The latest batch of official US documents released by wikileaks caused a tremendous storm with two immediate reactions.  The first was a nearly hour by hour revelation as to what was in this batch as reporters combed through the piles of information looking for newsworthy (or simply salacious) details.  The second reaction came as a character assassination (and call for a bloody assassination) of Julian Assange as a “terrorist”.

The first wave of revelation is understandable, but neither of these reactions tells us much about what is really happening here.  That requires time.

Press outside of the Western World had very different reactions to what was contained in the latest dump.  The first response was silence as they attempted to understand just what was going on – simple wisdom in lands that do not have the free speech protections that we do.  Their second response has been, generally, to assume that the information was planted by the US government and/or the Israeli Mossad to discredit their enemies.  That’s a far  more interesting way to look at it.

Wikileaks has been around since 2006, so it goes without saying that anyone in charge of secrets of some kind knew that this was likely to happen someday.  It goes without saying that an airing of the private chatter of duplicitous diplomats who say one thing in private but act differently has a tremendous value at times.  Anyone in US intelligence worth their pay certainly thought about how to make use of this “service”.

Sounds like a conspiracy theory?  Not at all.  It’s simply prudent.

Running against the instinct for getting the “scoop” on “breaking news”, only time will tell what’s really in the batch of documents as the revelations work their way through the words and actions of the leaders of the world.  Consider two very serious situations that have changed considerably in the brief period of time that we’ve had to allow the wikileaks material to sink in:

• Iran’s nuclear program, up for additional scrutiny and possibly more sanctions, has started to look like the liability it really is and not a source of strength.  Cables released by wikileaks showed the Gulf States so worried about it that they were begging the US (and even Isreal!) to help them “cut the head off of the snake”.  Their inability to even speak this way in public revealed a cowardice that has had its cover blown off and will now require the entire region to take sides.
• Just before the leaks, there was an actual shooting war starting on the Korean peninsula.  The revelation that China has no interest in backing the “spoiled brat” that they see in North Korea – and even may be interested in pursuing reunification with the South – has calmed that situation down dramatically.  The shooting has stopped and everyone has stepped back long enough to read up on the situation.

These two situations alone have already shown the tremendous value that wikileaks might have brought to US diplomacy and to world peace generally.  Does that make Assange a hero?  Possibly.  It’s just as likely that he’s a very useful tool, and perhaps quite unwittingly.  Keep watching.