>This classy response by Gates is but a brief glimpse of honesty from an otherwise hysterical, paranoid, and secretive government. I think you're making a real

>This classy response by Gates is but a brief glimpse of honesty from an otherwise hysterical, paranoid, and secretive government. I think you're making a really careless characterization here, and it's taking me some time to put a finger on why. Maybe it's that the government has _not_ acted hysterical, paranoid, or secretive in any way throughout this hubbub. It was pretty much like "Yeah, we know what's coming, we're bracing ourselves," with an additional stated position of "It is wrong to release state secrets." I think you're conflating the media coverage, which _is_ hysterical and paranoid, with the actual government's reaction. I think in addition, you're conflating what the loudmouths of the political process call for action with the actual government's reaction. The loudmouths are there for us to consider extreme courses of action. The reason this took me long to force out was that this brief glimpse of honesty really is in contrast with the reactions of the irked and probably very harassed officials who have been quoted, so I didn't disagree with some part of the statement. However, I expect this is because the government is realizing how it came off pretty well--I would not be surprised to find US policy advanced in some ways, especially Iran. The US was a victim in public world opinion. So maybe now the government is able to communicate with the media its composure.