One of the things that I learned during the Cold War is that it was crucial to be able to view the world through Soviet eyes. This was difficult since I worked in a group responsible for following Soviet weapons programs and industries. Since we were not Soviet scholars we had to rely on secondary sources – academics, journalists, and military officers. Over the years, I developed an intuition for choosing reliable sources of information about the Soviet viewpoint.
We will never resolve the conflict with terrorist organizations without being able view Western Society through Arabic and Islamic eyes.
This is more work than I want to do and I’m not sure where to start.
My experience as a senior intelligence analyst and supervisor, my education as one of the very few civilian graduates of the US Army War College, and my understanding of religion as a driving force in international affairs all tell me to pay attention to Col. Patrick Lang.
On September 11, Col Lang gave a talk at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. You can hear an mp3 version of his talk here. For a Daily Progress report on the talk go here. In a few weeks an online video will be available here.
For a summary of Col Lang’s professional qualifications go here.
Col. Lang is of the opinion that several professional intelligence officers drank Kool Aid and failed to stand up on their hind legs and tell Bush administration officials the truth (as they saw it) about Iraq and its WMD programs. Based on my position as a former intelligence insider, I agree.
There was a just war case to be made for invading Iraq. Blinded by their viewpoint, the neocons misstated the case, gave the public the wrong reasons for the war, and fought it in the wrong way. Tragic.
Senator John Warner saw a way for Congress to address the underlying strategic issue. His chances of success are about equal to a snowball in that region whose gates will not prevail. The result - unless we succeed in Iraq - will be another two decades of bitter domestic politics and international discord. Tragic.