If Only They Could See

Way, way back in December, 1979, I was in gradual school at the University of Washington. I had just returned from a year of language studies in south India and was mildly interested in alternative employment opportunities. I got a call from the Placement Office asking if would entertain a meeting with the NW recruiter for the CIA. "Sure," I said.

Shortly thereafter, I received a call from a mysterious Colonel X who asked if I would meet him at the Federal Building, in beautiful downtown Portland, Oregon. I was heading to California to meet my girl friend's parents so we agreed to meet on the way south. I was instructed to go to the rear elevator, go to the fifth floor, and we would meet in an office he had borrowed just for that interview. Oh yes, I should bring my girl friend.

Well, we took the wrong elevator, took the wrong corridor, and were greeted by two HUGE gentlemen dressed in three piece suits less the jacket and very substantial side arms. We were ushered into Colonel X's borrowed office, which was decorated with scores of images of Colonel X in various action poses.

The interview unfolded at a delicate pace. He as considering me for an analyst position in their "MA Shop" with 1200 other analysts and would be expected to generate a MA Thesis a week--for example, everything that could be known about the cabinet officers of the Pakistani government--EVERYTHING. Of course, nothing about my work there could be on a resume and if I wanted to continue my gradual education, there was no Uncle Sugar scholarship available (just 3 grants per year available for 1200 dudes and dudettes).

I had not minded the mistaken identity of a Kurdish scholar when I had just completed a Diploma in Tamil Studies at Kamaraj Madurai University, in Tamil Nadu. He did not mind that I had experimented with SDS in college ("we all make mistakes"). But the lack of educational benefits for me was the deal breaker. I declined. Thinking that maybe I would reapply after I completed my PhD, I asked what were the burning questions facing the CIA and State Department in December of 1979.

"Well," he said, sez he. "We are a bit puzzled by the resurgence of religious politics in the world today. Now, being a student of sociology, you of course know that the theories of modernity and secularization of capitalist society should be sweeping away the antequated notions of religious identification--to say nothing of religious ethnic political movements. And yet, we are confronted with continued religous cleavages in Ireland, South Asia, and the Middle East is a mess. Now, THAT's a question WE would like answered."

Okaaay. With that, I was ushered out the proper door, down to the parking garage with a validated parking sticker and an entrance card to the CIA compatibility tests given regularly at the UW. My girl friend was impressed. She asked what I thought. I said that after living in India for a year, where EVERYTHING is based on relgious ethnic affiliation, I was having a really difficult time. How so, she asked. I always thought the CIA knew everything.

Maybe if I had not gone south, things would have been different. Thirty nine years later, nothing has changed. The US still ignores the importance of religion in international matters. The result? I have written here before that Iran WILL get its bomb and WILL use it on Israel.

Over at Pajama's Media, someone else has the same idea. In an Open Letter To President Obama on Appeasing Iran, 'Reza Kahlili' writes the same thing. Iran WILL get its bomb, Iran WILL use that bomb on Israel, and Iran WILL do so for RELIGIOUS reasons.

Just as Carter and Company had not a clue how to deal with the then unfolding Tehran Hostage Situation, Obama and Company still have not a clue how to deal the same players of the same Hostage Situation. If anything, the US is still a hostage to the same student activists. With all the money in the alleged Stimulus Package, maybe Obama and Company should at least listen to Dennis Miller, break into the Piggy Bank, and buy a clue.

Of course, all that is predicated that if turned to face the light, they would be able to see. If only.