Friday, May 11, 2007

The Missing State

This is not to say that an American presence on the ground is required indefinitely, but maybe it is rational to argue that the last four years in Iraq have bought a lot of information and capability that would otherwise not have made it into the military system at all. Based on what I have heard, the State Department is far, far behind the Defense Department in the game of having an "ear to the ground", which is really ironic because while it is the job of career diplomats to be the best informed about conditions in foreign countries they are sometimes the most dis-informed because their natural operating environment is at the level of leadership, which in Iraq might be a nest of intrigue comparable of world-class proportions.