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I am conflicted on this.
On the one hand, I applaud Mr. Assange's efforts to bring the Truth, whatever it is, to light. Jesus came, after all, to bear witness thereto: as an aside, in one of my favorite works of right-libertarian SciFi, a nation exists in which State secrets are actually against the law. Likewise, the government of the Nation which I have learnt to love at its' best and loathe at its' worst should have nothing to fear from public scrutiny. Indeed, this latest batch of leaks seems to bear out a number of quite reasonable lines of inquiry vis-a-vis US interests: what exactly -is- the local position in regards to a nuke-capable Iran, for instance?
On the other hand, I am forced to wonder in what sort of danger some of these leaks have placed individual Americans abroad. People who are doing jobs with which I may not agree, but doing them in good faith and with the noblest of intentions and to the best of their abilities. I have friends who have served in the Peace Corps, with numerous military formations, and with various Embassies overseas. How, if at all, will this affect them? Their lives? Their liberties?
I think Julian Assange is a vicious little slime, probably a rapist and almost certainly a smug little shit who has it in for the United States in general and individual Americans in particular. I see very few redeeming features in him. When he goes after the Russians or the Chinese I'll allow him a pair of balls. I think he engages in a game of self-aggrandizing delusions which is simply ridiculous, either to look upon or to take seriously. However, I cannot deny that the Devil may be inadvertently doing the Lord's work (to mix metaphors, if I may) in this and similar cases.
As with most things in life, it is neither here nor there. Mr. Assange and I both stand along the Water Margin, and whether I like it or not that makes us brothers. But so too do American Soldiers and Marines who go to kill evil men in dark places, or French and British doctors who go to heal the debauched and the sanctified alike. We are all brothers, along the Water Margin. And so I am conflicted.
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"I personally think that America's interests would be well served if after or at the time these clowns begin their revolting little hate crime the local police come in and cart them off on some trumped up charges or other. It is necessary in my opinion that America makes an example of them to the world."
--Strange Famous, advocating the use of falsified charges in order to shut people up.
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