- Thomas Friedman talks about The Suicide Supply Chain, and says "The failure of U.S. intelligence to understand what was happening inside Iraqi society during the decade-plus of U.N. sanctions that preceded our invasion is the key to many of the problems we've encountered in post-Saddam Iraq."
- Floppy Aces leads us to a piece on Jen Martinez' blog by a former Special Forces and MACVSOG Vietnam Veteran who worked in intelligence in Washington DC for many years. He sticks up for the CIA's Deptment of Operations, and explains why Friedman doesn't have what he wants.
- Finally, Dave Schuler of The Glittering Eye discusses Why The Intelligence Reform Bill Won't Make Us More Secure.
Friedman turns himself into knots to "blame the US" for the supply of suicide bombers, and ignores the obvious.
Under Saddam's regime, the Sunni Arabs occupied a privileged and brutal position, where ALL privileges flowed from Saddam personally through the Baath Party.
Saddam may be gone, but his henchmen are not, and are operating as best they can in the old way, using terror and brutality. They find suicide bombers because their families can be pressed and need the money.
Ultimately suicide bombings and other measures of Baathist jihad are political, and aimed mostly at the Kurds and Shia to intimidate. Since together these communities make up 80% of the population, and Saddam isn't in command of his armies and secret police ... it's stupid and futile.
Sadly it will kill a lot more people before it's done (by Shia/Kurd militias killing most of the Baathists). Something Friedman can't recognize.