My year with the First Infantry Division was 66-67 as a 97B CI Agent. I never hit a wall of disillusionment. I do wonder what happened to you in language school. Later on, with CIA, in Vietnam in a Province, we had just ended military ops support and I was free most of the time to do as I pleased. I wanted honest reporting and no BS. They liked my reports in Nha Trang. I liked my working conditions. I got my best information from the Korean troops. I reported when the USA Air Force pulled out and left all their mines in the ground. Local VC paid for every land mine the locals could deactivate.
Interesting stuff Jeff. Sometimes I get the impression that those around the President were chosen, less for their expertise, than a long-time association with Biden. That leads to the inevitable, i.e. an unwillingness to tell the President what he needs to hear, not what they think he wants to hear.
Thanks, Mr. Smith. I don’t think it’s just Biden. Every president seems to have a coterie of longtime friends who give him things they all like to hear.
Not claiming any clairvoyance, but it seemed likely that something awful was coming back in 2009 when Bibi was re-elected. Even then expansion of settlements was unofficial government policy.
Excellent piece. Not only did our intelligence community fail to see what was happening but the administration still doesn't seem to grasp the fact that our blind bipartisan support for Israel despite what is happening today in Gaza. is not in our national interest. Rightly or wrongly this support is destroying our moral status in most of the world. Our support of Israel seems burned into our national psychic seemingly giving them a pass to do whatever they want. I can't see this changing no matter what the IC knows and what they tell the WH. This won't end well.
What else is in the intel community's tool kit, and from world history, to resolve this type of intractable situation, I'm curious.
Can Israel do long range things to win over those terrorist enemies and the countries, like Iran, who wish Israel to be gone? (Israel is not going away, it's not giving up on being a country, so for any group in the area to think Israel is going to cease to exist as a country, they have to long range have their minds changed.)
Long range strategies, long range actions to change this situation, need to be engaged in.
What else is in the tool kit which has been used in the past to resolve these types of long range intractable situations?
Wow! An excellent read with insights you only get on SpyTalk.
My year with the First Infantry Division was 66-67 as a 97B CI Agent. I never hit a wall of disillusionment. I do wonder what happened to you in language school. Later on, with CIA, in Vietnam in a Province, we had just ended military ops support and I was free most of the time to do as I pleased. I wanted honest reporting and no BS. They liked my reports in Nha Trang. I liked my working conditions. I got my best information from the Korean troops. I reported when the USA Air Force pulled out and left all their mines in the ground. Local VC paid for every land mine the locals could deactivate.
Interesting stuff Jeff. Sometimes I get the impression that those around the President were chosen, less for their expertise, than a long-time association with Biden. That leads to the inevitable, i.e. an unwillingness to tell the President what he needs to hear, not what they think he wants to hear.
Thanks, Mr. Smith. I don’t think it’s just Biden. Every president seems to have a coterie of longtime friends who give him things they all like to hear.
Thanks for the amazing look back.
Not claiming any clairvoyance, but it seemed likely that something awful was coming back in 2009 when Bibi was re-elected. Even then expansion of settlements was unofficial government policy.
Excellent piece. Not only did our intelligence community fail to see what was happening but the administration still doesn't seem to grasp the fact that our blind bipartisan support for Israel despite what is happening today in Gaza. is not in our national interest. Rightly or wrongly this support is destroying our moral status in most of the world. Our support of Israel seems burned into our national psychic seemingly giving them a pass to do whatever they want. I can't see this changing no matter what the IC knows and what they tell the WH. This won't end well.
What else is in the intel community's tool kit, and from world history, to resolve this type of intractable situation, I'm curious.
Can Israel do long range things to win over those terrorist enemies and the countries, like Iran, who wish Israel to be gone? (Israel is not going away, it's not giving up on being a country, so for any group in the area to think Israel is going to cease to exist as a country, they have to long range have their minds changed.)
Long range strategies, long range actions to change this situation, need to be engaged in.
What else is in the tool kit which has been used in the past to resolve these types of long range intractable situations?