The C.I.A.

Fundamentally, it just isn't good policy to have counter intelligence discussion on a national level or, and probably most importantly, internationally. It doesn't make any sense for your average Jane or Joe to have a say in what the CIA does to keep this country safe. That isn't said to condone water boarding or other methods of interrogation that was used post-9/11 but rather, what does the everyday American know about the intelligence community?


We elect our government officials to determine what policies are best to keep this country safe. National security simply isn't health care or education or energy. It isn't something that directly affects the quality of everyday life. Yes, when something as unbelievably tragic as 9/11 or any other terrorist plot is pulled off it effects all of those who lose a family member and/or are injured and it certainly effects everyone's feeling of safety. That said, it is solely the failure of the intelligence community (or success of the terrorist, however one wishes to look at it) that brings what they do into the everyday life.

Health care, (lack of) an energy policy, and a sub-par education system not only effects but determines the future of a country. They are things people should have a say in because they personally feel it when oil prices are high or when health insurance is lost or the school you're sending your kid(s) to isn't good. Public debate of these things creates awareness and puts pressure on politicians as well as the private sector to fix the problems.

It is comical to watch talking pundits on TV or in the print or internet media, people who have never worked in the intelligence community at any level, argue that either A) The Bush administration's policies made us safer or B) They made us less safe. That isn't anything any of them would know. Now occasionally the public is fortunate enough to have people who have worked in the intelligence community give their opinions but even then, there is much disagreement.

The truth is that no one will ever know, not even those who did the interrogations, whether we would've eventually gotten the information we got without resorting to such tactics. The policy argument -separate from the legal arguments being made- is simply an argument around theory. Once history has been written it cannot be re-written. Facts never change (even if the spin does).


"In all things, one must consider the end." ~John Adams