Lux Lucet

Though I haven’t followed it all that closely, the past few months have made it hard to ignore the WikiLeaks tiff.  I mean, stories about how Muammar Gaddafi travels everywhere with a voluptuous blonde Ukrainian nurse and loves flamenco dancing do have a way of grabbing your attention.  Inquiring minds want to know these things. 

Of course, the masters of the universe are none too happy about the whole situation.  Their problem isn’t so much the comical stuff about Gaddafi, but the release of information they claim undermines the security of the US and her allies has them in a tizzy.  In fact, about the only thing as ubiquitous as WikiLeaks revelations has been the establishment’s freak-out denunciation of them.   Consider the following,

Whoever in our government leaked that information is guilty of treason, and I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty.  – Mike Huckabee

Let’s be clear.  This disclosure is not just an attack on America – it’s an attack on the international community.  – Hillary Clinton

To the extent that anyone is breaking US law…they will be held accountable.  – Eric Holder

WikiLeaks committed a “treasonous act” and Congress should prod Obama to use “all necessary means to respond and defeat WikiLeaks.”  – Sarah Palin

Hell hath no fury like a Baptist minster scorned.  

For my part, I find this all a bit much.  You see, the big government types screaming for Julian Assange’s head on a silver platter for his perfidious exposure of the Federal Government’s dirty little spy secrets often are the same folks who believe that every facet of Americans’ lives should be naked and open to the eyes of Uncle Sam, whether in the name of the war on terror, the war on drugs or the war on whatever it is they happen to be offended by today.  The authoritarians on the left and right can dish out warrantless wiretaps all day long, and that’s well and good.  But let the unwashed ignoramuses in flyover country learn the truth about their masters’ skullduggery and it’s the end of the world as we know it. 

There is, however, a more important point here than a case of turn about’s fair play, and leave it to Ron Paul to make that point.  Commenting in his weekly Texas Straight talk column, Paul writes,

We may never know the whole story behind the recent publication of sensitive U.S. government documents by the Wikileaks organization, but we certainly can draw some important conclusions from the reaction of so many in government and media. 

At its core, the Wikileaks controversy serves as a diversion from the real issue of what our foreign policy should be.  But the mainstream media, along with neoconservatives from both political parties, insist on asking the wrong question.  When presented with embarrassing disclosures about U.S. spying and meddling, the policy that requires so much spying and meddling is not questioned.  Instead, the media focus on how so much sensitive information could have been leaked, or how authorities might prosecute the publishers of such information.

Exactly, Dr. Paul.  Well said.  How is it that so few in the American establishment understand this?