This entry was posted by co-blogger Dick, a writer and former squadron mate:
I can understand the worry about shoulder-held, surface-to-air missiles being used by terrorists against civilian airliners. It is a real threat and something we should not ignore. As to the Stingers in Afghanistan, one of my sources is confident that their batteries have long gone dead. Further, given the structure of the battery pack, it is problematical how many can be re-activated. What really worries me are the Grails and Strelas countries like China and North Korea give or sell to the terrorists.
The big lesson of 9-11 was that our intelligence community was broken. We actually knew it from December 1991 when the Soviet Union self-destructed and not one, I repeat, not one of our intelligence services saw it coming. I’m quite sure there were analysts buried deep in the bowels of Langley or Arlington who predicted it. What happened to those predictions is anyone’s guess. But we didn’t worry about it because that one broke our way. In short, we missed a chance to reform our intelligence system. We paid that price on September 11, 2001.