https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/01/11/cia-william-burns-diplomacy-biden/
Political coups and paramilitary missions, both silent and noisy, made the CIAโs kingmakers a paramount force. It was relatively easy to overthrow Iran, or put the king of Jordan on the payroll or run guns to the Afghan guerrillas fighting the Red Army. The man who first set the CIAโs clandestine service on the road to secret wars โ George Kennan, the most respected diplomat of his era โ later called it โthe greatest mistake I ever made.โ
Then the war on terror made the CIA a killing force, the warden of secret prisons, the flight controller of lethal drones, a military role far beyond its charter. The harder work of stealing secrets through espionage and understanding their meaning through analysis went by the wayside, most tragically when the CIA made the case for war in Iraq with terrifying reports of weapons of mass destruction wielded by Saddam Hussein. The weapons werenโt there.
The mission of gathering and analyzing intelligence, and presenting it unvarnished to the president, was and remains the CIAโs most vital service. Burns will surely work to renew and strengthen it. That would serve to protect and defend the United States at home and abroad. The next president is likely to listen closely when the CIA gives a warning โ unlike, say, President George W. Bush in August 2001, when presented with the headline in his daily brief that read: โBin Laden Determined to Strike in US.โ