TJP

It is possible to see deception and not perceive it, and to hear it and not understand it. Americans have seen and heard deception for a long time and have ignored it, and, in some instances, they have even defended it.

Deceivers use justifications and explanations to manipulate public opinion. For instance, they justify and explain attacks by friendly aggressor nations as self-defense and invasion as peacekeeping.

Deceivers fail to understand that over time their explanation and justifications lose credibility. Moreover, in the age of information, their deceptions will increasingly become difficult to conceal; we have seen it with WikiLeaks revelations.

The propensity of governments to deceive and to defend deceit is counterproductive to building effective public administration and democracies. When democratic policy makers govern by deception, they diminish the concept of democracy.

WikiLeaks revelations are indeed troublesome. However, WikiLeaks did not create the deceptions, they only revealed them. Therefore, blaming WikiLeaks is also deceptive.

The deceivers created the deception, not WikiLeaks. If there were no deception, there would be nothing for WikiLeaks to reveal.

Instead of persecuting the revealer of the deception, procedures should be developed to prevent internal and external deception.

If the goal of the U.S government is to develop trust with internal and external constituents, then it is paramount to show contrition. Otherwise, internal and external constituents would be reluctant to place any trust in the U.S. government.

The cables are mainly opinion of U.S. officials; therefore many cannot be considered facts. However, when the U.S. government and allied businesses attempt to prevent WikiLeaks from trading, they unwittingly validate the veracity of the leaks.

The approach should have been to assert that the cables are opinions of U.S. diplomats, which they are, and that the policy of the U.S government is to filter the opinions of diplomats and match them with facts. And, if the facts are not available, the opinions are discarded.

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