Mr Weisman is right on target. We are setting up for another Katrina Relief Op in the intel and tactical response capabilities. Forget strategic with this kind of insight. Video game manufacturers do more insightful work when preparing the background for a game. Nice touch on the "gut" feeling. I think they are important, just as important as a leader in an embattled Whitehouse, taking more daily hits and attacks than a convoy in the Greenzone last year to have the brains, composure, and all where with all to not pontificate in front of a bunch newspaper editors that attack every move in the GWOT. One way to help this would have been to hire say a former police chief, commissioner, fire chief, emergency services director, or a military member with experience in dealing with all kinds of crap raining down each day, decisions, policitical factors, and able to put the gut feelings into motion with facts, concepts, and plans.
We need a 21st Century OSS-an organization that can turn on a dime, go proactive, think outside the box. Instead, we have an IC with all the maneuverability of a fully-loaded supertanker. It would be funny, if the bad guys weren't laughing so hard right now in North Waziristan.
It's a sad thing, but he's right... and it won't change until we change the political mindset and leadership, in D.C.
While one former President is famous for stating "The Only Thing We Have To Fear is Fear Itself", our current President seems to use the Fear Factor as a key element of his Bully Pulpit! My "Gut Feeling" is that the only thing we should really fear is the continuing Lunacy in Washington. The time, money, and effort spent on producing this most recent National Intelligence Estimate could have been better spent on how to counter the growing influence of Islamic Radicals. Perhaps Mr. Weisman should be recruited to fill one of the many Senior Personnel Vacancies in the Department of Homeland Unsecurity!
You are so correct about the state of intelligence. I think the root of the problem is congress who insists on micromanaging the intelligence community and the military based on politics, polls and ignorance. I think the place to start the fix is in congress. Less lawyers and more veterans.
Congress is only part of the problem. Over the years, the Intelligence Community has time and again, committed the same sin...They shall eat their young, digest them and pass a new generation! If sometime in the past, they could have gotten around the one-ups-man-ship, worked together properly, and told people like Senator Church, where to go, perhaps we would be in better shape today. If we could re-invent the wheel, resurrect the tennants of years past, dis-mantle the system, disguard the "contractors", allow the intelligence folks to do their assigned tasks, take what they report (without "putting a spin on it"), perhaps we would be on track again. The convoluted evolution and expansion of what used to be a tight knit intelligence community, coupled with politicians who provide their own interpretations, as a means to an end,has , and will continue to lead the American public down the garden path.
We were all gunho right after 9/11 and wanted to "hunt them out and smoke em out of their holes". This whole thing is becoming more politicized by the minute. Congress has its head up it A$$ and its approval rating is at an all time low. Lets hope nothing big happends again like 9/11 to wake us up and smell the coffee.
John Weisman seems to hit the nail on the head everytime. We have politized the intelligence organizations for the last few years. Our intelligence organizations refuse to get out of the box, unless you have a PhD they think people are incapable of providing accurate intelligence information. Being the daughter of an ex OSS agent I seem to have inherited that gut feeling, more in line of ESP. And over and over my ESP is right on target as has been proven by agents in the DCIS, but would our intelligence organization use a person like me for the positive, no they rather jobstalk and harass me with ingnorant illegal aliens who will do anything for a buck, due to, as what was passed on to me: Having pissed off the White House by not being in agreement with their assessment and political spins. Our intelligence agencies have become a political approval machine and nothing more. And let me tell you, if you are on Karl Roves hit list you lucky you are still alive. I totally agree with Mr. Weismans recommendation to erase and start over, if we can last till 2008. This is coming from a person who has been a Republican for 30 years, but lately wondering what has gone wrong in the last 7.
