tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803385070922797451.post7129621189613284782..comments2024-03-27T12:56:38.992-07:00Comments on The Skeptical Bureaucrat: "It Revises Upward My Personal Opinion of the State Department"TSBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02790614121966204073noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803385070922797451.post-54829574793811373102010-12-01T13:57:20.345-08:002010-12-01T13:57:20.345-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Rob Pughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18355643989278053777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5803385070922797451.post-90352168562178742652010-12-01T13:54:26.460-08:002010-12-01T13:54:26.460-08:00Here as well - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-...Here as well - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-brown/wikileaks-why-they-help-a_b_789548.html<br /><br />"For all the State Department's understandable security concern about the recent disclosure of classified telegrams from its embassies by WikiLeaks, there are elements in this exposé that can actually improve how Americans and the rest of the world view US diplomacy and, most important, the United States itself. As the cables demonstrate:<br /><br />--American diplomats can write. If you read the missives -- and, granted, no way I could read them all -- they provide strong evidence that Foreign Service officers (FSOs) construct solid, logical, and detailed analyses that (if not always correct) are thoughtful and carefully crafted. Compare them to the instant, superficial reporting of the mass media, and you can see the importance of diplomatic dispatches not only for giving Washington the background and nuance to a given situation, but also for providing a reliable historical record of major global events.<br /><br />--American diplomats are not naive, an all-too-frequent characterization of US officials by their foreign counterparts. FSOs, as their candid, sometimes critical portraits of their overseas contacts suggest, strive to be subtle judges of character; of course, they are not always right, but they are intelligently seeking to understand, as best they can, the nature of their foreign interlocutors, and their reporting demonstrates it. Far from permanently embarrassing the U.S., the WikiLeaks disclosures may, in fact, result in increasing respect overseas for American diplomats, as their communications to headquarters (now made public, regrettably or not) demonstrate they seek to be insightful observers, and are not gullible country bumpkins who believe everything they hear.<br /><br />--American diplomats are not inhuman automatons but have a sense of irony and humor. To cite one example, the Moscow US Embassy's characterization of Putin and Medvedev -- Batman and Robin -- is not only funny, but may end up in the history books as a "catch-the-moment" way to describe this odd, sinister duo.<br /><br />On the negative side..."Rob Pughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18355643989278053777noreply@blogger.com