The National Security Cloak of Incompetence

Let’s try and pull a few things together. The general heading would be “The Arrogant Secrecy of our National Security Folks that Hides Incompetence which Inevitably Breeds Deceit which also Inevitably Leads to Disaster.”

Yes, that is one long general heading, but there are several component parts.

*Finally, the Senate Intelligence Committee has released its finding documenting what we already knew: that the leading figures in the Bush administration flat-out lied so they could get away with dragging our country into the Iraq war.

We still don’t know why; don’t know whether there was some economic gain or whether they were just acting out some bizarre macho fantasy.

We do know that they have the blood of thousands on their hands after using deceit to get us into a deadly quagmire we may never escape and diminishing the United States, perhaps forever.

*Military people, particularly the Air Force, really hate public accountability. The whole mindset is that their work is far too vital to be slowed down by questioning from those who couldn’t possibly understand.

I single out the Air Force because of the debacles over nuclear weaponry that only now are being addressed … happily, before there was a calamitous result.

I am talking, of course, about the inadvertent transfer of nuclear warheads cross-country and the mistaken shipment of nuclear components to Taiwan.

Worst of all, no adequate procedural changes were put into place, which is amazing.

So the Defense secretary decided the Air Force had a bit of a management problem and he fired the top two guys. It was considered a remarkable move. What’s most remarkable is that it took so long.

What really is needed, however, is a change in the national security culture, where hubris rules, the public be damned.

With our presidential aspirants promising all kinds of change in government, I hope they’ll add this to the list.