Anyone with an Internet connection can now see from Congressional-level reports that Saudi hijackers received embassy-level support from the Saudi government for their actions, or that the Iraqi 'Yellow Cake' fairy tales were exactly that. At the advice of our intelligence agencies, we invaded, and continue to 'advise' ... Afghanistan and Iraq, even as the logistical and air conditioning bills alone for such actions constitute the world's largest military expenditures. I might even be willing to entertain Sec 702 if I could see for one moment how it helps in such light (ie, when the 'intelligence agencies' manufacture politically expedient fiction instead of honest SIGINT and HUMINT).
Between Generation Kill[1], See No Evil[2] and The Afghan Nightmare[3] (and other sources, other wars, other regions), it's hard to see how intelligence is working at all.
In particular [3], which deals with a NATO commander in Afghanistan is telling: Considering the British have been involved in the area for hundreds of years, the US has been involved for decades -- one wonders how one could possibly construct mission parameters that are clearly pure fantasy.
I'm still not sure if it is the result of gross incompetence, or stems from ulterior motives (or a more likely; a combination) -- either way the idea that the intelligence services help prevent wars (at least the parts concerned with sigint) -- is hard to take at face value.
This. Anybody saying US-Israel intelligence sharing is the major factor in preventing a war is blind. Whenever Netanyahu and his ilk want to get reelected they run to the UN and wave 10 Minutes to Midnight infographics about Iran, completely ignoring real issues like inequality and cost of living. It's the sanity of the Israeli intelligence community preventing a war, not the intelligence sharing.
