Wikileaks Thoughts

This interesting write up is probably the most thought provoking essay's I have seen yet regarding the Wikileaks cable leak. I have no intention to debate the author or the topic, as that blog strikes me as a better place for such discussion, but I do think it adds perspective and understanding even if you find yourself in disagreement. Radicals throughout history have always been complex individuals. Given what I think Wikileaks will reveal in the future, I believe this episode of history will ultimately end tragically.

As I have been thinking about what Wikileaks will likely reveal - specifically the number of unicorns that are about to be shattered and how everyone in politics is going to find assumptions both confirmed or denied, I think in the end someone is going to end up killing Julian Assange for leaking the wrong cable. I'm thinking in particular how many cables involving the Russians are going to expose something they have cleverly kept out of public view until Wikileaks, and how someone like Putin might react to being exposed in an unflattering way publicly. They tend to come up with interesting ways to handle problems, and don't seem to mind making public examples of power.

As a side note, I want to lay out ahead of time what I am looking for in the Wikileaks cables as far as blog content I intend to discuss at some point in the future - something to think about over the next few months since the DoD is acting quite stupid towards this issue and sticking their head in the sand on the whole issue.

• The Ethiopia invasion of Somalia in 2006. I suspect we will learn a lot of things we did not know, like who was flying the Ethiopian air force MiGs that were able to make precision bomb drops on the fighters for the Islamic Courts. US pilots don't fly MiGs, and I have serious doubts they were Ethiopian pilots.
• The Song class submarine surfacing near Kitty Hawk in October 2006. It wasn't until almost a year later that Bill Gertz of the Washington Times revealed that incident even happened. We may learn a lot more details about the incident in the Wikileaks cables that suggests how that event actually happened.
• Diplomatic cables as a result of Global Fleet Station and Medical Diplomacy missions including the first African Partnership Station. This seems like as good a time as any to learn how to improve coordination between the Navy and the State Department for these soft power deployments by getting insight to the way the State Department viewed them, and how the host nations discussed these activities at the diplomatic level.
• The harassment of the USNS Impeccable (T-AGOS-23) and other ocean surveillance ships by China in 2009. I suspect there might be a few interesting conversations that took place behind the scenes.
• The ballistic missile launch by North Korea over Japan. I'm thinking this will be an insiders look at how the ballistic missile defense partnership between the US and Japan came to be, which is important as that model is now being used for BMD in Europe.
• There have been several quiet shooting incidents in the Gulf over the last few years between the US Navy and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps that will likely come to light in the Wikileaks story.
• I am looking forward to perhaps learning more regarding the history of the Somalia piracy courts in Kenya. This will prove particularly important as we approach potential UN discussions about a world court for dealing with maritime piracy.
• We may learn of some interesting discussions regarding F-22 sales to Japan or other nations. FMS in various forms, including potential submarines for Taiwan, might pop up as interesting topics.
• The great tsunami in Southeast Asia in 2004 might pop up as an interesting topic with inside details not previously disclosed.

These are but a few topics, most of which won't interest the mainstream media, I think may provide relevant discussion from the Wikileaks cables. Say what you want, but in every challenge I have always believed an opportunity awaits, and I think it is appropriate the blog takes the same approach towards the Wikileaks cables rather than the dumbass DoD model of hiding from information everyone else can plainly read.