[1] The leaks are not about
“whistle-blowing, but a nonviolent, civil disobedient, fight against huge
social evils. Whistle-blowing, warning,
presupposes that somebody can be warned, in fact wants to be warned, and is in
a position to do something. Obviously
those who can do something about US foreign policy, who have the
power–legislative, the Congress, particularly the Senate; executive, State
Department-Pentagon-White House; judiciary the Supreme Court; economically the
giant banks; culturally the mainstream media–know perfectly well what is going
on: these are all efforts to hang on to imperial economic, military, political
and cultural power. But they do not want change. And those who want a change, a major part of
the US population, allied populations and most of the rest of the world have
been warned, but are to a large extent powerless. So they believe; but see thesis [5].
The whistle-blowing discourse
is much too optimistic. Ossietzky was
not a whistle-blower about Nazism, nor was Solzhenitsyn about Stalinism (nor
Khrushchev for that matter), nor Solzhenitsyn about US foreign policy (his
Harvard speech). They were fighting
something they knew was basically wrong, hoping to alert others to join them in
the struggle. Thus, to offer to do time
in prison for Manning would be to relieve his pain, but the deep fight is more
important. Civil disobedience carries risks, all three knew that; one was
caught and exposed to a farcical military court process.
[2] Basic is not the
media-political focus on Assange-Manning-Snowden, but on what they revealed.
The focus on the revealers is a cheap way of avoiding the focus on a painful
reality. Take Manning as an example: TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS published an
article by Juan Cole from 31 Jul 2013, “Top Ten Ways Bradley Manning Changed
the World”:
Manning revealed the video of a
helicopter attack in Iraq on mostly unarmed non-combatants, including two
Reuters journalists. Result: the Iraqi
parliament said No to the Bush administration wish to keep a base in the
country (the US military withdrew 31 December 2011);
Manning revealed the full
extent of the corruption of the Tunisian dictator Ben Ali, adding fuel to the
youth revolt;
Manning revealed that Yemen
dictator Saleh acquiesced to the US drone attacks in Yemen, a factor in his
removal from power;
Manning revealed that then
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered UN diplomats to spy on their UN
counterparts, wanting detailed intelligence on the UN leadership, with
passwords, encryption keys;
Manning revealed that John
Kerry pressed Israel to be open to the return of the Golan Heights to Syria as
part of peace negotiations;
Manning revealed Afghan
government corruption was “overwhelming”;
Manning revealed the
authoritarian, corrupt Mubarak-Egypt regime;
Manning revealed that Robert
Gates was against striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, arguing they would be
counterproductive;
Manning revealed the Israeli
policy “to keep the Gazan economy functioning at the lowest level possible
consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis”;
Manning revealed that Syria’s
Assad and wife bought jewelry and had a gilded style of life in Europe while
his artillery killed in Homs.
Not all is negative for
USA-Israel; there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Take Snowden as another
example: his revelations, the USA spying as much on their allies as on
Afghanistan, threatens US plans for the two big Trans-Atlantic and
Trans-Pacific trade blocs to exclude BRICS (Peter Myers, peter@mailstar.net,
July 23 2013). Should that happen, then
this is world history indeed–with the USA now bidding for time.
[3] Diplomacy in general was
revealed, not only USA.
When Assange’s first WikiLeaks
were published this column wrote:
“The emperor unclothed. But not only the US emperor, also the Diplomacy
emperor. What kind of ridiculous
discourse is this, so focused on the–negative, on actors, usually elite
persons, in elite countries? Gossip,
puerile characterizations, the kind of “analysis” of power typical of
immaturity.–Where is the analysis of culture and structure, light years more
important than actors who come and go?–
Where are positive ideas? Where are ideas about how to convert the
challenges from climate change into cooperation for mutual and equal benefit? Like water distillation projects at Israel’s
borders with Lebanon and Palestine, fueled by parabolic mirrors? Like positive US-Iran cooperation on
alternative energy?
“These diplomats belong to a
state system era we have to put behind us. Retrain or retire them, and train
thousands of civil servants for world domestic policy. Drop the ridiculous secrecy and
confidentiality of how they are playing cards with us all, with humans and
nature. They have no right to hide their
incompetence behind veils of secrecy.
Democracy means transparency, not feudal games.
“WikiLeaks: Thanks. May you become WeeklyLeaks. We need you.
“Democracy dies behind closed
doors. WikiLeaks opens those doors; an
enormous service to democracy.”
What Manning and Snowden
revealed are the death throes of the US empire; what Assange et al. revealed
are the death throes of the state system as we know it. Both processes will
take time; the former less than the latter. But make no mistake: the three made
history. Three names that will be remembered after some US presidents recede
into an oblivion so well deserved. Who knows the top English in India, like
viceroys and their crimes–roys of vices? MacMahon, Mountbatten?–Gandhi looms
higher. Who knows the names of Ossietzky’s and Dreyfus’ tormentors? Or the English who tried to keep the
“Atlantic Seaboard” colonies? Washington, Jefferson, Franklin overshadow them
all.
They may even contribute to the
reduction of standing armies and, if the USA changes, to understanding among
nations. A shared Nobel Peace Prize to
all three? (not very likely from a US client country).
[4] US allies comply out of
fear, not out of agreement. Quite
concretely: they comply to avoid that one day the US Air Force will land
on the many bases at their disposal “as the government is unable to protect its
own population”. The Americans are
coming; not the Russians, not the Muslims.
And more likely the further the USA slides down the well-greased
totalitarianism incline: next step, probably FEMA (Federal Emergency Management
Agency) camps for suspects–for categories, meta-data!–like Japanese during
WWII.
[5] Everybody, and the media,
can speed up the processes. Rotten
apples should fall from the tree; a little shake will help. The key star media, with Anglo-America’s The
Guardian and The Washington Post playing major roles, deserve our praise. Then,
let millions surround foreign ministries and embassies, demanding an end to
spying, changing their servers away from the Big Traitors in the USA,
suspending further cooperation, degrading diplomatic relations. Till credible
dis-spying–the equivalent of dis-armament–takes place.
Johan Galtung. Professor of
peace studies, dr hc mult, is rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University-TPU. He
is author of over 150 books on peace and related issues.
