The Wikileaks disclosure this week of confidential cables from United States embassies has been debated chiefly in terms either of the damage to Washington's reputation or of the questions it raises about national security and freedom of the press.
The headlines aside, most of the information so far revealed from the 250,000 documents is hardly earth-shattering, even if it often runs starkly counter to the official narrative of the U.S. as the benevolent global policeman, trying to maintain order amid an often unruly rabble of underlings.
US empire
Wikileaks and the decline of the American empire
How we got here
It is amusing to watch the never-ending battle of opinions, often devoid of all but the tiniest sliver of fact, if that, in the political arena in the U.S. and Canada. It is particularly entertaining when observing the scene in the United States where fantasies and off-the-wall ideas seem to be a staple in political discourse between the major parties and groups like the Tea Party.
So much of what is said and taken for gospel by one side or the other appears myopic, as if people only pay attention to those parts of history that they find favourable while ignoring the rest. One might reasonably conclude that many do not pay any attention to history at all, aside from the spin that they pick up, created to push one view or another.