Exactly What We Need

I stand corrected.

Several days ago I engaged in a blog conversation with a friend regarding the responsibilities of international oil conglomerates have to make the third world countries they do business with better (Sound Exciting!? see Syriana post-http://carterdintx.blogspot.com) . While I stand behind the main thrust of my arguments I made the following statement, which I no longer agree with:

“I have yet to see “Syriana” because I think George Clooney is a moron and the ex-CIA agent (Robert Baer) that wrote the book that “Syriana” is based on (See No Evil) is a Class A Tool Bag.”

I still have not seen Syriana and I still think Clooney is a moron, but I have read the book and now have tremendous respect for Baer. His is off base on a few points, but on the whole is exactly what this country needs: someone who is ready to go into dangerous places and do dangerous things with dangerous people.

To Quote Baer (See No Evil, p. 271):

“We are at war in America and throughout the Western world, at war with an enemy with no infrastructure to attack, with no planes to shoot out of the sky, with no boats to sink to the bottom of the sea and precious few tanks to blow up for the amusement of the viewers of CNN. The only way to defeat such an enemy is by intelligence, by knowing what they plan to do next, and by being ready for them when they arrive. And the only way to gather such intelligence is by having the political will to let those who know how to learn those secrets perform their jobs, no matter how murky the swamp is. I wish I had the confidence that we were willing to walk down that path and stay on it.”