“What is the most popular recreational activity in Bolivia?”
“Bullfighting.”
“Uggh. Revolting!”
“Revolting? That is the second most popular…”
Here in the US of A since 1776, we have more of a problem with mindless conformity than with revolting. Yet the word is out that a serious revolt is underway at Central Command. Yes, that sounds like the plot of a science fiction B-movie, but so does most of what has been going on lately in Washington, DC… not to mention the campaign trail.
The parties rebelling against the status quo are the intelligence analysts whose work product is delivered to the military at United States Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. Their assessments of conditions in areas of conflict around the globe are passed up the chain of command in the armed forces and eventually to the Department of Defense. The various mavens, both in uniform and in mufti, mark up these assessments, polish the wording, eventually producing a pithy bottom-line thumbnail nutshell sound-bite one-liner to brief the Commander-in-Chief while he lines up his putt on the 13th hole.
Over fifty (50!) of the intelligent intelligence providers have signed on to an official complaint submitted to the Inspector General’s office, protesting that all their hard work identifying the dire conditions in ISIS areas and the ineffectiveness of our operations against ISIS is being canceled. Their assessments are still being handled in the conventional manner, but somewhere up the ladder BAD is amended to GOOD and LOSING is amended to WINNING. (Not that this is helping the President sink his putt.)
This hardly comes as a shock, in light of an administration corrupting all the other processes of government. But it is awfully alarming to have our grimmest fears realized in this way. The old joke that “military intelligence” is an oxymoron now gets a nasty new twist. The intelligence exists but the military is turning it upside down.
Little by little, we are losing our illusions about government. Even the most hardened cynics, ready to mock and scorn the bureaucrats filling the endless line of office buildings, will cut slack for the FBI and CIA as presumably apolitical entities. Now we see there is nowhere for an honest person to hide in the apparatus. You can pour heart and soul into your work and send it up the ladder… but this is not Jacob’s ladder, the rungs are cut off before it can reach the sky.
This comes out at the same time Hillary Clinton is in trouble for bypassing the proper channels and for putting classified materials at risk, and perhaps she can use this new information to fashion a perverse defense. You see, she was forced to create an alternative pathway for genuine information, preventing Obama’s minions from giving her the same junk they were peddling to others. She is a heroine, our Hillary, and she will not be gulled by those who seek to put a happy face on the truth.
Putting political considerations aside, what should we do, you and I, to save our world? Or is it too late?
As a process-oriented solution, I would recommend that each analyst give a number rating that would identify whether the situation was DIRE, BAD, REQUIRES ACTION, SATISFACTORY, or EXCELLENT. That number could not be erased and everyone up the line would see it, limiting the power of rewrites to subvert the original author of the report.
The question is, to paraphrase Fred Thompson, “What does the President know about this process and when did he know it?” Is the boss man instructing his lackeys to put lipstick on the pig before he has to kiss it, or is this done by the losers down the line in the military and DOD who do not want the boss to know they are messing up the job in the field? The answer is disturbing in either case.
Whether the President is smart enough, or honest enough, to hear the frequency of the whistle blowing, he should acknowledge the bottom line. He is receiving artificial intelligence, and it is describing virtual reality. In the real world, ISIS is on a rampage and heads are literally rolling. Mister President, you do not need a morning intelligence briefing to know you have hooked this drive. Badly, and to the left…
