The USA Betrays Its Principles

[poliphilo]

The USA is behaving very badly in the case of Julian Assange. Some of those political loud-mouths who have been shouting for his head don't even seem to be aware that he's not actually an American citizen. No, a US court can't try an Australian citizen for treason. As for espionage, well,  maybe they can get that one to stick if they file off some awkward corners, but it's hardly in the spirit of the law- or of the First Amendment.

Freedom of the press, freedom of information- the US is all for these excellent things when it's the secrets of foreign governments that are being exposed.  I loved how the Russians were proposing Assange for the Nobel prize. Very cheeky of them. I didn't think they were capable of that kind of humour. 

If the USA were the sort of society it says it is, it would have gone,"OK, you got us there," and would have set about tightening up its internet security. 

It's not as if these were deadly secrets that have been released. If the information I'm going on is correct, the documents were so low-level that £3,000,000 persons within the USA's government and state bureaucracy had access to them. All they are- especially when released en masse like this- is embarrassing to those in authority.

President Obama has just announced that the War in Afghanistan is "on track"- even though we know from WikiLeaks that it's hardly that. Politicians lie by reflex- even when the evidence that contradicts them is in plain view. By carrying on in this business-as-usual way the President demonstrates just why we need the kind of investigative journalism that  WikiLeaks represents.

By the way, what a terrible disappointment Obama has been.

The USA has flirted with fascism all through its modern history. We rather thought- when Bush stepped down- that the affair had cooled off.  We were horribly mistaken. 

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

True. I judge Obama- as we judge all US presidents- very largely on his foreign policy.

I pay the US the compliment of holding it to higher standards than China or Russia. When Chinese dissidents are imprisoned and Russian journalists assassinated it's no more than I expect.

[airstrip.livejournal.com]

And I wish people would stop, it distorts outcomes in this country and gets us into wars because the President must seek accolades through foreign adventures.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Being a war-time leader is what gets one into the history books. Tony Blair knew that. He never passed up an opportunity to send in the troops.

[airstrip.livejournal.com]

TR, Taft, Hoover, FDR, Eisenhower, Kennedy. Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton.

All more famous for non-military endeavors. FDR even fought WWII but he is more famous for the New Deal.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's an American perspective. Over here we remember FDR primarily as a wartime president- because that's how he impinged on us. And Johnson is remembered for Vietnam. Nixon too- though he is also remembered for Watergate and China.

Taft is just a name to me. Hoover was famously corrupt and has a dam named after him. TR I remember for storming San Juan Hill and shooting bears. I know little about Eisenhower's accomplishments in the presidency- but quite a lot about the European campaign he commanded.

And what did Kennedy actually achieve? All I remember is the Bay of Pigs and The Cuban Missile Crisis- a military fiasco and an exercise in brinkmanship that averted war.