However the practical necessity persists.

These people want to serve their country and the practical necessity of deliver outcomes is beyond the charter of an intelligence gathering institution. The foundational structure on which the subject matter is presented is the cycle the CIA goes through of paramilitary field success, hubris, failure, political scapegoating, risk aversion, institutional competition, paramilitary resurgence. I don’t have a problem with the CIA, I have a problem with the CIA having producing the own intelligence to support an outcome that is not observed in reality. I feel very fortunate to live in America and wish that more people agreed that there is a responsibility to hold Electeds accountable to be truthful about their intentions for how America maintains the preeminent position of power in the global dynamic. That's understandable, due to the difficulty of getting on-the-record statements from people involved in covert action and the intelligence world, but it does restrict the completeness.īottom line: I enjoyed it. The book also suffers from a little bit of tunnel-vision-it follows the arc of several figures, but doesn't (in my opinion) give a broad assessment or characterization of programs overall. I think the editing could have been better from a continuity and cohesiveness standpoint. In a few places it jumps forward or backwards in time suddenly.

The chronology of the book is sometimes a bit jarring. It also examines the misadventures of using private contractors to do the US government's dirty work, and of becoming involved with unsavory groups or states to achieve short-term goals, which will have long-term negative consequences. This book does a fine job laying-bear the drawbacks of an increasingly militarized CIA and increasingly covert DoD.

The way of the knife by mark mazzetti