As much as it pains me to say it, our government is now engaged in extremely serious diplomatic damage control due to the actions of an emotionally unstable Army private first class and an America-hating self-aggrandizing assclown.  But it says more about our government than it does that dynamic duo.

In the worst possible way, this is validation for anyone recently concerned with the weak foreign policy of the Obama administration.  It would have been better to be wrong, but as it turns out, apology tours and Muslim pep rally speeches from the president do not a strong America make.

The only benefit of this national security disaster is a look behind the scenes at what is really going on in our world.  Unfortunately it is not one that builds confidence in American leadership. 

I picked a couple of items out of the day’s embarassing info dump that especially irked me:

Obama’s “tear down this wall” moment — as it turns out, the Iranian elections in June 2009 were rigged.  Huh.

[Name removed] said that based on calculations from Mousavi’s campaign observers who were present at polling stations around the country and who witnessed the vote counts, Mousavi received approximately 26 million (or 61%) of the 42 million votes cast in Friday’s election, followed by Mehdi Karroubi (10-12 million). According to his sources, Ahmadinejad received “a maximum of 4-5 million votes,” with the remainder going to Mohsen Rezai. He said that more than anything else, the huge turnout of voters on Friday was a reflection of the Iranian electorate’s overwhelming “anti-Ahmadinejad” sentiments.

Obama’s response?  He was excited about the “robust debate taking place in Iran”.  A rigged election, suppression of freedom of speech, and killing your citizens in the streets is not my idea of “robust debate”.

We are excited to see what appears to be a robust debate taking place in Iran. And obviously, after the speech that I made in Cairo, we tried to send a clear message that we think there is the possibility of change. And ultimately, the election is for the Iranians to decide, but just as has been true in Lebanon, what can be true in Iran as well is that you’re seeing people looking at new possibilities. And whoever ends up winning the election in Iran, the fact that there’s been a robust debate hopefully will help advance our ability to engage them in new ways.

He was also “deeply troubled“, although when it came to simply standing up for freedom in the world,

It is not productive, given the history of US-Iranian relations to be seen as meddling — the US president, meddling in Iranian elections.

Mr. Gorbachev…please continue doing whatever you want in East Germany.  I would hate to intrude.  Suppressive Communist government is your choice, and I can respect that.

A second item that caught my eye was the underhanded attempt at horse trading political favors to ship prisoners out of Guantanamo Bay prison.  Obama ran on the issue of closing Gitmo, but faced with the same realities that George Bush was when he set up the prison, the issue suddenly seemed untenable.  Obama’s solution:  give them a trial?  No.  Release them?  No.  Instead, tell Belgium that if they accepted Gitmo prisoners it would be a “a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe”.  Come on, Belgium, all the cool kids are doing it.

Bargaining to empty the Guantánamo Bay prison: When American diplomats pressed other countries to resettle detainees, they became reluctant players in a State Department version of “Let’s Make a Deal.” Slovenia was told to take a prisoner if it wanted to meet with President Obama, while the island nation of Kiribati was offered incentives worth millions of dollars to take in Chinese Muslim detainees, cables from diplomats recounted. The Americans, meanwhile, suggested that accepting more prisoners would be “a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe.”

Missouri senator Claire McCaskill’s respone to the Wikileaks leak?

The people who are leaking these documents need to do a gut check about their patriotism.

A patriotic gut check?  Seriously?  They aren’t Americans, senator.  Consider reading a newspaper, even the New York Times would have cleared that up for you.  Hopefully Missouri will do a “competency gut check” and vote the senator out of office at the earliest opportunity.

In related news, Bill Maher has joined the Norwegian national ballet.

SUPER-SECRET HIDING PLACE – Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, whose website has published large volumes of classified video and documents leaked from the United States military, refuses to reveal the source of his pathological insecurity and need to feel important.

Assange, whose propagandic work has revealed the names and locations of Afghan informants and generally endangered the lives of Americans and our allies, was quoted as saying something or other about “truth” and “light of day” or some stupid bullshit.