The American Spectator

As a result, Sen. Barry Goldwater and Cong. Bill Nichols wrote the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act that forced the armed services to work together. It mandated a culture of cooperation in the military that is known as “jointness,” an awkward word even by Pentagon standards. It was embraced by the services — everyone from junior sergeants to the service chiefs — because it worked. It created a culture of cooperation and resulted in a level of battlefield dominance that has never been seen before.

To repair what has been broken for decades in the intelligence community the White House and Congress need to repeal the legislation creating the DNI and NCTC. It should be replaced with a reorganization of the intelligence agencies modeled on the Goldwater-Nichols bill.

The Obama administration has done more to weaken our intelligence community than any since Jimmy Carter’s. Attorney General Holder is blocking intelligence agencies from briefing the Senate and House Intelligence Committees on ongoing matters, though they are legally required to do so. The president has sided with Holder, overriding Blair on that matter (and others) and in overriding CIA Director Leon Panetta to begin Holder’s investigation of CIA interrogators.

So it really doesn’t matter who replaces Dennis Blair or whether Michael Leitner is fired from the NCTC. Their successors will fare no better than they did because the Obama administration is committed to exercising political control over the intelligence community, not to fixing what ails it.