[denormalized]

> It stands directly against the let's-roll-up-our-sleeves, we-can-do-it optimism for which US entrepreneurs have long been known around the world.

This is an interesting choice of contrast between the KGB and US entrepreneurs.

How about when compared to US intelligence agencies?

Do you think they are more similar or different in their methodologies?

[jka]

Here's a thought exercise: next time you're reading a press release by the U.S. Department of Defense, try replacing "China" or "Russia" with "the CIA", and see whether the contents of the announcement continue to make sense.

As with any country, different organizations have different missions and philosophies -- and so do the people within them.

[baybal2]

> How about when compared to US intelligence agencies?

Read my another comment below, by having a whoping 23 intelligence agencies, USA condemned its leadership to a shower of opinions out of which no correct one can be synthesized.

Only the size of antenna maters, not how powerful is the receive amplifier, or the number of them.

If you link up 23 pre-amps in a row, you will not get a 23 times clearer signal, but 23 times more noise.

[credit_guy]

Countries need to have multiple intelligence agencies. Having a single powerful one is absolutely courting disaster. Dictators understand this simple fact, and all dictatorships have lots of intelligence agencies spying on each other, so a coup becomes less likely. Coups still happen, obviously.

But democracies shouldn't fear coups, you say? 6 of January, I say back. Or Charles de Gaulle (wait, you didn't know that Charles de Gaulle successfully executed a coup in France in 1958? [1])

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1958_crisis_in_France

[mise_en_place]

The US has multiple intelligence agencies. CIA, FBI, DoD, ATF, Pentagon, NSA. They don’t talk to each other much, which is why 9/11 happened.

[vanattab]

did de gaullie execute a coup or did he just fill a power vacuum left as the result of a coup?

[credit_guy]

He actually executed the coup. The event is described in details in the book "Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook".

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coup_d%27%C3%89tat:_A_Practica... [2] https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674737266

[vanattab]

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

[elahieh]

If there’s 23 times more noise, but the opinions are uncorrelated, that’s where the random forest approach comes into its own for a decision tree based on classification or regression. Like time series forecasting, and you can choose the weights based on how well the agencies performed in similar situations in the past.

“In the multitude of counsellors there is safety” — Prov 11:14