James Clapper might as well be called director of US fearmongering --- James Clapper is very worried. It's not the first time. --- Last week the man who serves as America's Director of National Intelligence trudged up to Capitol Hill to tell the assembled members of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee (pdf) that the annual worldwide threat assessment, put together by the intelligence community, has filled him with dread. He told the room: -- Clapper is concerned about "implications of the drawdown in Afghanistan", which is a nice pivot from a few years ago when Afghanistan was a vital national interest that necessitated a ramp up of US military engagement there (pdf). There's also the "sectarian war in Syria" and "its attraction as a growing center of radical extremism", which is compelling evidence that Syria is poised to take up the mantle of "failed state that foreign policy elites are really worried about." -- There is the habitually frightening adjective war front, "an assertive Russia, a competitive China; a dangerous, unpredictable North Korea, a challenging Iran." The sober-minded might look at these countries and conclude that a more accurate set of descriptors would be "an enfeebled and corrupt Russia, an economically slowing and environmentally challenged China, a contained and sort of predictable North Korea and an isolated and diplomatically-engaged Iran". But that would be a pretty lame threat assessment, wouldn't it? - More, Michael Cohen, Guardian, at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/06/james-clapper-us-threat-assessment-fearmongering