July 26, 2004
KISSINGER'S GET:
How to Lose the War on Terror: A CIA bin Laden expert’s lament: One of the striking things about the Iraq War is the extent to which American foreign-affairs professionals—intelligence analysts, diplomats, and high-ranking military officers—recognize it is a tragically misguided venture. (The American Conservative, 8/02/04)
Those in the crowd who are old enough: imagine it's 1980 and someone tells you that you'll live long enough to see the day when Pat Buchanan boasts of being on the side of the "foreign-affairs professionals," or, as he called them then: "The striped-pants cookie-pushers."
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 26, 2004 4:09 PMFrom the article:
"...Al-Qaeda is now ... into its second generation of leadership."
The first generation of leadership is dead. So will the second be, pretty soon--unless they switch their targeting from US/UK to France.
Posted by: ray at July 26, 2004 9:35 PMNo wonder, we couldn't catch Al Queda; Mr. Anonymous; whose name was revealed by Mr.
Vest; yet has not been subject to the IOIA
act; (I'm not going to name him, not gonna
take a chance) seems to agree with Bin Laden's
jihadism
"What I am saying is that if you have an opportunity to hit the enemy, you don’t spend a lot of time discussing if the evidence will make it in the Southern District of New York. Intelligence is not evidentiary material. It is information, and when you get to the level where you think you are not going to get any better, you act. That is something we failed utterly on in the ’90s."
Seems to me he's acknowledging GWB's decision to invade Iraq and contrasting Clinton's/Berger's indecision.
Saw him interviewed by Charlie Rose and he criticized the 90's (read Clinton) roundly and wouldn't do so about GWB. Rose was obviously irritated that he couldn't get him to toe the Moor[e]ish line on Bush.
Anon has similar frustrations as Clark, no one would listen to him. I think the deaf ear in the nineties belonged to Berger, Clinton's NSA/Political adviser who hadn't a clue about security. Unfortunately, Clark turned to politics to get his day in court and the recognition he felt he deserved. What a legacy he's left for himself.
An opposing opinion to Anon on decisions to ignore civilian collateral damage:
"[...]Were the United States and its allies to carpet-bomb Fallujah in order to destroy Sunni armed resistance, the horrifying result would appall the population of the West and advance the Islamist cause. Crushing the resistance with limited civilian damage would humiliate the Islamists and weaken them. The nicety of this problem no doubt explains why the American command has taken its good time to decide upon a course of action.
On the other hand, surgical strikes against resistance leaders, such as Israel's targeted killings of Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi, enervate rather than energize the Islamist side. When the long arm of Israeli vengeance can reach into the heart of the enemy camp, the Islamists are humiliated and thus weakened. Intelligence is the decisive variable in the equation, and the poor state of America's spy agencies, acknowledged by the CIA's George Tenet, has been the Achilles Heel of the coalition..."
Spengler, Asia Times:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FD27Ak01.html