Is Our Government Really So Incompetent?

Forget the apple pie & motherhood statements. Listen carefully to the qualifications. Don't let yourselves be intimidated. Use your brains. Our leading figures re. Afghan mission, military and civilian, UNIQUELY among the UN forces, never heard or read of a single "credible" (ahem, "1st hand") report of torture occurring to the captives turned over to the Afghans? Graeme Smith taught them something new? They hope we read the REDACTED reports? All this makes me worry about the health and competence of military and civilian authorities. I don't mean just figuratively, I mean literally: are their hearing and eyesight really so bad? They never heard or read of any "credible" reports until Spring 2007? Or maybe they just don't read and listen to anyone but each other and their buddies? Should we believe that our authorities are really so myopic and deaf? Is THAT credible? Or what else might be going on? I wonder. So best case scenario, according to the blusterers, is our military and civilian authorities were UNIQUELY incompetent as compared to the other UN forces? That's reassuring. Maybe I'm uniquely optimistic, but I rather prefer to think we are somewhat competent, and any failings were not unconscious incompetence. But hey, maybe we do suck that much, in which case we shouldn't engage in any serious missions and efforts, military and civilian, anywhere. If this is true, one would have to become a small-government peacenik libertarian, since clearly government authorities, particularly the military, are dangerously incompetent, and the less government does, the better. And if you believe that, then you're incredibly gullible and/or pessimistic.