NY Daily News: No one to blame. The
9/11 Commission closed its probe yesterday with a final report that
identified a breathtaking array of government blind spots – but did not
blame a single person for the shortcomings. I picked this story
because the headline brings up an important point. If this and the
surprise insurgency in Iraq is due to a lack of imagination, what are
we doing to fix it? All the new initiatives that are being
contemplated/recommended are going to be filled with the same people
that failed us before: bureaucratic analysts and upper-level decision
makers that haven't done anything else with their lives other than work
for the government. If that isn't a recipe for continued disasters, I
don't know what is.
Where is the competitive marketplace for intelligence? Where are
the innovative start-ups and outsiders with the vast breadth of
interdisciplinary experience required to analyze this correctly?
Nothing will change. At some point in the next 3 years we are going to
hit the ignition point for a global bazaar of violence
with groups armed with advanced global guerrilla tactics. At that
point, it will be too late and the life we lead today will be
fundamentally changed forever. [John Robb's Weblog]