charges go anywhere at all, it means our justice system is completely paranoid and prejudicial.
Sad to say, that’s not entirely news either. But the “leaks” have exposed some embarrassing facts that have been festering in the shadows, and the saddest truth of all may be that a once-great country for years has been systematically destroying itself by promoting wars rather than settling disputes.
What can we do as individuals? Don’t drink the coolaid of fear, but speak up for our freedom of speech and information, for the people’s ability to govern themselves, and for our officials to institute honorable open public dealings both at home and abroad.
By REDHORSE, December 8, 2010 at 3:18 pm Link to this comment
The shallow small minded communications revealed by WikiLeaks are simply the wind inside the bag. There is no “diplomatic policy”, only an “agenda” set to serve international/corporate black market finance and business. It’s a black flag operation and the pirates running it are getting filthy rich at the expense of the American future and the tax dollar labor of the American people. H.Clinton is not a Diplomat and B.Obama is not a President. The leaks reveal the bare naked Emperor with no clothes. It’s simply business, piracy and murder as usual. There are people willing to kill you to maintain their power but there is no “government”. Washington is an immoral void.
Sane intelligent knowledgeable voices Worldwide have long agreed that the best way to fight terrorism is through the co-ordinated international co-operation of police intelligence and action. Everyone knows the Cheney/Bush invasion of Iraq was a for profit lie. TRUTHDIG poster links to Foreign Press articles openly mirror the propagandist American MSM’s willingness to shout whatever lie corporate Washinton provides. The leaks simply confirm what we have all known for a long time. “We the people—” are clearly on our own.
FREE ASSANGE NOW!!
Report thisBy colindale, December 8, 2010 at 2:47 pm Link to this comment
US/ Israel strategy is clear.
For as long as the right-wing Likud party hold power
in Israel, there will be no cessation of the illegal
settlement on the West Bank. That settlement AKA
‘facts on the ground’ is an integral part of the
Likud’s strategy to make the entire area of former
Palestine, Arab free. That fact should be obvious to
anyone over the age of three. Netanyahu’¬s play-
actin¬g is an obvious device to hold the status quo
and the illegal settlement by pretending to enter
into peace talks - in much the same way as Iran
pretends to talk about dismantlin¬g its nuclear
program.
Both Netanyahu and Ahamedinej¬ad are brothers in
kind, one Muslim the other Jewish. Which one is which
is difficult to discern. They both pull the strings
that make Obama and the EU and the UN dance to their
respective tunes. And like the Pied Piper of Hamblin,
they will both lead the free world into disaster.
Only this will be a global disaster. A world war in
which there will be no victors - but both of our
above heroes will be content in the knowledge that
they managed to bring down the world together with
themselves¬.
When will we wake up? When the first radioactiv¬e
Report thiscloud starts to poison our water, the air we breathe
and the vegetables we grow. Then will be far too
late. The die is being cast now, in 2010.
By firefly, December 8, 2010 at 2:37 pm Link to this comment
The most important fact about the leaks, is that they
are irrefutable evidence of US foreign policy!
They also reveal the extent to which the US seems to
Report thishave an extremely negative view of the rest of the
world. Hardly anyone was judged favorably. As for
collecting all this information on UN diplomats which
to me smacks of espionage, it’s obvious that it was
to be used to collect dirt on other people in order
to blackmail, pressure and intimidate them into
accepting US policy on all global issues such as wars
and Climate Change.
By marcus medler, December 8, 2010 at 2:13 pm Link to this comment
I agree with this analysis.
However, more needs to be added. The incoherence and mishmash of policy since,
really the end of the cold war, has allowed the venal, private interest of monstrous
greed to take the primary role. An example is Blackwater security another is Haliburton
Commercial concerns were always a part of state department business, yet it was
second to the interest of the country as a whole- till post Reagan.
We can hope that the current disruptions will clear the air and lead our national
Report thisgovernmental institutions ( like state) back to being focused on the national
interests not certain individual’s or corporation’s private gain.
By gerard, December 8, 2010 at 12:34 pm Link to this comment
The current “cablegate” situation is a clear example of what might be called “electronic jiujitsu.” The theory behind the marshall arts in general is that one practices how to meet an opponent’s force, not with counterforce, but in such a way as to put the opponent off balance so that he, in effect, falls on his own sword.
International diplomacy, being solely focused on the self-interest of each participant, (being unsubtle and simple-minded) lays itself open to such indirect and unfamiliar efforts as WikiLeaks because the methods of diplomacy-as-is are crude. They depend on tactics like bribery, secrecy and military force, all of which might be called “blunt tools” when compared to the force of electronic messaging.
A more effective diplomacy would depend less on under-handed “deals” and more on truth, accuracy and openness, plus a bit more understanding of different cultures.
Report thisWikiLeaks cnters the scene with precisely the “weapon” which, because it represents openness and precision, causes it to meet its opponent—secrecy in government—in such a way as to turn that government’s “powers” against the government itself. (Proof: Instantly the huge constitutional right of freedom of speech is brought into question and attempts are made to even make NEW LAWS that would limit that freedom and prevent it from functioning.)
The alternative to secrecy is not counter-secrecy, or making freedom criminal, but openness. This, WikiLeaks has made abundantly clear.
Those who do not understand this point are obviously angry and frustrated. The only thing they know is the old way of dealing and part of their anger is due to mere embarrassment at having not seen their shortcomings before now. Thus the “kill the messenger” reaction.
Those who comprehend what is going on are now called upon to defend Manning and Assange, and to help usher in a new age of opportunity for openness and understanding.
By mack894, December 8, 2010 at 11:01 am Link to this comment
I have to wonder what in the world must be in those cables or other wikileaks
information for the U.S. to direct a repressive clamp down on the press and
other freedoms as a result of their publication. If the press today had been
around during watergate, Nixon would have succeeded in his presidential
crimes and would not have had to resign his office. Woodward & Bernstein
probably would have been smeared as homosexuals and arrested for deviancy.
Suddenly only the foreign press provides both accurate and analytical coverage
of these events, as below—
“President Barack Obama has not yet said a word about WikiLeaks but Larry
Johnson, a former CIA analyst who also worked in the state department’s
counter-terrorism section, believes the campaign against WikiLeaks is being
run from the top. ‘‘It is being directed by the White House,’’ he said. ‘‘This is not
just each individual department doing its own thing.’‘
http://www.theage.com.au/national/revenge-attacks-on-website-directed-
by-white-house-20101208-18ps5.html
It seems only the Guardian will supply news about White House demands to
corporations doing business with wikileaks, the paper today reporting that
PayPal admits that they were told to sever their ties with wikileaks to protect
their brand, and that both visa/mastercard were lobbied to do the same.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/08/paypal-us-pressure-
wikileaks-mastercard?intcmp=239
Now apparently their is a cyberwar in place with the white house and assange
supporters attacking each others web sites.
I must admit, last night when my internet connection shut down suddenly and
Report thisinexplicably, I had to wonder….
By elisalouisa, December 8, 2010 at 10:07 am Link to this comment
Your well written column provides further understanding as the WikiLeaks
Report thisdocuments and what the implications are. No spin here.
By markulyseas, December 8, 2010 at 8:51 am Link to this comment
Unfortunately some of the data has “mined” the field of international diplomacy - distrust and general reluctance to be proactive would now be the order of the day.
Report thisBy we, December 8, 2010 at 5:39 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
We NEED proper steering mechanism to survive the global society we created with technology. Transparancy/involvism is needed. It’s urgend, at this moment our society has an obsolete 200 years old steering mechanism. How can a few wise leaders understand these complex global issues pending ?
Would we have gone to Iraq over Weapons of mass destruction is we were part of the diplomatic cable discussion ?
Better of with more transparency ? Credit Crises / Cable gate shows governments are not so much in control of the global society. Wasn’t it work of the press to tell us the truth ?
Can the government be specific what is so threatening, because NO ONE DIED by the cables released. People did die because the same amount of money did go to Foreign Affair as to public health care.
At least the cork out of the bottle. Fact is that secrets are harder to keep anno 2010. Shutting down is naive. Discuss it is the only option.. If democracy fails, the only solution is MORE democracy!. Fill the streets and discuss where the press fails.
Report thisBy samosamo, December 8, 2010 at 5:32 am Link to this comment
****************
““U.S. officials took seriously Harvard professor
Samuel Huntington’s theory about a forthcoming
war between civilizations, irresponsible and
biased as the theory was.”“
*****************
Just like the msm needs straightening out and as
mundane as the information is so far, no matter
how non-revealing all these cables are, so far,
this one quote demonstrates unequivocally that
there are big problems in the ivy league colleges
if this one teacher, sam huntington, can influence
foreign policy with ‘his ideas’. That’s like the lies
of w and dick to invade iraq, it is the story a
bunch of foreign terrorists brought down the 2
towers and wtc7 building with plane impacts and
burning jet fuel too cool to cause catastrophic
collapse.
So is it any wonder that about all the lies and
criminal acts can be traced back to people who
bought their educations at Harvard, Yale,
Princeton and the other, oh, not to leave out the
number one economic terrorist, milton turdfuck
friedman’s, university of chicago school of
economics. Seems it is about time to start
directing closer attention and scrutiny at this
places and what they are really teaching.
Remember that these places are run basically like
a private corporation also, big business.
No doubt an excellent education can he had from
Report thisthese places but it seems there is an underlying
ideology in some places that produces people like
w, o and the rest of the creeps in government
that are nothing but nefarious hubristic tyrants.
That greed on unprecedented scale is part of it, I
would say.