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Our intelligence services are at war with Iran. Nearly every budget point, every effort, must be justified in terms of our struggle against the Iranians. This

Our intelligence services are at war with Iran. Nearly every budget point, every effort, must be justified in terms of our struggle against the Iranians. This is not that different than when we were in a cold war against the Soviet Union. The support structures of our government change slower than world politics and so our efforts against Iran can seem like a farce with us putting the same effort into their defeat. We lost our chance to bring the Russians in as our allies and we will probably lose a similar chance with the Iranians with the nuclear negotiations happening in Geneva/Lausanne/Montreux right now. The bureaucracy moves too slow.

rhizome 12y ago
There's still a lot of people whose career foundations are based on the Cold War. If you think of them as developers and bizdev people for foreign policy, you can map a lot of entrenched behaviors and attitudes, akin to writing COBOL in Haskell.
comrade1 12y ago
I don't really mind the downvotes but I'm not sure where they're coming from. This court case is especially sensitive right now showing the tensions between the state department and the intelligence services in the interactions with iran. Usually the intelligence services win since they can easily sabotage what state is doing.
IkmoIkmo 12y ago
> Nearly every budget point, every effort, must be justified in terms of our struggle against the Iranians. Look you have to supposedly private, non-government parties. They go to court for some reason. But one of the two parties is actually backed by the government, and the court is influenced by that backing to such an extent that it influences the case. Not only is this a blatant form of government corruption, with private parties receiving government backing, but it also damages the separation of powers. If you think it's completely justified to throw out the window many written and unwritten laws, elements of the constitution and basic structures of governance, because of negotiations with Iran, then I think you're willing to give up too many freedoms and rights. The real definition of terrorism to me is not when terror attacks kill as many people in a given year as falling fridges or indeed babies as is indeed the case, but when we're so scared of another cold-waresque threat that we're diminishing our own societies preemptively. That's what this is about.

rhizome 12y ago

There's still a lot of people whose career foundations are based on the Cold War. If you think of them as developers and bizdev people for foreign policy, you can map a lot of entrenched behaviors and attitudes, akin to writing COBOL in Haskell.

comrade1 12y ago

I don't really mind the downvotes but I'm not sure where they're coming from. This court case is especially sensitive right now showing the tensions between the state department and the intelligence services in the interactions with iran. Usually the intelligence services win since they can easily sabotage what state is doing.

IkmoIkmo 12y ago

> Nearly every budget point, every effort, must be justified in terms of our struggle against the Iranians. Look you have to supposedly private, non-government parties. They go to court for some reason. But one of the two parties is actually backed by the government, and the court is influenced by that backing to such an extent that it influences the case. Not only is this a blatant form of government corruption, with private parties receiving government backing, but it also damages the separation of powers. If you think it's completely justified to throw out the window many written and unwritten laws, elements of the constitution and basic structures of governance, because of negotiations with Iran, then I think you're willing to give up too many freedoms and rights. The real definition of terrorism to me is not when terror attacks kill as many people in a given year as falling fridges or indeed babies as is indeed the case, but when we're so scared of another cold-waresque threat that we're diminishing our own societies preemptively. That's what this is about.