After 5 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) has been selected as the new Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. This man bravely served in Vietnam as a helicopter crew chief, and has sat on the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees. Yet despite these credentials, this man, like most of his colleagues on the House Intelligence Committee, has no grasp of even the basic beliefs and motivations of the various sects warring with each other in Iraq.
During a recent interview with Jeff Stein of Congressional Quarterly, Reyes did not know whether Al Qaeda was Sunni or Shiite, nor did he understand the difference between the two factions. Reyes likewise demonstrated an equally appalling lack of knowledge when asked about Hezbollah. Stein’s descriptions of the interview and his conversations with other members of the Intelligence Committee (Democrats and Republicans) serve as an expected, yet still chilling, illustration of the consequences of the American penchant for selecting shallow, ambitious leaders lacking judgment and character, which I wrote about recently. Ambition is time-consuming. Having been closely involved in a professional capacity with a few campaign cycles, one thing has been obvious to me: our elected officials spend far more time working to get elected and remain in office than they do conducting the business of our government.
It should surprise no one that members of a House Intelligence Committee have not studied any of the issues before the Committee. Sadly, that is what staffers are for. Congressman and Senators simply do not have time to become educated on such trivial matters as Al Qaeda, Sunnis, Shiites, and Hezbollah, because studying issues interferes with fundraising and campaigning. Our elected officials, at best, receive briefings which consist of sound-bite length snippets spoon fed by staffers who are not experts in military, terrorism, or intelligence matters. There is no more potentially dangerous example of “the blind leading the blind” than how the House and Senate handle intelligence.
Of course, it would be helpful if candidates could be found who bring some level of experience (military, intelligence, counter-terrorism, etc) into office, but this should not be a requirement. Rather, it should be required that once elected and selected for any committee, the Representative or Senator must become conversant in the topics of that committee. Yet this is all too often how government committees are formed, not by qualification but instead by name recognition and/or seniority. The Iraq Study Group is a perfect illustration. Sandra Day O’Connor, Vernon Jordan, and Leon Panetta had no background in military or intelligence matters, yet they were selected to analyze the situation in Iraq and determine what military and intelligence tactics and strategies should be implemented to improve the situation. Jordan and Panetta were Adviser and Chief of Staff to Former President Clinton, with no known credibility within the military or intelligence communities.
Not surprisingly, in the anti-war hysteria of the 2006 mid-term elections, the ISG was forced to conclude the only solution was a 79 point plan to pull out of Iraq and let the new democratic Iraqi government be crushed in a sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites. How narcissistically ironic that a group consisting of 7 former attorneys came to the conclusion that talking (to Iran and Syria, both of which are funding and training, and arming our enemies in Iraq) was the best way to handle terrorists. Lawyers seem convinced they can talk their way into or out of anything including radical Islam’s hatred for infidels. They could find no strategy for victory because they know nothing about military strategy or the situation in Iraq.
Stein’s interview with Reyes should alarm every American. If our “intelligence” committees do not understand the root causes of conflict and who the various players are on the stage of world terrorism, how will they make decisions about funding our intelligence agencies and what tactics or technologies should or should not be utilized? We should not be blinded or awed by office holders with extensive credentials on government committees. Committees meet infrequently, and that merely makes running for office the only full time job that has our leaders’ full attention. Perhaps our televised debates should include questions that actually test a candidate’s knowledge rather than his skill for eloquently stating nothing of substance.
Would Reyes be serving a 5th term in the House if he had been asked in a debate, “is Al Qaeda Sunni or Shiite, and what’s the difference”? Unfortunately our elections and debates are not a screening process for qualified applicants; they are pathetic pageants for shallow contestants. In Reyes’s case, he appears to have been a potentially valuable addition to Congress when first elected, but chose instead to remain shallow, at least in his knowledge of the most important issue of our time: protecting America from those who want to destroy it and its allies. We should and must demand better.
elections Al Qaeda Silvestre Reyes Iraq Study Group House Intelligence Committee Sunni Shiite
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