First the good news: U.S. forces are still more popular in Afghanistan than Osama bin Laden. Fully 6 percent of respondents in a new poll expressed a “very favorable” opinion of American troops, versus just 2 percent for the fugitive Al Qaeda leader...But more than half of all Afghans — 55 percent — want U.S. forces out of their country, and the sooner the better.

The United States considers itself a shining beacon of democracy and openness, but for many Europeans Washington’s fierce reaction to the flood of secret diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks displays imperial arrogance and hypocrisy, indicating a post-9/11 obsession with secrecy that contradicts American principles.

But there’s still some interesting stuff, albeit sometimes superficial, to be found in the cables. A confidential memo from late 2009, released on Tuesday December 7, informed the State Department that Saudi youth love to party with “alcohol, prostitutes, and drugs.”

The understanding between artists and individuals – on a people-to-people level, is one of the cornerstones of free societies. During the cold war, artists and cultural exchanges helped win what some scholars call the “war of ideas” by demonstrating to the world the promise of America.

A diplomat's life is not just caviar and coattails. It's rubbery fish in Brussels, a nauseating revolving restaurant in Kazakhstan and an epic three-day Muslim wedding featuring "stupendous" quantities of booze, a golden pistol, dancing women, the scent of danger and cauldrons of cows boiled whole.

Today, they are just as apt to be out in the field meeting with village elders or local citizens and supervising development projects. Globalization has increased their work to include economic and environment regulations, drugs, disease, organized crime, and world hunger.

Ben Barber's recent Salon article, "WikiLeaks and the sham of 'public diplomacy': Our diplomats spout jingoistic nonsense about American supremacy -- instead of engaging with the rest of the world," shows his heart in the right place but his history way out in left field.

Everyone who has represented the U.S. abroad knows what it’s like to be among fellow Americans who haven’t the foggiest notion of what the State Department does or, for that matter, what on earth diplomacy is good for. Julian Assange and Wikileaks may have lifted the veil. That's not entirely to the bad.