text: is military intelligence a contradiction in terms?   absolutly not.  the us military is the most highly educated armed force in history.  reading levels alone are 3 grades higher than the us average.  soldiers work in every field from the tactical, language, and culural knowledge of the infantry/cavalry/armor soldier/marine to the phd knowledge level of satalite command and control.  highly educated sailors run the nuclear reactors on navy ships.  every officer must have a 4-year degree, and many have masters and phds.  my degree is industrial engineering and am now working on a masters.  for some areas, a masters is required for promotion.  the military is at the forfront of r&d across many fields from nano-tech to hybrid/alt-fuel engines to medicine.  now, if you mean the joke by us non-military intell guys concerning the acquisistion, analysis, and dicimination of information to us ground-pounders then you must realize that the military intelligence (mi) process is very difficult to do correctly even half the time.  mi does everything it can but does fail at times.  they work very hard and are very dedicated, but they are trying to find a needle in a haystack that has more hay added every second.