Blowback
One of the many criticisms of the release of the Senate report on CIA interrogation methods was that it would endangering Americans, our allies, and our agents all over the world. That prediction has, alas begun to come true. The United States is being attacked unmercifully by Islamic militants, 140 characters at a time.
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Sheesh, “jihadis” today….say what you will about OBL, but if he’d threatened to rain down tweets onto the head of the Great Satan, he’d have been laughed out of the cave.Report
TWEET: “Death to the Great Satan! Your children and your children’s children will suffer for what your torturers have done to Muslims.”
TWEET: Wife #3 forgot milk again. This life…
TWEET: We will attack the Great Satan where and when he least expects it.
TWEET: RT: Emergency Kittens!
[Photo of kittens hugging.]Report
“And if the infidel dogs persist in their blasphemy, we will unleash the viral hashtag!”Report
I think the argument that there will be some blowback is essentially unassailable. There are going to be some moderate Muslims somewhere who will hear some snippets of the report and swear off any good will towards the US. This will be especially true of potentially US-friendly voters in our allied countries who will now have to justify another American atrocity in the minds. The follow-up argument that we shouldn’t the report because of this blowback is, of course, idiotic. But the idea that blowback is some conservative fever dream makes no sense to me, especially from liberals who ordinarily argue for PR outreach to those skeptical of the US (e.g. Obama’s Cairo speech).Report
What is mindblowingly idiotic is the assertion that the people exposing this madness are responsible for the blowback instead of the people who did it in the first place and covered it up.Report
+1 @northReport
What is mindblowingly idiotic is the assertion that the people exposing this madness are responsible for the blowback instead of the people who did it in the first place and covered it up.
What’s also mindblowingly idiotic is the fact that the people with this ‘blowback’ theory are the exact same people who will argue that what we did wasn’t actually torture and is entirely reasonable.
Let me address those people: Guys, you can’t hold both those positions at once. You know that, right? You can’t think it’s a big nothingburger, *and* think it’s going to cause parts of the world to become extremely upset at us.
Or, at least, you shouldn’t worry about it..if your premise is that it’s nothing, and yet the rest of the world is so upset that they will start posing some sort of danger to us, clearly they were just using it as an excuse and the same thing would have happened the next time we mishandled the silverware at a state dinner.
But, wait. Maybe what you are thinking is that our actions are nothing to *us*, but some sort of horrible crime elsewhere…but, uh, the problem is we’re talking about torture.
So your premise becomes indistinguishable from the idea that *those places* are better than us. You’re sorta saying ‘We don’t really care and think it’s silly to complain about, but all those Muslim nations are so *civilized* they’ll get up all upset if they hear about it.’ Or, shorter: ‘They hate us for our barbarity?’
This is, I suspect, is not exactly the premise that you are going for.Report
I’m wondering how large the intersection between the sets, “Likely terrorists who want to blow up Americans,” and, “People who gave the CIA the benefit of the doubt and are shocked by the contents of the report,” is. Isn’t that the set of people the news media have been all freaked out about for the past few days?
I’m fairly certain that most of the people in that first set already believe the CIA is doing infinitely worse things and probably sees this report as a total whitewash.Report
Blowback:
Enhanced CIA DefundingReport
First, slacktivists… now Twittorists?Report
I’ve been following events in Kobani pretty closely, primarily through journalists across the border in Turkey and Kurds on Twitter (including the YPG!) and links I get from them. I try avoid wading into their mentions, because they’re filled with ISIS supporters and even ISIS fighters saying vile things. However, I have learned hilarious slang, like “daeshbag” and “beardo.”Report
I heard Cheney on the radio the other day saying that he didn’t regret that America did those things.
I think he might have thought up a few vile things since then, and wanted to try them out.
Sounded like it to me, but it’s Cheney, ya know.Report