W. Patrick Lang
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W. Patrick "Pat" Lang is a retired United States Army colonel, who publishes the Sic Semper Tyrannis blog, and President of Global Resources Group, a consulting firm. He has also worked with the Future Millennium Foundation, a not for profit family charitable and developmental foundation sponsored by a Lebanese industrialist and politician. This foundation was involved in vocational training and micro-credit lending as well as support to the Peace Process. In this capacity, he registered as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. [1] He is a frequent contributor at National Journal. Before retirement, he was in United States Army Special Forces, and then was Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism, and then Director of the Defense HUMINT Service (i.e., human-source intelligence) at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). For his service in DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” This is the equivalent of a British knighthood. He taught Arabic at the United States Military Academy. Civilian-military relationsHe has expressed concern over the argument of Sen. Jon Kyl and Kit Bond that the generals should direct U.S. policy in the field, as opposed to Sen. Jim Webb that the President retains final authority. [2] He continued this concern over recent statements by GEN Stanley McChrystal.[3] Cross-cultural awarenessA substantial part of the problem in the Iraq War, he believes, is the assumption, by Americans, that other peoples want the same culture.
IranAs part of a February 2009 National Journal panel response to how President Barack Obama should proceed with respect to Iran, he wrote, "The structure of the question implies a situation in which the United States has more or less complete freedom of action in which to pick and choose among options. That is not the case. ... America stands on the brink of disaster economically. The shape and condition of our social contract a year from now is debatable if the economic crisis can not be mitigated. In that context it is doubtful if we can afford the two wars we are now fighting much less the costs that would inevitably derive from yet a further war against Iran...The United States should seek an understanding with Iran in which the Iranians insure that the IAEA has such complete access to its nuclear facilities that there can be no credible claims that they are building nuclear weapons. The Iranians should also give up their support for violent groups that are not willing to transform themselves into democratic political parties. In return the Iranians must be accepted as a major power in the Islamic World." [5] IslamHe responded to Michael Scheuer's comment in the above National Journal panel, "If they want to wage war against each other, God and Allah bless them -- and let America steer clear of the mayhem until one destroys the other or they destroy each other." with "This creates the impression that you subscribe to the notion that "God" and "Allah" are two distinct beings or at least conceptualizations. Since I know you, I doubt that you intend this to be a literal rather than a figurative expression. Nevertheless, such an expression is deeply offensive to Muslims. How did you intend this? As I think you know, I am not a Muslim." Philosophy of intelligenceAmong the problems he sees in American intelligence are:[6]
Apropos of domination by the Executive Branch, in a 2003 New Yorker article, quoted him as saying “The Pentagon has banded together to dominate the government’s foreign policy, and they’ve pulled it off. They’re running Chalabi. The DIA has been intimidated and beaten to a pulp. And there’s no guts at all in the CIA.”Seymour Hersh quotes Lang [7] }}</ref> Iraq WarWith respect to improvised explosive devices in the Iraq War, he was quoted, by the Washington Post, as not being surprised that the Iraqis used U.S. techniques, since they had been in U.S. military schools until the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. [8] The article suggested that U.S. forces could make assumptions about U.S. techniques in the IEDs, in order to counter them.
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