The world of diplomacy is replete with a deluge of white lies

[MrScorpio]

Things are said but not meant, sometimes to reveal intent and potential.

Things are said that are not meant to see the light of day. When you deal with people who walk the halls of power daily, many an ego requires a massage and protection.

Candor requires confidentiality if it is to be heeded.

Back channels are where the truth dwells in times of conflict and strife.

If you take that all away, it's easy to turn to conflict.

What else choice does one have when the doors are shut in your face?

[Bluerthanblue]

1. just read this today...

..."Julian Assange, Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks, is gracing the Guardian website with his answers to questions submitted by its readers. Most of them are gushingly approving, with a good few so crawling that they rival Lisa Simpson during the gubernatorial election in Springfield.

Assange, of course, is happy to answer. Yet there's one reader who gets slightly shorter shrift. It's a shame, because the question from "JAnthony" is so pertinent that it's worth quoting at length:

Julian - I am a former British diplomat. In the course of my former duties I helped to coordinate multilateral action against a brutal regime in the Balkans, impose sanctions on a renegade state threatening ethnic cleansing, and negotiate a debt relief programme for an impoverished nation. None of this would have been possible without the security and secrecy of diplomatic correspondence, and the protection of that correspondence from publication under the laws of the UK and many other liberal and democratic states... My question to you is: why should we not hold you personally responsible when next an international crisis goes unresolved because diplomats cannot function? ......

the answer or non/answer follows here:

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/218976-Is-Julian-Assange-a-coward-or-a-hypocrite-

[MrScorpio]

2. Exactly...

The way that Assange is taking us will lead to war and crisis if diplomacy is cracked wide open. It will cause it to be shut down, if no one's confidentiality can be trusted.

Some things are NOT meant to be widely known for good reason.

[aquart]

5. Yep.

[noise]

3. OTOH if you enable government officials to

conduct themselves in a environment of extreme secrecy there is a good chance that corruption will flourish. Note how diplomacy was discarded in the lead up to the Iraq invasion because Bush administration officials had already secretly decided on the policy of regime change.

[MrScorpio]

4. The consensus is that the Bushies had NEVER intended to play by the rules

They were all radicals, who made up their own rules as they went along.

I'm afraid that they're not a good example.

They abused the system while everyone expected the rules of the game to be followed.

The lesson learned is that we should never let people who disregard the long standing rules to take the reigns of power again.