WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Last week, a US Congress report revealed that Central Command (CENTCOM) distorted intelligence to present a positive outlook of anti-Daesh efforts in Iraq and Syria.
“The United States has suffered a series of defeats in its anti-terror campaigns since 2002,” University of Pittsburgh Professor of International Relations Michael Brenner said. “The Pentagon, especially CENTCOM, cannot tolerate yet another frustrated effort.”
The most senior generals in the US armed forces shared a strong personal interest in being perceived as victors in the war against the Daesh, even though this was not the case in reality, Brenner explained.
“Reputation, career, and post-military career depend on creating an upbeat story,” Brenner stated.
US President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had both led and approved the shaping of US strategy against the Daesh so both of them also were deeply concerned that these policies appeared to be successful although they were not, Brenner noted.
“At the political level, Obama's legacy, Hillary's electoral prospects, and the Democratic Party's standing all are significantly affected by public impressions of how the war against ISIS [Daesh] is going,” Brenner said.
This confluence of selfish interests for US civilian and military leaders put enormous pressure on intelligence analysts to provide the kinds of analysis and conclusions that they knew their bosses wanted, Brenner added.
“The net effect is to corrupt analysis and presentation right down the line,” Brenner concluded.
Retired US Army Major Todd Pierce told Sputnik that pressures on US military and other intelligence agencies to serve up favorable, rose-colored assessments about the struggle against Daesh had distorted and contaminated the professional integrity of the entire process.
“Unfortunately, the United States is even more corrupt, though its corruption is better disguised than the many foreign countries whom we routinely accuse of corruption [and] failed to identify the most egregious form of corruption in our system,” Pierce argued.
The American public and US leaders alike had failed to recognize the distortions in their military and intelligence systems that were still regularly producing disastrously flawed assessments, Pierce warned.
Pierce pointed out that the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu said a sovereign must know oneself and the enemy.
“In the case of the US sovereign, the people and their elected representatives, there is probably no ‘sovereign’ in history more lacking in self-awareness of their own nation’s behavior,” Pierce said.
US Navy Commander Kyle Raines told Sputnik on Thursday that CENTCOM was looking into the report.
The Daesh is a terrorist group banned in the United States, Russia and many other countries around the world.
Todd E. Pierce served in the US Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps.
