Spies

After the release of the CIA report yesterday I was tempted to write a long missive reflecting just how pissed off I was about it.  But as I gain in age I also like to think I'm able to temper my thoughts a bit.  That is especially true if I give it a bit of time.  So now that a day has passed, I'll try to provide some thoughts without getting too worked up.  But it'll be tough.

First, remember this...

And this...

On September 11, 2001 we were attacked.  Over 3000 innocent people lost their lives.  Families were shattered.  The country was reeling.  For those of you with amnesia, the number one thing that the government had to think about was preventing another attack.  It was obviously a very chaotic time.  After the dust settled, after the horrific mess was cleaned up, after the bodies (that could be found) were buried, the military and the CIA went to work.  Remember that they had not encountered anything remotely similar in the past.  If you've been watching the news and if you watched the CIA Director today, you know that they did some tough things.  But I say again, it was a time of national emergency.  And all the things they did were given approval by both the National Command Authority and the Justice Department.  The Director said today that it was unknowable if the information gained by the enhanced interrogation techniques would have been gained in other ways.  I think that's BS.  For some of these lunatics, they have to be broken.  And to break them EITs were needed. 

Let me digress a minute on EITs.  Some are calling them torture.  Once again, BS.  I've been waterboarded in survival school.  Some say that's not the same thing.  Well, I'd venture that those morons have never been there.  Trust me that after several days of enduring all the things that are thrown at you in SERE School, your mind starts to play tricks on you.  You start to question reality.  And waterboarding isn't the worst of it.  But it's not torture.  These techniques are designed to break people.  And everyone breaks.  Everyone.  And when you're trying to make it stop, you're not about to tell lies.  I'm supremely confident that any info obtained from these terrorist assholes was usable and real.  

So tough things were done.  They were done to prevent another attack and find those responsible for 9/11.  They were done with the full agreement and knowledge of National Command Authorities and key Congressional leaders and the authorization of the Justice Department.  And they worked.  No more attacks.  Bin Ladin is dead.  If we would have stayed the course in Iraq and Afghanistan, we'd be seeing very different outcomes than we see today.  But we got out.  Some would say cut and run.  Whatever, the CINC said leave so we did.  We are now reaping what we sowed.

So now Senator Feinstein is going to be in the minority in a few weeks so she decides to release a report on the CIA that is damning.  Now it's only damning if you believe EITs are torture, but there are so many ignorant people in our media, that they can't possibly tell a fair story.  I think many believe what they see in James Bond movies.  So the average person believes this BS.  She did this for purely and solely partisan political purposes.  I have to say I'm really appalled and ashamed that she is my Senator.  What a spineless weasel.  Sorry, there I go again.

I really thought the lowest that our government could go was Benghazi.  I thought the deliberate abandonment of an Ambassador and our guys in that despicable situation was the ultimate betrayal.  And to cover it up with some BS story about a film was both insulting and unforgivable.  But no one was ever held accountable and no one ever admitted to wrongdoing.   Hell, that moron Susan Rice was even promoted to National Security Director.  Now that is something I'm still trying to wrap my mind around!  But throwing the entire CIA under the bus.  Well...that's just breathtaking in it's betrayal.

We also know that this report was prepared solely by Democratic staffers.  We also know that they conducted no interviews with people on the ground or involved in ops in the CIA.  So they have no context.   Without context, it is very difficult to determine anything but what's written.  No historical perspective, no sense of urgency, no understanding of the circumstances.  Without context Lincoln's suspension of habeous corpus was unforgivable.  Without context, Roosevelt's rounding up of Japanese in WWII was unconscionable.  Without context, Truman using the atomic bomb was unthinkable.  Without context, Jefferson the slaveowner was a lowlife.  It is really beyond belief that anyone would give this piece of trash credit.  But by now everyone knows our media are like a pack of circling sharks.  If they sense blood in the water...and especially Bush blood...they'll go in for the kill.

And why is it that Obama is being so non-committal.  Perhaps it's because he's worried that at some point in the future, there will be an examination of his preferred method of waging war.  Because you see, it's all about killing people anonymously with drones.  Find the bad guys, verify the bad guys, kill the bad guys.  Do all this from a Predator equipped with a Hellfire missile directed from a room in Nevada.  The President's sycophants will say the attacks are surgical.  Oh yeah?  Then how come they always kill a bunch of innocents?   I can't fathom how this is a good way to accomplish our goals.  The war on terror is over (because Obama says so).  But how is that we justify launching random attacks around the world?  We are not at war and we are launching missiles around the world.  Think about that for a minute.  And think about what the people in the affected regions and countries must think of us.  And how long it will take to repair the damage.  Not the physical damage, the damage to stability and relationships.  It's just mind-boggling.  And it confirms for me that the people running our National Security strategy are amateurs at best, and incompetent cynics at worst.  But to return to the beginning of the this thought, someday (probably soon) our actions will be judged.  And we will have to pay a big bill.

Now all the useful idiots are coming out the woodwork to demand justice.  The ACLU wants indictments as does the UN.  Many of the most repressive regimes around the world are decrying the U.S. using "torture".  What a joke.  I suppose this will blow over as the media moves on to the next sensational story.  But for a US Senator to facilitate the demeaning of the patriots in the CIA is unforgivable.  What they did was lawful.  It was done to prevent another attack and to find the perpetrators of 9/11.  It was justified.  And it was not torture.  And it was patriotic.  They deserve our ultimate thanks.  Instead they get this.  Shameful.