"At the still point of destruction
At the centre of the fury
All the angels all the devils
All around us can't you see"
(Sting)

George Tenet's new book, "At the Center of the Storm," in my estimation, is a "must read" (I plan on reading it shortly). If nothing else, the book has a very apt title.

I saw Tenet's recent interview on 60 Minutes, and while I appreciate his severe criticism of Cheney, I am disappointed in Tenet.

Hindsight--for Tenet and his critics--is 20/20. I appreciate that Tenet is a patriot and was trying to do the best he could under the circumstances. But his failures, in many respects, are not easily forgivable.

Tenet gets to speak for himself in his book, so I am going to quote some criticism here--

I usually can't stand Maureen Dowd, but today in her column, she said something cogent with respect to Tenet:

"If you have something deadly important to say, say it when it matters, or just shut up and slink off."

The ex-CIA Officers who just sent the public letter to Tenet had this to say:

"By your silence you helped build the case for war. You betrayed the CIA officers who collected the intelligence that made it clear that Saddam did not pose an imminent threat. You betrayed the analysts who tried to withstand the pressure applied by Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Most importantly and tragically, you failed to meet your obligations to the people of the United States. Instead of resigning in protest, when it could have made a difference in the public debate, you remained silent and allowed the Bush Administration to cite your participation in these deliberations to justify their decision to go to war. Your silence contributed to the willingness of the public to support the disastrous war in Iraq, which has killed more than 3300 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis."

************

Separately, I was struck by Thomas Friedman's column today, "Hail Mary."

He recommends that Bush go the upcoming regional conference in Egypt on the stabilization of Iraq, and apologize sincerely for his mistakes in Iraq, then say, among other things, the following:

"We are being defeated by nihilistic Islamist suicide bombers, who are proliferating across the Muslim world. We are losing to people who blow up mosques, markets, hospital emergency wards and girls’ schools. They don’t even tell us their names, let alone offer a future.

You may think that I’m more dangerous than Bin Laden and that a strong America is more dangerous than Al Qaeda. You’re wrong. If we are defeated in Iraq, they’ll come after you. They already are. And if we’re defeated in Iraq, you’ll no longer have to contend with a world of too much American power. You’ll have to contend with a world of too little American power. You will not like it.

Don’t let your anger with me blind you to your own interests. You are holding your breath until I turn blue. But I’m not going to turn blue. You are. I want to get out of Iraq as soon as possible, but I need you Arab leaders to get off the fence. I know that you fear democracy in Iraq, but the alternative is much worse. If the jihadists win, the Arab world will have no future. I need your help in forging a settlement in Iraq and in denouncing this suicide madness from every mosque and minaret every hour of every day — with no qualifications."

Good journalists often make sovling complex problems look easy--they only have to do it on paper after all--but Friedman is a master. If I had to pick a journalist for a prominent government post, I would pick Friedman or Fareed Zakaria in a heartbeat.