Excerpted from “
WikiLeaks Shows the Skills of U.S. Diplomats” By FAREED ZAKARIA,
TIME, Thursday, Dec. 02, 2010
[SIZE="+2"]I[/SIZE] don't deny for a moment that many of the "wikicables" are intensely embarrassing, but the sum total of the output I have read is actually quite reassuring about the way Washington — or at least the State Department — works.
First, there is little deception. … The WikiLeaks documents … show Washington pursuing privately pretty much the policies it has articulated publicly. … And often this foreign policy is concerned with broader regional security, not narrow American interests. Ambassadors are not caught pushing other countries in order to make deals secretly to strengthen the U.S., but rather to solve festering problems.
The cables also show an American diplomatic establishment that is pretty good at analysis. … When foreigners encounter U.S. diplomats and listen to their bland recitation of policy, they would do well to keep in mind that behind the facade lie some very clever minds.
The most significant revelations in the trove are those relating to Arab views of Iran. … It's one thing to have diplomats expressing these sentiments in private, quite another to have the direct and explicit words of the King of Saudi Arabia.