To the editor:

Conservative Charles Krauthammer (in his Dec. 3 column) succinctly summed up Wikileaks with three sentences: “The problem is not that the purloined cables exposed U.S. hypocrisy or double dealing. Good God, that’s the essence of diplomacy. That’s what we do: that’s what everyone does.”

We do it, everyone does it, and that makes it OK. Well, hypocrisy and double dealing is certainly how the U.S. conducts foreign and domestic policy, and it is why we have been involved in a seemingly endless string of senseless wars since the end of World War II: Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, First Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq are highlights. Check the official record of military actions by the U.S. since 1945; read for a week and get sick at the death, destruction and waste.

Julian Assange’s Wikileaks (according to the Guardian, and even the Pentagon) has not been responsible for a single person being harmed.

People in positions of power talk about transparency, but when confronted with true transparency discuss assassination as a solution.

Hypocrisy and double-dealing are unacceptable within a family and are unacceptable in the family of nations.