This again?
On the one hand, a man who is accused of sexual misconduct ought to face the music and let his guilt or innocence be decided by a jury as appropriate.
On the other hand, the fact is that the United States is almost certainly out to prosecute him - and let's face it, said prosecution will most likely be persecution. (I'm an American, I can say that.) I've had blazing rows with my aunt and uncle (whom I live with) when they adamantly stood by the accusation that Julian Assange was a self-evident traitor and should be shot at such. It took me at least ten minutes of repeatedly explaining to them that Julian Assange was an Australian citizen and as such, couldn't possibly be held liable for treason against the United States, as he had no obligation TO the United States to betray! They still think he should be tried as a spy. There are pundits in this country who have, on national television no less, called for his murder: not execution, murder.
The way I see it, he is right to be attempting to duck being returned to face the music on the sex charges, because the moment he steps foot on Swedish soil, he's likely going to be picked up be a couple of State Department stooges, flown back to the United States, tried before a jury hostile to him and promptly sentenced to death, or at least life imprisonment. I am absolutely certain in my conviction that, if Julian Assange reaches the United States, he's a dead man. He'll either be executed, or sentenced to life in prison, which very likely means death anyway.
If there was any real intent in seeing him fairly tried for the sexual allegations and convicted or acquitted as determined by the proper course of Swedish law, there would be (very public) promises (in writing, notarized, filed with lawyers,) that he would not be extradited to the United States. The fact that such documents have not been drafted and filed speaks volumes, in my opinion.
If he can't feel assured of a fair trial for the charges he is stated to be facing without the potential of being grabbed by some unpleasant men in black suits and hauled promptly to a land where the average citizen on the street would gladly see him dead, what else is he to do? Show up anyway and hope that doesn't happen?
That's not to say that I support Mr. Assange. His actions regarding WikiLeaks - to wit, treating it like a dictator, getting his claws into it and refusing to let go - have been disastrous. The idea was sound, even noble, but he couldn't find it in him to man up and let go of his creation when it became self-evident that he was sinking and dragging it down with him. Now he's hiding in an Embassy, essentially under siege, spouting off rank manure.
It's shameful, really. What he created has crumbled because he gripped it too tightly, and in the end he's dragged it down with him. That he did this knowingly, after being called upon by both his inner circle and his political backers to set aside, to cut himself loose from WikiLeaks and let it continue on while he faced the music, is disgraceful. As a result, WikiLeaks has become nothing but a caricature of what it once was.
So, in the end, it doesn't really matter. Julian Assange has already sabotaged his life's work. Executed, he'll be no martyr at all, acquitted in Sweden and allowed to go home, he'll be nothing more than the tin-pot tyrant clinging to the husk of the creation he made, then murdered. WikiLeaks will never be what it could have been; was, for a brief, shining, glorious moment in time. If he should reach Equador somehow (supposing they put him in a big crate marked diplomatic pouch and march him right out and onto a plane,) he'll wind up a puppet of the Equadorian government.
He can't win anymore. He lost, a long time ago. The only question now is... Why do we even care?