The story broadcast on Jan 11th regarding the CIA death in Afghanistan really got my attention. Not for the heart-wrenching feelings of loss, or even the "compromised" security which led to the infiltration and suicide bombing, but for the simple word, "officers."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122436124
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DEBORAH AMOS, host:
We're learning more about a suicide bomber in Afghanistan as well as his victims. Elsewhere in today's program, we profiled the man who killed seven officers of the CIA. Now, we have the story of one of his victims.
I take exception to the lead-in for this story referencing the killing of 7 "officers" of the CIA. The word officers typically indicates a military or law enforcement designation of authority. The CIA is neither of these. CIA employs agents, operatives and even spies if you must, but not officers. Referencing workers of an ultra-secret, unchecked, clandestine organization as "officers" brings up images of Hitler's SS squads running rampant throughout WWII Europe. Further, what business is it of the CIA to be conducting war operations alongside military contractors anyway? If we have now blindly accepted the CIA as "officers" with military/law enforcement authority, then God help us.
I feel for the families and their losses. However, if the "agents" died in the line of duty, no matter what the instrument of death, it was their choice of career that put them in the line of fire. Should we not expect our enemies to fight back? War is war. These agents of the CIA had no trouble when they were on the delivering end of death- guiding unmanned drones into enemy positions and dropping explosive payloads. How many people, collateral and otherwise, had they themselves killed before being removed from the battlefield too? War is war.
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