*** Seriously long, political, and OT ***
I'm certainly no expert on this topic, although I have read a few Tom Clancy novels <g>, and my brother-in-law who does have military intelligence experience is race car driving today so I cannot ask him. So, take this for what it is worth, which is exactly what you are paying for it.
You ask why haven't we had better intelligence on these guys? Why aren't we better able to know who they are and when they are planning to do something bad to us so we can take appropriate preemptive action? (For the sake of discussion, we will allow the assumption inherent in this question that our intelligence is generally insufficient, but I do not think we can know that. There have undoubtably been many incidents that you and I have never heard of, but how many there are and the seriousness of the situation is obviously way beyond my security classification.)
Here are several reasons in no particular order.
First, there are a lot of bad guys all over. This has always been true. Here, too. We did not know about the recent embassy bombings just as we did not know about the plot to bomb the Murrow building in Oklahoma City, either, before the explosion. No matter what our investment in internal intelligence, in a free society there is no way we can know everything about everybody with a gripe. And, as Ronald Reagan unfortunately found out, there is no way to be safe from a determined assassin in love with Jody Foster who does not care whether he gets caught or not. Internationally, the problem is exponentially larger, especially when we are dealing with rogue elements in unfriendly countries. Also, there are particular problems in protecting our embassies, because they were designed in different times for convenient access rather than absolute security.
Second, historically we have not made the necessary investments in intelligence networks across the Middle East. Our resources have always been finite, and for most of the last fifty years our military and intelligence services were obsessed with the Soviet Union. Most would still argue that was the correct orientation, and there is considerable justification for that argument. Therefore, if the problem did not directly impact on the various conflicts with the Soviets, it received a lower priority and fewer resources. This is an attitude that has been difficult for many to shake loose of, even though the cold war is effectively over. (This is not to say there are no more serious problems with Russia, but they are of a different magnitude than before.) As a practical matter, we only paid direct attention to the Middle East in connection with Israel's survival and maintaining access to oil, not necessarily in that order. Of necessity, this is changing for the better, but all large organizations (the CIA, NSA, etc.) change slowly. Espionage is dangerous and difficult under the best of circumstances, but if you have not made the investment you can not reap the rewards.
Third, unlike in Europe, where most of our great-grandparents came from, relatively few Americans come from the Arab world. Before World War II, Americans had practically no contact with the Middle East. (It was a British sphere of influence, and I would argue that many of today's problems should be laid at their feet.) American cultural, political, and religious outlooks are quite different from the Arab's. This makes it more difficult to understand what is important to them and what is not. (This is every bit as much of an issue in Asia, by the way.)
This, too, is slowly changing for the better, excluding Iran and Iraq for obvious reasons. More Americans are living and working in the area than ever before. For instance, my Uncle Bill was ARAMCO's top international lawyer for thirty years, and his five children all grew up in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Two of his kids, my cousins, returned to work for ARAMCO after college and still live there. Another cousin, raised in Chicago, lived in Morocco in the seventies, converted to Islam, speaks fluent Arabic, wears the veil (there, not here), and has lived in Kuwait City, the "American Wife" of a Kuwaiti prince, since shortly after Desert Storm. Every time we talk, they all express how difficult it is to be an American in the Arab society, and how uncomfortable it can be outside their usual American expatriate social circles.
There's a lot more that could be said on this, but of course it has nothing to do with Qualcomm. My apologies for rambling on so long. |
