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You should always be asking yourselves these questions, but I can't agree with the implications of no one should ever work for the CIA. Out of full disclosure,

You should always be asking yourselves these questions, but I can't agree with the implications of no one should ever work for the CIA. Out of full disclosure, I have been a US Army officer and have also done technical contracting work for IC agencies (not the CIA, purely collection-tasked agencies that didn't perform any kind of field ops). So take from that what you will. Maybe I'm just a bootlicker that doesn't want to think of myself as evil. But I'm well aware that the military and intelligence services of the US have done some evil things. As far as I can tell, every military and intelligence service has done evil things, and maybe in some idealized world, that means these services shouldn't exist, but right now, as a purely practical matter, if every American simply refused to ever join the military or work for an intelligence service (as opposed to objecting to and refusing to obey illegal orders), we would just not have a military or any intelligence services. But doing that would not get rid of the others. We'd just be abdicating the global stage to China. Personally, I don't believe that would make the world better than it is now.

mandmandam 4y ago
Is the choice between having no intelligence service at all, and one that consists of warmongering, drug-running, black site torturing, extrajudicial assassinating, media infiltrating, Epstein exonerators? Is that the only way to maintain a presence on the "global stage"? Are we in a stronger position for having spent trillions to replace the Taliban with... the Taliban? Was Vietnam smart? Was all that murder in South America for corporate profits justifiable? > Maybe I'm just a bootlicker that doesn't want to think of myself as evil. I hope you really ask yourself that.
- notch656a 4y ago
  Of course not. It's a false dichotomy. And I don't know why anyone would want the US government in its current incarnation "on the global stage."
trasz 4y ago
Problem is not that some people do bad things; problem is that Americans who do evil things go unpunished. It wouldn’t look so bad if you weren’t so fixed at protecting your war criminals from justice. Also funny that you mention China, a country with incomparably better track record when it comes to foreign policy.

mandmandam 4y ago

Is the choice between having no intelligence service at all, and one that consists of warmongering, drug-running, black site torturing, extrajudicial assassinating, media infiltrating, Epstein exonerators? Is that the only way to maintain a presence on the "global stage"? Are we in a stronger position for having spent trillions to replace the Taliban with... the Taliban? Was Vietnam smart? Was all that murder in South America for corporate profits justifiable? > Maybe I'm just a bootlicker that doesn't want to think of myself as evil. I hope you really ask yourself that.

notch656a 4y ago
Of course not. It's a false dichotomy. And I don't know why anyone would want the US government in its current incarnation "on the global stage."

trasz 4y ago

Problem is not that some people do bad things; problem is that Americans who do evil things go unpunished. It wouldn’t look so bad if you weren’t so fixed at protecting your war criminals from justice. Also funny that you mention China, a country with incomparably better track record when it comes to foreign policy.