Kudos for our Intelligence Services

Since 9/11 and into the Iraq War people have been slamming our intelligence services: the FBI and CIA, blaming them for lacking omniscience and for failing to conduct proper intelligence when many of these same critics are responsible for gutting their spying capabilities in the first place. The armchair quarterbacks have conducted investigation after investigation seeking to hold accountable these agencies for falling short of perfection. I’ve often marveled at how little credit our national security forces are receiving for the incredible job they’ve done since 9/11 in preventing further attacks on U.S. soil. I realize an attack here is going to happen some day, but that doesn’t change the fact that our intelligence services and the administration deserve enormous credit for what they’ve done so far.

So much of the work they’ve done has been invisible or secret and can’t be disclosed. But here’s a story I missed yesterday because I was traveling that deserves our attention. The New York Post reports that the FBI foiled a terrorist plot to smuggle shoulder-fired missiles into the United States. It is about time we give credit where credit is due.