Adding a New Bureaucracy

I’m feeling safer already. Thank goodness that after 30 years of liberals like Frank Church and Bob Torricelli destroying our intelligence agencies congress has acted to restore them. Well, that’s their intention. The proof will take years to show itself.

I’m a bit skeptical for a number of reasons. First I’m skeptical that anything that comes from congress can be “the solution” to anything. Next, the speed with which this legislation came into being makes me wonder. Also, who on the 9-11 commission is the subject matter expert on intelligence gathering? Wouldn’t it have been better to convene a panel of people who make and have made a living gathering, analyzing, disseminating and acting on intelligence to make recommendations for intelligence reform rather than a bunch of washed up politicians? Last, the over riding goal of any D.C. bureaucracy is to sustain and grow the bureaucracy. I don’t see this new bureaucracy being much different.

It doesn’t take a business management guru like Steven Covey to figure out that 15 scattered agencies with separate missions, priorities, and budgets isn’t a great model. But is adding a 16th agency to overlook the other 15 the best fix? Given what we know about government agencies, is adding another one likely to resolve or exasperate the problem? This sounds more like a further growing of the intelligence bureaucracy which will likely lead to a slower more sluggish application of intelligence.

Whatever the flaws with the bill as it now stands, we should thank Duncan Hunter for changing it to better protect our frontline troops. Speed in the intelligence business is crucial. It is most crucial at the tactical level where forces need to get inside the decision cycle of the enemy or what former Air Force Colonel John Boyd called the OODA loop. According to Boyd, decision making occurs in a cycle of Observe-Orient-Decide-Act. Among adversaries, the organization which can consistently complete the cycle quickest can get inside the opponent's decision cycle and gain an advantage. That is a difficult task to accomplish under the best circumstances. Imagine the degree of difficulty when the enemy is a three man terrorist cell, which can act almost on a whim with little planning or coordination.

Hunter’s actions assured the frontline troops immediate access to intelligence without added layers of intervening D.C. bureaucracy. For his efforts, Democrats labeled him an obstructionist. We need more politicians like him in Washington who will not allow principle to be trumped by the emotions four women from New Jersey.