Sir, ok, I got some shut-eye, I thought about it and I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry.
Obviously I want Military/ Intelligence to be able to do their jobs, I only wish they would.
The big question is - does the power grab address the problem.
In some ways I feel like we’re being asked to take the rap here, and I'm concerned that this diverts attention away from the real issues. I’m not saying that WTC could have been prevented, probably not, but the attack on the Pentagon should never have happened, never ever. This entire chain of events can only be seen as a catastrophic system wide failure. Much more serious than any Intelligence bungle, this was a Political one as well, one that cuts across Party lines and across time. No-one has the right to do what was done to us, I am not blaming the victim. I am trying to learn from our mistakes.
Could these new laws have prevented this, I doubt it. God forbid, what if/when, even with the adoption of these measures, we suffer another disaster - what will they want from us then. I grew up in an oppressive regime, I am not naive, I am not soft, I am not trying to shirk from my responsibilities, I understand censorship, I understand racial profiling, I have stated my case for the Crackdown in a past post.
What is this New War I keep hearing about on TV. It is delusional, and denial writ large. This threat was known, but ignored for years and many Americans had already paid the price before 9.11. The evidence is clear. It is known that the CIA was severely lacking in operatives in this part of the world, terrorist use of encrypted internet communications was not a significant factor and our Politicians were too busy basking in glory over the demise of the Evil Empire. The tragedy of Pearl Harbour, was that we knew about the impending attack, but refused to believe it. Why are the similarities, if not the exactitude, to what happened on 9.11 so eerie, so familiar. Some call it complacency, I call it being asleep at the wheel. From what I’ve read, besides the lack of inter-agency cooperation, the problem was too much data, mountains of it in fact, but alas not enough information. Excessive reliance on technology was a grave miscalculation.
This is not about Budgets or Legislation, but about disorganization and improper prioritization. Asymmetric warfare and we did not see it coming. We want to put in Space Shields, they got us with boxcutters. Star Wars is sexy, sleeping with Saddam or buggering bin Laden and his boys should be, but it isn’t. It’s easy to say this with hindsight, but we are supposed to have people whose job it is to figure out this kind of thing.
CIA Director Tenet, in explaining the mistaken bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade said it best:
A more fundamental problem is not the absolute level of resources, but the application of resources at our disposal cia.gov. Read this document, it is incompetence defined.
SR, as displayed in that article you referenced, these issues get couched in grand, emotional, terms that obscure the real problem. Rhetoric such as this is not aimed at the Administration’s supporters, but at those who are opposed to their plans. Unfortunately it only serves to polarize such people, the very thing they’re trying to prevent. Why don’t they just keep it at “someone is trying to kill you, we think this is what we need to do to save your sorry butt.” and then let people agree or disagree without being demonized. They tell us not be simplistic, but present it themselves in these terms. Telling people that they should shut up to protect their freedom is an insult, claiming that a dissenting opinion is unpatriotic is ridiculous. The most important thing is that we stand united as a nation, it does not mean that there is only one right way to think. If you are telling someone that their opinion makes them unpatriotic how do you ever expect to get their support, instead the wedge is driven deeper.
I am no expert, but I imagine that there are some things that could be changed to expedite warrants, authorize wiretaps and the like, without a sweeping erosion of our rights. In the light of the available evidence, it seems a little extreme to me. I am not thrilled about it, but I think that racial profiling is required, and that to some extent it already happens in this country, albeit informally, on a daily basis. When I watched bin Laden on TV I saw some stuff that made me very uncomfortable. I thought I was just being paranoid and my friends thought I was crazy, until this issue came up in public. Censorship is dangerous stuff for all of us. I definitely don’t want any sensitive information getting out and at times I wonder if the Media even understands what the hell they are doing. Our leaders, flawed as they may be, need to guide them.
In the CIA, Washington think-tanks and the hallways of the Pentagon plenty was known known about the dangers we faced. Despite coining the term “Rogue States” what we truly failed to understand was just how utterly these rogues had discarded the rule book. Whoever came up with the phrase “a failure of the imagination” got it right. A few years ago (‘99 I think) two Chinese Colonels identified not only a new kind of war, a war without limits, but they pointed to bin Laden as arch enemy #1 and to excessive use of electronic surveillance as the biggest US mistake. My understanding is that their book was widely read in Washington. It is new paradigm stuff. Tragically no one seemed to get the message. The Pentagon’s charter was not directly concerned with responding to attacks on US soil, and as for the lack of communication between the different agencies Rumsfeld himself at his confirmation hearings in Jan this year commented that we did not have an Intelligence Community, but rather a set of separate organizations.
We may be fighting oletime religion but, this is not a time for trotting out the same old solutions and diverting attention away from where the real problems lie. imho There will be a massive review of everything military/intelligence/ security related, although how much actually gets done besides stripping us of our Liberty remains to be seen. In any reorganization, believe me all those guys in their fancy positions with their fancy titles will not give up their own power without a fight. There is a crisis of responsibility here, not only for the Islamic Faith, but for us as well. The tone of that article smacks of panic, I wonder why? Where does the buck stop. Each and every one of us, and our Leaders, owe it to the lost people to find out. |
