It can be hard to keep a secret.

This is especially true when you’re the most powerful nation in the world… and have people dedicated to unearthing the skeletons (and other things) in your closet.

Last week, the website Wikileaks released 250,000 classified US diplomatic documents to the world. This is in follow up to past document releases including classified military documents on Iraq and Afghanistan.

As is to be expected the US government is not amused, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling the release a

a very irresponsible, thoughtless act that put at risk the lives of innocent people all over the world

Agreeing with Clinton, Joe Klein, over at Time’s Swampland, noting that

If a single foreign national is rounded up and put in jail because of a leaked cable, this entire, anarchic exercise in “freedom” stands as a human disaster. Assange is a criminal. He’s the one who should be in jail.

Some however see positive aspects of the documents release.  Digby defends Wikileaks noting

There are times when it’s necessary that the powerful be shown that there are checks on its behavior, particularly when the systems normally designed to do that are breaking down.

And finally, some surprisingly don’t seemed so worried.  Secretary of Defense Robert Gates thinks that the leaks will cause little change to American diplomacy as

governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets.

Perhaps a more interesting takeaway is looking at the future of government secrets.  At Democracy in America, W.W. notes that we should expect more unearthing of secrets because

Just as technology has made it easier for governments and corporations to snoop ever more invasively into the private lives of individuals, it has also made it easier for individuals, working alone or together, to root through and make off with the secret files of governments and corporations.

In the future of Facebook, Wikileaks, and Twitter we wonder what is the future of secrets.  Is a new era of government openness upon us or will diplomatic relations grind to a halt?  Is Wikileaks the hero, the villain, or the inevitable?