Doesn that limitation diminish the NIE report?
Scheuer: As an intelligence officer, if I was looking at this intelligence estimate again, I would say it was very good. It gave a very good idea of what the threat was, that the threat was growing, broadening and deepening, and I think that that is exactly right. The failure of it is the report says nothing about the motivation of the enemy. I think if that piece was included, people would understand why the threat is as it is described there. But we are still in the position — 10 years after bin Laden declared war on us — of having all of our politicians, the 18 who are running for the next term, Mr. Bush and Mr. Clinton before him, insisting that we’re at war because they hate our freedoms and liberties and our elections and women in the workplace and all of that stuff. Q: It seems to have come as a surprise to the establishment when we had the advent of suicide bombing in Iraq. Scheuer: And in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is extraordinary. I worked in Afghanistan for 10 years and for
