Former CIA bigwig chats with Charlie Rose on WITF

Michael Morell has a nice smile, a honey toned voice and his hair is light brown and perfectly well combed; that plus his impeccable suit and tie give him a certain style reminiscent of one of the Kennedy’s; watching how his eyes sometimes light up, you might even suppose he’s the new minister at your neighborhood Baptist church. But your hunch would have been way off target. Last night you could have relaxed on your sofa alongside your girlfriend or wife in front of your wide screen TV with a glass of burgundy wine and seen and listened to the former CIA expert on Asia, the Pacific and Latin America talk about the “war” against the Islamic State on Charlie Rose’s WITF news commentary program.

Figuring that the CIA has an enormous budget not subject to public scrutiny and has cloak and dagger agents on the trail of what the agency considers threats to U.S. security in who knows what nick and cranny around the globe—and recently having seen a remake of a James Bond classic—you   might have experienced a sort of mixed squeamish feeling listening to Morell explain why the U.S. is collaborating with Iran—Washington’s number one “enemy” in the Middle East—in the struggle against the expansion of terrorist activities by the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

You are a good citizen and pay your income taxes and you know that some of your dollars are headed for the coffers of the CIA, a lot more for the Pentagon, and you also know that more frequently than not some problem will explode someplace in the world about which you probably know very little and before you know it there is a war there that gets more and more complicated and then—maybe--Congress will be asked to “authorize” that war and the press and the politicians will say that this latest war is justified in defense of liberty, democracy, the American way of life and national security…but the conflict draws on and on and you begin to scratch your head and wonder what it is really all about.

Morell, who retired recently from the CIA to work as contributor in intelligence and national security for CBS news, certainly seemed to be well informed during his chat with Charlie Rose. For the record, however, he clarified with emphasis several times that his views were his own and not those of the CIA. For example, that Iran’s true intention is to extend itself throughout the Arab world in order to reconstruct the Persian Empire, exterminate Israel and proceed with construction of atomic bomb capability. But the de facto alliance with Iran is necessary because first the ISIS must be taken care of. And the “friends” in the area, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, should be backed and trained and arms must be supplied to “moderate” militants in Syria and, of course, the U.S. has strategic interests in the area’s oil because the development of oil resources in the U.S. is not enough and…
   
     You sat through the whole program. But that night you had some pretty upsetting dreams, so you woke up screaming “I want out! I want out! I don’t understand anything!” and your loving wife hugged you, kissed you, and whispered into your ear: “Don’t worry darling. It was just a bad dream.”