"Whatever the efforts of that expansive corps of intelligence analysts (and the vast intelligence edifice behind it), when anything happens in the Greater Middle East, you can essentially assume that the official American reaction, military and political, will be “surprise” and that policymakers will be left “scrambling” in a quagmire of ignorance to rescue American policy from the unexpected. In other words, somehow, with what passes for the best, or at least most extensive and expensive intelligence operation on the planet, with all those satellites and drones and surveillance sweeps and sources, with crowds of analysts, hordes of private contractors, and tens of billions of dollars, with, in short, “intelligence” galore, American officials in the area of their wars are evidently going to continue to find themselves eternally caught “off guard.”"There's too much data and too many analysts to distill intelligence into something useful. Lack of information - no matter how much you have, it can never be enough - colored with pretense of knowledge is the downfall of all central planning.
Number of Iraqi refugees tops 3.2 million.
The US won't say Russia is attacking al Nusra Front because the US is allied with that al Qaeda group.
Syrian President Assad makes more sense than US rulers.
Despite 15 years and much money, Obama says the Afghan army stinks.
US scrambles to cover up war crime of attacking hospital in Afghanistan.
Condolence payment absurdity.
"Turns out the basic payout for a dead civilian in one of our war zones is . . . brace yourself . . . $2,500. That’s the sum we’ve been quietly doling out for quite a few years now. Conscience money. It’s remarkably cheap, considering that the bombs that took them out may have cost, oh, half a million dollars each."Amazing.
How the US co-opted the Arab Spring.
Obama to send troops to Cameroon to fight Boko Haram.
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