Some Not-So-Shocking Diplomatic Revelations

If wikileaks had hoped to shock and embarrass with its latest round of whistle blowing, it fell far short of the mark with these "shocking" details of diplomats speaking out of school. From the Ceeb:

According to Der Spiegel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is compared to Hitler in U.S. diplomatic files.

Other documents show that Israel expressed concerns about Iran's expanding nuclear program, while King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia urged the U.S. to help the kingdom erode Iran's influence in Iraq, the New York Times said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was nicknamed "the emperor with no clothes" and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is described as "driven by paranoia."

Diplomats talked of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as liking "wild parties" and described Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as an "alpha dog."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is praised as "Teflon."

Christopher Dell, who spent three years as ambassador to Zimbabwe, calls Robert Mugabe, the African country's president, "a brilliant tactician" but mocked "his deep ignorance on economic issues."

Okay, that last one, about Mugabe's supposed "brilliance," is kind of shocking. Otherwise, if this is as insightful and trenchant as it gets in Diplomacyland, all I can say is it's a pretty dull place.

Update: Another non-shocker--Turkey's Islamist p.m. hates the Joooo state.