The CIA Spent 20 Years on the Front Lines of the War on Terror. It’s Time For That to Change

Recommendable! However, remember that the CIA is only one of over a dozen or so intelligence services of the U.S.

Was there mission creep or the mixing of military and intelligence objectives going on? This opinion peace suggests so! E.g. too often CIA directors and top Pentagon officials rotate.

"... But the integration of intelligence and warfighting may have been the most promising — and problematic — change of all.

Before 9/11, who did what was much clearer: The military fought wars; the CIA collected and analyzed intelligence (and carried out covert operations when it was important to hide official U.S. involvement). After the terror attacks, though, those distinctions blurred, fast. The CIA jumped into Afghanistan and became deeply involved in the day-to-day prosecution of the global war on terror. ...
Twenty years after 9/11, the United States faces escalating threats from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, conflict in cyberspace as well as physical space, and global challenges like climate change and pandemics. The CIA needs to regain the balance between fighting the terrorist enemies of today and providing the intelligence to detect, understand and stop the enemies of tomorrow. ..."

Opinion | The CIA Spent 20 Years on the Front Lines of the War on Terror. It’s Time For That to Change. - POLITICO An enduring legacy of the global war on terror is an approach to intelligence that doesn’t serve U.S. national security interests as it once did.