BIG NEWS

But this will get the wrong spin in the press, and it already has.

A current CIA official has a new book that will soon be released that is critical of the Bush Administration's approach to both Afghanistan and Iraq. It is being released anonymously because the official is still with The Company and because the CIA does not want him or her to be in danger from the bin Ladenistas. Here is the article from Agence France Presse. Here is the headline on Yahoo! News: "Book by CIA official slams US war on terrorism, Iraq".

Now what did that headline make you think of -- (a) a criticism that the war on terrorism is immoral, spawns new terrorists or is just some US powerplay; (b) a criticism that the war is US imperialism run amok; (c) the author would generally agree with Michael Moore and his upcoming movie; (d) all of the above.

The answer is that the headline is deceptive. The CIA officer is slamming the war on terror because it is a "war on terror" -- instead, the phrase itself covers the fact that, according to the officer himself, "[w]e are fighting a worldwide Islamic insurgency -- not criminality or terrorism -- and our policy and procedures have failed to make more than a modest dent in enemy forces."

In other words, the root of this evil is in Islam itself -- but the officer won't make that value judgment. Instead, he blasts the Iraq war as imperialism while noting that the threat from radical Islam is rooted in policies and actions in the Islamic world. In other words, the US should be fighting radical Islam. And radical Islam is rooted in one place, from which it has spread throughout the Muslim world -- Saudi Arabia.

Watch the media on this issue because it will stress the imperialism/engendering new terrorists line (which I think is a crock/crock) without mentioning the radical Islam dimension nearly as prominently.