Wikileaks and Me

Ben and I write about Wikileaks in this week's column. My take:

There's a scene in the first "Godfather" movie where an old mobster is preparing young Michael Corleone for a coming mob war. "These things gotta happen every five years or so, ten years," the mobster tells Michael. "Helps to get rid of the bad blood."

That's probably a good way to think about the WikiLeaks' release of U.S. diplomatic cables. Democracy works best when Americans know and understand what their government is doing. It's less helpful for diplomacy, however. So it's probably healthy that we get a once-a-generation look behind the diplomatic curtain, but it's not the kind of thing Americans should hope to see every year.

What's remarkable about the documents is how little scandal they contain. The last two decades have seen anger and conspiracy-theorizing about the American government reach a fever pitch, but it appears that the United States has a team of smart, savvy and diligent diplomats working hard to protect the country -- and its interests -- in a chaotic world.

What's more, the documents that have been released are of such low classification that a reported 3 million people already had access to see them. Even Defense Secretary Robert Gates admitted they were of low consequence: "Is it awkward? Yes," he said. "Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly modest."

The real scandal has been the angry reaction of some American conservatives, such as Sarah Palin, who have suggested that WikiLeaks' Julian Assange should be viewed as and treated like a terrorist. That presumably means he should die for his actions. But there's no evidence that WikiLeaks' revelations have led to the harm of any American or allied collaborator.

If publishing the truth of our government's actions is so hazardous to American interests, perhaps we should reconsider those actions. Leave Julian Assange alone.

I'm not actually thrilled with the last paragraph, because even I recognize that the government does legitimately keep some secrets. On the other hand, he ratio of legitimate secrets to not-so-legitimate is probably out of whack.

Wikileaks and the Afghanistan Quagmire

I can't say often enough how critical it is to American counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan that the deep and widespread corruption in the government there be reversed. But as we already knew -- and the Wikileaks cables are confirming -- there's simply no way that's happening:

It is hardly news that predatory corruption, fueled by a booming illicit narcotics industry, is rampant at every level of Afghan society. Transparency International, an advocacy organization that tracks government corruption around the globe, ranks Afghanistan as the world’s third most corrupt country, behind Somalia and Myanmar.

But the collection of confidential diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to a number of publications, offers a fresh sense of its pervasive nature, its overwhelming scale, and the dispiriting challenge it poses to American officials who have made shoring up support for the Afghan government a cornerstone of America’s counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan

It's time to wind down this war.

Bristol Palin Makes Me Sad

It's bad for America that John McCain plucked Sarah Palin from semi-obscurity and turned her into a walking, breathing incarnation of right-wing grievance. But now Bristol Palin is getting attention in the blogosphere, and I'll be honest here -- as much as I dislike Sarah Palin's presence in public life, I feel mainly pity for her daughter.

I think I realized this a couple of weeks ago when Bristol was still competing on "Dancing With The Stars." As the final episode neared, she reportedly cast a possible victory in political terms: "It would be like a big middle finger to all the people out there who hate my mom and hate me."

And I thought: "I don't hate you Bristol."

Bristol hasn't done anything. That's ok! She's very young! She's not supposed to have done anything yet! She's just a girl who became a single mother at almost the precise moment her mother emerged as a political icon. And that means a bunch of attention has been directed at her. And she, like her feckless ex-boyfriend, has decided to leverage that attention into even more attention -- because, well, who wouldn't?

I might change my tune on this in a couple of years. If Bristol Palin continues on this path, she'll end up being much like her mother -- with constant railing against the "lamestream media" -- but without even Sarah Palin's meager record of accomplishment. If that happens, she'll be only grievance, and probably an intolerable presence in public life. But the real tragedy is that she's in public life at all. I don't hate you Bristol; I'm sad that I even know who you are, and I'm said that millions of people have an opinion about you. If it were up to me, you'd raise your child -- and grow up a little more yourself -- in obscurity. For your own sakes, not ours. I'm sorry that can't happen.

More On 'Freedom': This Is Why Book Clubs Exist

Comments from a pair of friends on my review of Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom" remind me why literature is often more enriching -- for me anyway -- if you have fellow readers to discuss it with.

Andrew and Leslie both made me pause about my assertion that Patty, the novel's central female character, is a "thoroughly unexceptional" woman, unworthy of the struggle that takes place between the two main male characters.

Andrew first:

Look, Patty may or may not be an especially remarkable woman. But these two dudes are in a serious long term pissing contest. It could be over a patch of dirt and they'd both think it was remarkable. I don't think it's the hold she has on them that's central to the novel, it's the hold the two men have on each other *through* her. And that's left her a little...empty.

Leslie second:

Patty was a dedicated mother, house renovator, and gutsy defender of her neighborhood. She licked her own wounds after being raped, no thanks to her parents, and still managed to forgive her father and find peace with him in his final days. I found her quite remarkable, and by far my favorite character.

Both comments widened my perspective of the novel; Leslie's comment actually made me feel as though I'd been unbearably sexist -- because, well, I probably had been. I thank my friends for taking time to chime in with valuable perspectives.

John McCain Continues His Evolution Into Strom Thurmond

McCain Questions Pentagon on Repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ - NYTimes.com: "“I couldn’t disagree more,” Mr. McCain shot back. “We send these young people into combat, we think they’re mature enough to fight and die. I think they’re mature enough to make a judgment on who they want to serve with and the impact on their battle effectiveness.” Mr. McCain, a naval aviator in the Vietnam War who was shot down and imprisoned in Hanoi, then added: “Mr. Secretary, I speak from personal experience.”"

Meh. Part of maturity -- in addition to making decisions about life and death -- is learning to live with people who live life differently from you. And part of the maturity that goes into military service is accepting much less control over decisions about the work you do and whom you do it with. McCain's defense of DADT boils down to this: He apparently believes that members of the military are so prejudiced against homosexuals that they cannot possibly be expected to maintain their discipline and honor in the face of such a provocation. That's a low estimate of the sensibilities of our uniformed men and women, one that's largely belied by the Pentagon's own survey of servicemembers.

Tax Cuts For The Rich Matter More Than Anything Else

Slatest: "Mere hours after President Obama's bipartisan meeting with Congressional leadership, the Associated Press reported that 'Senate Republicans intend to block action on virtually all Democratic-backed legislation unrelated to tax cuts and government spending.' Those GOP leaders Obama was meeting with had already 'quietly collected signatures on a letter pledging to carry out the strategy.' That letter, which Steve Benen calls a 'hostage plan,' was released today, and it signals Republicans' intent to torpedo the DREAM act and a DADT repeal, among other things."

The Military's Un-Christian Chaplains

The Washington Post reports on the views of military chaplains about the repeal of DADT. The official Pentagon report includes one of the most depressing sentences in the history of the world:

"'In the course of our review, we heard some chaplains condemn in the strongest possible terms homosexuality as a sin and an abomination, and inform us that they would refuse to in any way support, comfort, or assist someone they knew to be homosexual,' the report stated. 'In equally strong terms, other chaplains, including those who also believe homosexuality is a sin, informed us that 'we are all sinners,' and that it is a chaplain's duty to care for all Service members.'"

It doesn't bother me that Christian chaplains believe homosexuality is a sin, although I disagree: that's to be expected. But I'm horrified at the attitudes of those who would refuse to show Christian love to gay servicemembers -- and gratified for the example of those chaplains who would provide assistance despite seeing homosexuality as a sin. The Christ of the Bible hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors, and railed against Pharisees who sneered at people who didn't share their moral rectitude. I'm not a Christian anymore, but I know which group of chaplains more clearly emulates the man they supposedly worship.

That said, I really hope we're not going to be in the business of letting chaplains set military policy, no matter which policy they favor.