Pyrrhic victory?

No one could mistake me for a fan of the U.S. spying/coup-fomenting services, but the appointment of Charles Freeman to chair the National Intelligence Council looked positive given that it had brought the entire bullying Israeli lobby to the verge of apoplexy. Well, they got their way by trashing Freeman relentlessly, and he pulled out. But then again they also got their way with their screaming boosterism over the invasion of Iraq, and that didn’t turn out so well.

I get the impression that this episode will not redound to their favor in the long run. It’s one thing to drum up campaigns against sitting politicians—they’re supposed to take whatever gets thrown at them, nasty as it may be. The viciousness of the attacks on Freeman, however, were extreme, and no doubt he said to himself, I need this?

There must be a lot of gray-suited bureaucrats in the intel world who are trying to do a good job as analysts and are tired of being dictated to by unapologetic agents of a foreign power. Freeman didn’t mince words about it; here are a few of his descriptive phrases:

. . . unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country. . .

. . . [whose tactics] plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth.

. . . [and who are] intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government.

That’s pretty strong stuff, and Freeman can say it because he doesn’t give a crap about holding office and go back to retirement. How many others think it but can’t?

I believe it is dangerous for any group entering the public debate to lose sight of their need to express—whether or not they feel—a primary loyalty to their nation of citizenship and residence. I am reminded of the facile targeting of American radicals during the anti-communist era because their rigid ideological identification with the Soviet Union so often convinced them that its interests were coincident with human progress.