“A Failure of Imagination”
It’s August in Washington. People have been skimming the 575-page report of the 9-11 Commission looking for snippets of intelligence that bolster their previously existing points of view; to lay the blame on those who differ; and for their own names. Our names aren’t in there. We did find ourselves caught by the phrase “a failure of imagination,” ascribed to American intelligence services in assessing information. And found ourselves surprised, then, at the recommendation by the Commission for a Senate-ratified intelligence “Czar.”
It’s August in Washington. People have been skimming the 575-page report of the 9-11 Commission looking for snippets of intelligence that bolster their previously existing points of view; to lay the blame on those who differ; and for their own names. Our names aren’t in there. We did find ourselves caught by the phrase “a failure of imagination,” ascribed to American intelligence services in assessing information. And found ourselves surprised, then, at the recommendation by the Commission for a Senate-ratified intelligence “Czar.”
Under “imagination,” Roget’s includes: “artistry, castle-building, chimera, cognition, conception, creativity, enterprise, fabrication, fancy, fantasy, idea, ideality, illusion, ingenuity, insight, mental agility, originality, realization, resourcefulness, supposition, unreality, verve, vision, wit, and wittiness,” among others.
All suggest the widest latitude for free association – between, say, the similar attributes of airplanes and cruise missiles. Between our known enemy Saddam and the 9-11 perpetrators. Between terrorists and the states that harbor and support them. None seem compatible with a single individual who, to assume the perch above the CIA, DIA, NSA, et. al. had to run the gauntlet of a polarized Senate that is looking for the “right answer” and fears being blamed for future attacks. And the higher up the Czar is seated and the more power s/he has, the more people will want to please him/her. And the farther s/he will fall when another attack occurs.
Another attack is, in our view, likely to occur with or without the Czar. Most of what we’ve seen and read stresses what the U.S. did wrong prior to 9-11 and what we have failed to do right since that day. Important as that is, and conveniently as blame has been apportioned across political parties, administrations, agencies and the Congress, there has been a notable lack of interest in examining what the perpetrators did right. Israeli experience attests that attackers assume they will fail nine times out of ten or 99 out of 100. They keep watching and adjusting, poking at defenses and making dry runs. (Who were those 14 Syrian “musicians” anyhow?) Trial and error works for them and terrorism favors attackers over defenders.
This leads to two thoughts. First, we are unlikely to stop terrorists from trying – and sometimes succeeding – no matter who wins the next election. Our priority must then be to pull out their financial, territorial and political supports. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan for sure. But France, Germany, Russia and Canada among others have to join the war against terrorists and the states that harbor and support them, including support for a civilized, consensual government in Iraq.
Second, we need intelligence services that will free associate, sally, imagine, ideate, fantasize and visualize. We need inventiveness, thoughtfulness, verve, wit and inspiration. We need enterprise, ingenuity, inventiveness and originality. And we need American intelligence officers with no fear of displeasing their superiors except by assuming the past is the harbinger of the future.