Comments on: Book Review: Banquo’s Ghosts

By: sam

sam — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:50:47 +0000

I'll only consider reading it if the hero gets to bed a Sarah Palin look-a-like. One of the authors has some major wood for Moose Huntin' Barbie. Per ardua ad astrabursts.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:08:29 +0000

Now, though, they’ve become formulaic and, given we’re in the midst of two wars, a bit demoralizing.

Thankfully Dan Brown has a new novel coming out....

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:42:58 +0000

The CIA *is* the bad guy, and usually *does* act against long term American interests. Frankly, I think we ought to get rid of the CIA and rebuild from the ground up.

I think the mix of covert ops and intelligence is a bad one, just like the FBI's law enforcement and counterterrorism roles. Scuttling both may be smart from an institutional standpoint.

There's a difference, though, between that and cartoonish depictions of the CIA as out to overthrow the US government or as genuinely bad folks.

By: Alex Knapp

Alex Knapp — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:12:26 +0000

I must say that I’ve gotten quite tired of the CIA as bad guy and the villain-as-sympathetic-character tropes.

Haven't you read "Legacy of Ashes"? The CIA *is* the bad guy, and usually *does* act against long term American interests. Frankly, I think we ought to get rid of the CIA and rebuild from the ground up. It's worth noting that the State Department's intelligence analysts were dead right about Iraq before the war (no WMDs, long insurgency), while the CIA was spectacularly wrong...