michael hayden

This is how a nation thoughtlessly slides into stupid wars

Summary:  Week after week.  Month after month.  Year after year our national security hawks warn that Iran will have the bomb soon.  advocate war with Iran.   Eventually real experts tire of rebuttals, and the public becomes acclimated to the pending war.  Then, without debate or rational thought, we start a war. This was how Europe slid into …

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Ignatius proposes “A New Deal for The CIA” – perhaps they should sometimes obey our laws

I doubt that proposals for partial reform of the CIA make sense.  Not after reading the major histories of the CIA (e.g., Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes).  Even so, this specimen looks unusually daft:  “A New Deal for The CIA“, David Ignatius, op-ed in the Washington Post, 17 September 2009. It opens with the usual romantic …

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Experts, with wrinkled brows, warn about the future

Summary: Experts often see the future with alarm, seeing the dangers but not benefits. That gets attention, from both the media and an increasinly fearful public. Both sides feed this process. It need not be so, as most trends contain the seeds of good and bad futures. This post considers two examples. Over several decades …

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