The militarization of intelligence under Bush is likely to guarantee military solutions above other options. Uniformed officers trained to identity military threats and trends will take over economic and political intelligence for which they are untrained and often incapable, and their priorities will skew analysis. But the bias toward the military option will be one that the military in the end will dislike. It will find itself increasingly bearing the brunt of foreign policy and stretched beyond endurance. The vicious cycle leads to a downward spiral. And Hayden's story will be like a dull shadow of Powell's -- a tale of a "good soldier" who salutes, gets promoted, is used and abused, and is finally discarded.
No president has ever before ruined an agency at the heart of national security out of pique and vengeance. The manipulation of intelligence by political leadership demands ever tightened control. But political purges provide only temporary relief from the widening crisis of policy failure.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Why lefties should care about the dismantling of the CIA
Excellent story by Blumenthal at Salon (free day pass requires sign-in):
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
"The militarization of intelligence under Bush is likely to guarantee military solutions above other options."
An excellent point I hadn't considered. If you only have a hammer, then everything becomes a nail.
'zackly
50/50 Hayden doesn't get approved. Everybody is pissed now.
Especially with the whole phone records thing. It don't look good for him.
...but, what if our government had those hammers that can remove nails as well?
Post a Comment