President Obama is increasingly finding himself in a no-win situation with regards to the WikiLeaks releases, as his pretense of support for transparent and honest government goes up in smoke in the face of secretive and in some cases downright criminal policies.
This has left the White House on the one hand sticking up for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by denying that she ordered crimes for which orders clearly exist signed in her own hand, and claims of weakness from would-be 2012 presidential candidates calling for mass executions.
Indeed, the actual damage done to America’s foreign policy so far appears comparatively minimal, with most of its key allies (Turkey being a notable exception) shrugging off evidence of State Department dirty dealings as unsurprising or trying to spin them to suit their own agendas. But his attempts to carve out a niche in his response to WikiLeaks that involves hysterical condemnations but stops well short of a Soviet style massacre of dissidents seems to be satisfying no one.
Perhaps it was inevitable that the president, after taking office on a mantra of change and a policy of continuity, would be placed into such a position, but it appears to have come surprisingly fast and to have left him no easy political escape. He cannot accept responsibility for the content of the WikiLeaks releases without firing (and prosecuting) many of his State Department appointees, who in all likelihood really were following policies he laid the groundwork for. Likewise though he has tried to make such claims of power under the guise of the global war on terror, it seems virtually impossible that he would be able to launch the sort of public wholesale slaughter that would render his rivals unable to accuse him of weakness.
How is Turkey a notable exception? I must have missed something. Did they get angry and actually stand up to the empire or something?
Has anyone in the US heard of James Madison – or is he simply a terrorist?
The buck stops where?
I have no problem with Hillary Clinton being called out for a memo with her name on it. I'm not stupid however and this crap of "poor little Obama" is b.s. He's the president. As sure as she's responsible for her actions, he's responsible for the actions of all serving under him. The buck stops where?
Quit making excuses for the fraud. This article is so embarrassing, it reads like something Medea Benjamin and company would send out.
Obama supports transparent government as enthusiastically as Stalin supported dissent.
Oh I wasn't all that bad!
If the wikileaks are as serious as the President claims, Hillary Clinton, responsible for the state department, should be fired. Won't happen. Maybe the leaks are a false flag.
Part of a non functioning "democracy" and or a non democratic government is to lie.., therefore they hire liars and thieves and other criminals as their speakers or head of state departments to do the job., and if these people are a attorney.., then much better.., because they can lie legally until is published by Wikileaks.., then the Swedish government.., a right-wing – socialist with non functioning social or economical system calls the Julian a “sex offender” and wants him prosecuted after releasing the US and Europeans lies and deceives. Meanwhile the very same government/s let those who lies and continue with their thievery to go free.., in US is about George W. Bush and his lies about Iraq with intend to deceive the people and in Sweden the thieves and liars actually are getting paid by the millions and years of salaries to leave and that’s how the Swedish “democracy “ works.
Assassin in Chief protecting the Boss of thieves.
Remember all those loudmouthed leftists who thought the Obamessiah was a glorious rebel, whose favorite noun "change" stood for things he never actually said. Who thought he would be the kind of guy to celebrate whistleblowers like WikiLeaks. Who cheered and gave conservative Americans the finger when Obama got elected.
Dumbasses. Who are the stooges now? Always you, leftists. Always you.
"all those loudmouthed leftists…. Always you, leftists."
Let me straighten out your hairy arse a little bit, there, Jimmy Bob.
NEITHER mainstream party may correctly be termed "Leftist", i.e., they are BOTH well within the purview of the Right/corporatist wing, with the GOP a bit further Right–i.e., even MORE insidious– than Forwardlooking's hoodlums.
A truly Left presidential candidate, in the accurate sense of the term, would have been Nader, or McKinney–neither of whom was even allowed into the debates!
Also, anyone who votes for one of the two corporatist parties believing that any material alteration of the investor-class-configured status quo is on the horizon is, doubtless, a TV watcher–like you, for example.
In Germany we had today a small fallout: The snotch who reported on Westerwelle to Murphy
was identified as Westerweele's head of office. He stepped down voluntarily:-)
But he may still get a good pension,
W
On Coruscant, we had today a small fallout: Identified as Vader's helmet polisher, the nerf herder who reported on Vader to the Jedi Council was. Stepped down voluntarily, did he. But, a good pension, or asphyxiated, he may still get. Herh herh herh.