Posted by
Patrick Henry on Monday, March 14, 2011 2:31:09 PM
We didn't know the rebellion in Egypt was coming, much less that it would spread
throughout the troubled Middle East. We didn't know about Shahzad, Hasan and
Awlaki, the terrorists among us who caused or nearly caused enormous loss of life.
We don't really know just how close Iran is to producing a nuclear weapon. We have
only a rough idea what the Chinese, the North Koreans and the Russians are up to.
We have no advance knowledge of Mexican drug cartel activity, so all we can do is
continue weak, reactionary responses. We don't have a clue as to how, when and
where terror will strike our homeland next.
What has happened to American intelligence since it was the key ingredient in
winning the Cold War? Congressional liberals have consistently pressed for the
substitution of artificial intelligence, surveillance and data gathering over a multi-
plication and deployment of human resources. Coveting the resources devoured by
such personnel to spend on their social programs, they have argued that satellites,
computers and other means of electronic surveillance can gather the needed infor-
mation more cheaply, quickly and just as thoroughly as can an army of human
assets. On the way to devolution of the CIA and other clandestine intelligence
gatherers, liberal Democrats have maintained a drumbeat of criticism questioning
the constitutionality and effectiveness of agency personnel and impugning the
legality and morality of their tactics. These facts are undeniable. So is the result.
Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and Anwar Awlaki would not have come as surprises
to Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon or even John F. Kennedy. As a result, they would
have had policies, personnel and strategic alliances in place in advance to guide such
events to U.S. advantage, and to assure Americans that we were ahead of the game,
not mere reactionaries to events we neither understand or can control. The sad truth
is that Americans no longer really know what's going on in the world, and what we
don't know can hurt us.
Good intelligence begins with clear and coherent policy. What do we need to know?
How can we pair human and technological assets to be sure we know it before we fall
victim to its consequences? What is our vision for hot spots like North Korea, Iran, and
the rest of the Middle East? Who shares that vision, and what can they contribute to its
realization? When populations rebel against dictatorships who are we going to support,
and how? These are questions that seem largely unanswered within the confused and
contentious administration of Barack Obama, and the result is a mishmash of weak,
belated and often contradictory policies and actions that do little to clarify U.S. interests,
let alone advance them.
The solution to every problem requires commitment of resources, and we cannot go
on pretending that we can glean adequate intelligence without the expenditure of huge
sums on both technology and human assets in the field. As commendable as education
pilot prohrams may be, they will be of little benefit amid the rubble of a surprise nuclear
attack, a posioned water supply or a biological agent strike that leaves thousands dead.
Housing subsidies are fine, but if the alternative is loss of whole cities or a part of our
country being rendered uninhabitable, then they pale in priority. The devolution
and de-valuation of the intelligence community that began under Jimmy Carter and
continues under Barack Obama simply must be reversed, or we will sink deeper and
deeper into the reactionary morass leading eventually to unrecoverable disaster.
To make this case, we must focus on what we do know. We know that there are
multiple entities on the world stage who wish to do us harm, and that they are seeking
the means and recruiting the people to realize their sinister ambitions. We know where
our greatest vulnerabilities are, who are real allies are and what our current prevention
and response capacities are. These are more or less superficial realities that can be
gleaned from media sources. Our intelligence community must be authorized and funded
to peel back layer after layer from each of these "onions" until we reach the "core" where
we can pinpoint and deal pre-emptively with persons and threats, establish counter
measures against the worst they can throw at us and effectively deny them a safe haven
from within which to operate. That is what an effective intelligence community does.
We must prosecute as treasonous journalists who publish classified data and legislators
who leak it to promote their own self-interest. Public officials who impugn the methods
and motives of field operatives, whether military or intelligence, should be forced to
present proof of their contention at the same time they go public with it, or face disgrace
and expulsion from office. Most of all we must have an administration with foresight, that
establishes clear policies in advance of world events, and consistently follows those
policies in calculating responses. Passing a purely partisan mandatory healthcare
initiative while the world is on fire hardly qualifies. America needs a leader!