Spy Gamesmanship

We are. In trouble. No doubt about it. The same intelligence apparatus that concluded Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the same cabal that warned Iran was feverishly developing nuclear weapons, now says Iran stopped that program in 2003.

There is only one conclusion to draw: Iran is probably just days away from testing its own fully developed nuke.

By now, any sensible person would have concluded that the US clandestine services should be known as "The Gang that Couldn't Spy Straight."

Oh sure, we are told that this time the analysts learned from their mistakes that led to the "Slam Dunk" about Iraq's WMDs. That turned out to be "Slam Bunk", but we didn't find that out until we had gone to a war that has cost thousands of lives. Why should we have faith this time?

In fact, one can only wonder what kind of sinister game the administration is playing by releasing these results. What kind of sidestep are the President, Vice President and the other neocons taking on their march to the Persian battlegrounds?

This all begs another question: What is it about war that these guys love so much? Don't suggest that the only way diplomacy can work if it's backed by the threat of military action. Thanks to the Iraq miscalculation, the armed forces are weakened to the point that the United States, contrary to the Teddy Roosevelt tradition, can now only "Speak Loudly and Carry a Small Stick". It's hard to saber rattle when all you're holding is a small butter knife.

Nevertheless, American representatives are still fanning out to try and get other nations to follow their lead in taking action against Iran. What lead? The United States has been frittering that way for years. Now we are struggling to not be overrun. Besides, how can the other players on the world stage know what's real and what's not from this administration. It's the same problem we have here at home.

When we discuss sensitive national security we are told there is much we can't see. One can only hope that's the case, because based on what we do know, it sure looks like we lurch from one disaster to another.

Follow Bob Franken on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frankenb

Comments

[WASanford]

We’re in big trouble alright! But it’s not because the CIA isn’t doing its job. The fourth estate is what’s failing America. Our president has lied to us and has been allowed to get away with it time after time after time. We can thank the so called press for that! If this president says the sky is blue, we’d all better look out windows. The last seven years have been an American mortification. And it’s all in the service of the robbing the wealth from our progeny.
It’s past time for us to wake up and shake this pipsqueak and his thieving friends off of our backs. So stop pointing your fingers at everyone else AND DO YOUR JOB!!

[BufoAmericanus]

Once you let someone destroy something, like a right, you probably won't see it again. It's gone.

Chenney and Bush, particularly Dick, destroyed out intelligence (fittingly­)... How is rebuilding it going to help them? They can just steal some more tax money for their cronies, build a new wing on to Blackwater, and put a sign on the clubhouse door: No Democrats Allowed.

They have instituted a coup against the Nation, and they mean to supplant it with the Corporation. Remember, they think Liberalism is dead. They have to burry it before it wakes up.

America is the cradle of liberalism, and now the cradle of illiberalism.

[jhNY]

The great intelligence failure that led us to war in Iraq is a misdirection from the obvious:
the intelligence gathered was of far better quality than what the Bush cabal made of it. Constant pressure on the CIA by Cheney and his minions and the confection of a new office for the interpretation of intelligence data in the defense department produced the desired outcome for a war-wanting gang who would believe nothing they read unless they wrote it themselves.

The greatest intelligence failure of the pre-Iraq build-up rests squarely on the shoulders of one man: George Tenet, a nearly bright guy who got outsmarted by con men who pretended to take him into the inner circle of power but really just used him as a bag-holder when the first pack of lies came home to roost.

As long as we blame the run-up to war on intelligence failure, we don't have to confront the real problem: we were led into an elective war by lying, thieving ideologues in great and immediate need of impeachment. To do any less is worse than any failure of intelligence. It is a failure to defend and protect our precious democracy.