@Dustcan
And, of course, instead of addressing the causes, their conclusion is “moar funds for da troops so we can make a grab for Arctic oil before the Russians”. Shows how much of an oxymoron “military intelligence” is.
Ironically I’d hazard military intel hasn’t been all that great either. The US intelligence apparatus has had, at least since the middle of the last century a habit of giving stuff over to other agencies and even other countries. The CIA has become an agency more of indirect intelligence control than direct on-the-ground involvement. They’ve become even more reliant on indirect involvement by basically putting everything up to game theory and computer simulation, where they don’t often have consistent direct intelligence. The Middle East has been a particular blind spot with the CIA going so far as to just give all their operations up to the Iranians before the Iranian Revolution broke out, the Shah’s men had more of a grasp on what was happening there than they do now.
Now-a-days it wouldn’t surprise me if the CIA is offshoring its middle east intel to the Isrealis who haven’t been entirely complacent from an intelligence angle. I believe there was almost a war between the CIA and Mossad over Isreal’s nuclear weapons program with both sides making moves against the other to access and obscure their shit, with Mossad going as far as to build Potemkin villages.
But more so today they all seem to be going real clown hours, so bring on their annihilation and dissolution let’s get lit f@m.
EDIT - I’m now finding myself recalling how in a book I’m reading there’s an entire sub-chapter devoted to the CIA’s literal war with the French intelligence services over Saigon in 1955 that had all the subtelty as a full on war, as the CIA battled French agencies and PMC groups in the streets of Saigon so intense it’s comparable to the Tet Offensive for destruction dealt to the city. And all to install Ngo Dihn Deim.