Which really makes you question just why the US is persecuting Wikileaks as vigorously as it is... until you notice that most of the dictators who have fallen and countries where rebellions occurred were US allies, or at least had close ties to the US. Even Gaddafi was cozying up to the west until things got hairy.

The truly sad thing is, we knew all this. We've known that supporting friendly but brutal and murderous dictators has been the modus operandi for the US for years. Despite the leaks and the Arab Spring, this will continue to be the case so long as it's easier to keep a friendly dictator in power than try and work with a democratically elected government of a country where the vast majority of people don't like you.

Technically, it only works because it looks very much like an accident. China and at least one dictator have accused the US of doing this on purpose, so the US has to prosecute and act all hot and bothered about it, otherwise it starts to look like an intentional leak.

China's case is particularly interesting. It's nearly impossible to criticize them directly for anything, since they just deny it, mirror the same criticism back, and then threaten some kind of economic retaliation for it. Their playbook is clear, and effective.

But this accidental Wikileaks release allowed the US to publicly say to the world all sorts of stuff about what our government really thinks about the Chinese government, and there's nothing they can do in response. It was an accident, US is embarrassed and pissed off, but it just so happens the collateral damage to Chinese government's PR machine (and various dictators and whatnot) was worse.

Don't you think it also works the other way around? The majority of people don't like you because you support a violent dictator that's clearly bad for them.

It's a ratchet effect. Population are not particularly interested either way; government tells US government they're not going to put US interests ahead of their own people's, gets overthrown and replaced with a brutal dictatorship, population gets distinctly unfriendly, democratic government replaces dictator after revolution, opposes US interests as it plays well with population. Hey, that sounds kind of familiar... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran#Pahlavi_dynasty_.281925.E2...