In response to an FT article by Gideon Rachman on 9th January 2017, entitled ‘Donald Trump will win his battle with the spies’
“For the global left, the CIA has always been regarded as a sinister rightwing organisation supporting a reactionary world order. But in Washington the CIA is often regarded with suspicion by conservatives who believe it to have a liberal bias. The agency is, after all, full of people with advanced degrees and knowledge of foreign languages, who tend to raise tiresome factual objections to the right’s worldview” - Gideon Rachman
I’m reassured by the thought that these are the same 'advanced' and 'knowledgeable' people that have done such a splendid job recruiting, arming and training ‘moderates’ in Syria. The glowing success that US, UK and French governments and our ‘intelligence’ agencies have enjoyed in regime change operations in Iraq, Libya and Syria are a lasting testimony to ‘advanced degrees’ – indeed no architect of ‘never-ending carnage’ is worth their salt without at least a PhD and two masters degrees.
No degree, Nobel Prize, or gong of any description…or the absence of one…is a guarantee that its holder is a man or woman of integrity. Sadly that is what is lacking on both sides of the aisle, both sides of the Atlantic, and both sides of the media – whether it’s the ‘neoconservatives’ on the right, or ‘liberal interventionists’ on the left, the smell of cheap ‘politics’ is common to both.
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A fellow reader took me to task in defence of the intelligence community:
“The Bush White House is responsible for subverting the intelligence apparatus regarding Iraq WMD. You do a real disservice to the people who called attention to it, fought it and were shouted down at the time”
My reply:
“On the guys who called out Bush, full credit to them. On the ones who didn't - shame on them.
There is no moral high ground left in the middle east, and the politicians and journalists who frame the world in terms of 'West good/Russia evil' are sanctifying nothing more than their own hypocrisy”
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Postscript:
It strikes me that the terms 'left' & 'right', 'Democrat' & 'Republican', 'liberal' & 'conservative' are increasingly useless to anyone interested in understanding the shifts taking place in US and global politics - new 'lenses' and 'frames' are required. I suspect this will become increasingly apparent as 2017 unfolds.