• Disgruntled, Ex-CIA careerist.

    The comma is there to separate the two in order to show that it seems they go hand-in-hand. How many disgruntled former intelligence guys have spouted off at the President because he didn’t do things they way they were taught, the Cold War way? They come up with tales that are bitter opinion at best, but the media pass them off as holy writ.

    Disgruntled Ex-CIA careerist Paul Pillar has written a piece in the magazine Foreign Affairs accusing the President of having made his mind up to invade Iraq then systematically ignoring intelligence and cherry-picking it to make a case for war.

    Pillar also claims that he warned Bush that Iraq would become a quagmire but that they President discounted his expert analysis.

    Here is an informative piece on Pillar, including a blurb on his novel Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy:

    Paul R. Pillar identifies the necessary elements of counterterrorist policy, he examines why the United States is a prime terrorist target, and he reveals why the counterterrorist policies that seem strongest are not always the most effective. Chapter 5 examines the widely varying nature of terrorist groups and the policy tools most appropriately applied to them. Chapter 6 focuses on states that sponsor terrorism (including Iran, Libya, North Korea, and Cuba), along with those that enable it to occur (particularly Greece and Pakistan). Pillar examines ways in which the American public’s perspective toward terrorism can actually constrain counterterrorist policy, and he concludes that terrorism cannot be “defeated” only reduced, attenuated, and to some degree, controlled.

    He wanted things done his way. They weren’t, and now he is disgruntled. One wonders if he hung out with the triumvirate of Dick Clarke, Rand Beers, and Joe Wilson.