ìAn Abundance of Caution And Years of Budget Cuts Are Seen to Limit C.I.A.,î by Douglas Jehl, New York Times, 11 May, p. A18.

The Clinton Administration did this to us! You can almost hear the CIA whining.

Yes, the intell community suffered budget cuts just like the defense community when the Soviets went away. But just like the Pentagon, the CIA chose poorly when it refocused on a rising near-peer competitor China as opposed to the rising violence and instability inside the Gap regionsóthose very same places we now work in this Global War on Terrorism.

So we are told it will take years to restaff the agent pool needed for the CIA to become effective again.

In my opinion, the bulk of the blame resides with the Agency itself (the ìcautionî portion of the blame equation in the title). Like the Pentagon it was very slow to change after the Cold Warís end. For the CIA to not have anyone inside Iraq a dozen years after we initially went to war with the country is simply astounding.