Politics

WikiLeaks as Haiku vs. Rumsfeld as Free Verse

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Anyone in the market for a solid wrap-up of the stuff that mattered from WikiLeaks this year, go here. But for those who prefer their leakage in a more elegant form, Haikuleaks finds 5-7-5 beauty in the diplomatic mundane:

Whether such tactics
   will have a chilling effect
remains to be seen.

09MEXICO193.txt

The vessels are met
   either on shore or a short
distance off the coast.

09STATE72112.txt

While we're at it, let us not forget a noble precursor to this political poesy: The poetry of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (pictured at right, with a geisha who could probably write better haiku than what U.S. diplomats managed to come up with).

Clarity
I think what you'll find,
I think what you'll find is,
Whatever it is we do substantively,
There will be near-perfect clarity
As to what it is.

And it will be known,
And it will be known to the Congress,
And it will be known to you,
Probably before we decide it,
But it will be known.

—Feb. 28, 2003, Department of Defense briefing