claire's thoughts on the CIA

My sister Claire has some very poignant thoughts on the CIA and the global war on terror:

Last night the ex-Acting Director of the CIA, John McLaughlin, came to talk to us about the role of intelligence in today's world. I liked his speech, overall, he seemed very smart and reasonable, but then i just started thinking: why do we even HAVE this organization? What good is it honestly doing?

For example, he said that in their first year, all CIA agents will parachute out of a plane at least three times in order to get to "know the ropes" of field work....even if they aren't field officers. The idea seemed absurd to me that this kind of "drill" would better prepare a mathematician or computer scientist for their job in an intelligence agency.

I understand that we have gotten ourselves into a state where we do need some kind of counter-terrorism organization, but who says it has to be run militarily? It seems like the agency and other agencies are using methods that accept and even promote violence rather than looking for creative solutions to solve the problems that arise.

Why, instead of spending money teaching CIA agents to parachute out into random deserts, can't they allocate those resources to helping to alleviate poverty around the world, and to promote more international peace talks and negotiations? I feel like if people didnt think of the U.S. as this greedy, war-crazed, heavy handed country then maybe there wouldnt be these tiny sects of terrorists who want nothing more than to put the U.S. in its rightful place as A COUNTRY and not the ruler of the world.

My other main problem is that feel like everyone is so casual about war, and about killing people...as long as it is in the name of "the fight against terrorism"....i disagree...i think that killing people and going to war, officially or unofficially, is always awful, especially civilians and it should be the last step rather than the first.