WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE IN THE CIA?

What type of person do we have working for the CIA? The answer is disconcerting and upsetting after reading Michael F. Scheuer's opinion piece today in the Washington Post.

Scheuer's bio says he was the founding head of the CIA's bin Laden unit. His job was to catch or kill Osama bin Laden prior to the attack on 9/11. Scheuer, I think, correctly calls George Tenet to account for trying to shift the blame for that attack. But Scheuer also reveals his own dark side. In trying to get to Osama bin Laden, Scheuer expresses his disdain for innocent civilians who might be killed.

"I did not -- and do not -- care about collateral casualties in such situations, as most of the nearby civilians would be the families that bin Laden's men had brought to a war zone. But Tenet did care. (emphases added) "You can't kill everyone," he would say. That's an admirable humanitarian concern in the abstract, but it does nothing to protect the United States. Indeed, thousands of American families would not be mourning today had there been more ferocity and less sentimentality among the Clinton team."

Okay, let's see how Scheuer would feel if he were one of the "collateral casualties." Scheuer tries to justify this killing in two ways. First, he says most of the civilians would be members of bin Laden's family. Oh, this is a good argument. Children deserve to die because they are merely related to bin Laden? No, this is a baseless and foolish argument. The children and families did nothing wrong. What justifies Scheuer and the CIA in killing them?

Second, Scheuer argues that such collateral killings would be justified if bin Laden himself were killed, thus preventing thousands of American families from losing loved ones in the 9/11 attack. Suppose the CIA reckoned that 1,000 bin Laden family members would be killed. Would Scheuer still justify the killings? Suppose the number were 5,000? Could Scheuer still argue that they should be killed? Then the question becomes are the lives of Americans worth more than the lives of Afghans or Saudis? Apparently Scheuer's ethics would have him answer yes.

I hope Scheuer is not typical of the person who works for the CIA. Otherwise, the United States has a dysfunctional monster running amok in the world.