Top Secret America Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Top Secret America - Assignment Example Since the hits against American targets were essentially intelligence failures, there was great need to beef up the current intelligence arrangements inside American borders. Historical performance of the intelligence mechanisms proves that internal intelligence failures need to be tackled at the earliest in order to guarantee the American way of life. The intelligence apparatus in operation in the First World War was unable to avert multiple internal intelligence failures such as the Black Tom incident1. The creation of the Office of Secret Services (OSS) and the subsequent restructuring as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been essential to avoid internal and external threats since the Second World War. The recent restructuring of the intelligence community must be seen in the context of the previous restructuring efforts and their results. If the American government had failed to restructure its intelligence apparatus following the First World War and the Second World War, there are chances that the American way of life would have disappeared in the face of rising Communist aggression2. The commentary provided by The Washington Post relating to intelligence community expansions in recent years fails to see the bigger picture. The emphasis of â€Å"Top Secret America† lies in proving that the intelligence community is out of control for the federal government. ... In a similar manner, the July bombings in London as well as other similar terror related incidents involved execution by elements located inside the borders of a country3. Moreover, these elements were indistinguishable from the general public. The Washington Post’s interpretation considers eavesdropping and filtering of common messages and other information as being contrary to basic civil liberties. However, what the authors have failed to account for is that these very activities alert the counter terrorism agencies in time to take positive action. People such as Ramzi Yousaf and Aimal Kansi roamed the streets in America without hindrance for years, gathering intelligence for their ringmasters. In case that an intervention based intelligence and security apparatus had existed in America prior to 9/11, there would have been much lower of a chance for such incidents. The lives lost in 9/11 and since it are all due to a failed intelligence mechanism. Years of peace following t he undeclared end of the Cold War led successive American governments to cut down on defense spending. Most of the cuts in the defense spending originated from areas that provided intangible outcomes such as intelligence cues. Eras such as the Reagan administration or the Clinton administration saw massive increases in overseas defense spending compared to decreases in intelligence spending at home. The subsequent erosion of resources from the intelligence community meant that intelligence spending decreased significantly in the decades following the Cold War. Consequently, a weakened intelligence mechanism gave perpetrators a chance to operate on local soil to eliminate local targets.