Ahhh, finally. I`m starting to get the hang of this thing. Plus, I have some neat ink and blue-line super-sized originals to look at. And the Leslie Nielsen joke? Go watch Airplane again. But on to the rant.
I feel like it`s the late 60`s / early 70`s. The CIA is doing things that are generally agreed that it should not do, it`s taking turns between telling outright lies and downplaying it with a cavalier attitude, and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is asleep at the wheel or worse. We all know that this tortue thing is going to either be swept under the rug (MK-ULTRA / MK-SEARCH, the Iran-Contra scandal) or blown open, turned in to a silent purging “of those responsible” and forgotten. Who`s going to take it in the neck? The new guys. You get them in, talk about moral gray areas and the call to a higher good, that it`s unpleasant but necessary and they`re going to be protected, and then when it hits the fan tell the public about the new guys being cowboys and how you`ll make sure the persons responsible (the new guys) are fired. A token older guy or two will resign, but they were probably going to retire soon anyway.
And the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence? Don`t get me started on THAT debacle (that`s the “Don`t get me started” in the comic, incidentally). It`s chaired by Senator Jay Rockefeller, West Virginia, a 70 year old senator who is also on the Subcommittees on Communication and Science, Technology and Space. Seriously. A guy who probably had to have someone use a typewriter for him. He`s nominally a Democrat, but it seems he is related to the Rockefellers (a staunchly Republican family, if anyone is not familiar with the oil tycoon) and a quick look at his sponsored bills (at THOMAS) paint a different picture. Plus, you know, seeing as he`s the chairman he must have known about the waterboarding for over FIVE YEARS.
So, you have an agency that will be hiring officers looking for scapegoats. If you`re not willing to do torture, you won`t have much of a career. If you are, you may have a very short career served with public humiliation. The CIA says they want America`s best and brightest to apply, and if we need an intelligence agency, I certainly want the best and brightest making those tough calls. However, if they are truly “best” and “brightest”, why would they want to put themselves in this position? Yeah, there`s always going to be tough calls and questionable or even outright illegal things going on. That`s the nature of espionage. But anyone who`s smart enough to look at this situation should see a lot more risk than usual. Any question about whether or not people are expendable should be answered by the 90`s downsizing after the fall of the Soviet Union and the Valerie Plame incident.
Am I being ridiculous? Probably. Do I know what I`m talking about? No: I`m a desk jockey who hacks together an amateur web comic twice a week on his good weeks. I`m not exactly qualified to speak on matters of national intelligence. But does anyone out there honestly see this as implausible?