I've just started raeding Ron Suskind's "One Percent Doctrine" and I've not really gotten into the meat of it yet. But I read something tangential to it and wanted to share it with you, as it supports many contentions and assertions I've made in the last five years and that many, many others have made as well about the War on Terror and Homeland Security: they are both in utterly miserable shape, the conventional wisdom notwithstanding.

I've been extremely critical of our efforts regarding both. I've consistently said that we have avoided doing the hard, tedious but essential work of real national and homeland security in exchange for what is essentially a photo-op presidency and a dysfunctional domestic and international security establishment. No port security. No Congressional oversight. No beefing up the analytical wing of the CIA and no new file sharing computer system for the FBI (although P2P has been rocking for years). Instead we have a two hundred billion dollar and two thousand KIA war in Iraq, a clusterf*@k in Afghanistan and virtually no, no security at home. By God, the Nunn-Lugar Act, designed to secure stockpiles of fissionable nuclear materials act was barely re-authorized. Our establishment has failed us, although it is yet not clear that this is the case. Instead our media have been warped by Cheney's crude, dark, ominous fear-mongering and Bush's credulous, insipid but strangely convincing grandstanding.

After reading this I am more convinced than ever that the last five years have been squandered. After reading Suskind's book and quite clearly being privy to other sources of information Jamestown Foundation fellow Michael Scheuer writes:

the book suggests that several judgments about al-Qaeda that are now accepted in the United States and the West as common wisdom—such as al-Qaeda's inability to stage large, complicated attacks in the United States; that bin Laden and al-Zawahiri are isolated and cannot exercise command-and-control over al-Qaeda; and that U.S. border security is greatly improved since 9/11—need to be reexamined and debated.

Until I write more tomorrow, read the whole report. It's short and to the point. And it packs a mean punch.