SECRET WARS (JASMINE EDITION)
Apr. 8th, 2011 11:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogITEM: President Obama signs a secret order authorizing covert US govt support for rebel forces in Libya seeking to oust Muammar Gaddafi.
Reportedly.
I’m as clueless as the next guy, but I’ve been waiting for this shoe to drop. The US has a long history of meddling and scale-tipping via the CIA, and it seems unlikely an exception would be made for Libya, previous business deals notwithstanding. Which is probably why this story isn't exactly setting the media on fire. "We're secretly assisting one side of a civil war to tip the balance of power? What else is new?"
In fact, if we’re going to be entirely honest here, when the wave of protests spread from Tunisia to Egypt and other countries around the region, my inner Conspiracy Theorist Fan nudged me and said, “Dude, you KNOW that secret CIA agitators are at least partially behind these, right?”
Because why not, right? If you wanted regime change in the Middle East, and you wanted something more subtle (and infinitely cheaper) than a full-scale kick-ass invasion, why not get the locals to do it for you? Tap into that discontent under the surface and get the ball rolling.
Sure, there’s a million ways it could go wrong, starting with the likelihood that no one at the CIA speaks good-enough Arabic to pass for local. But then the Bush Posse was gullible enough to believe that Iraq 2 would be done and dusted in six weeks.
Anyway, regardless of how the Jasmine Revolution actually started, I figure it’s a given that we were always going to rely on more than no-fly zones and sweet talk to get Gaddafi (Khadafy? Qadaffi? Quadaffy?) to leave town. So it’s no surprise we’ve got the CIA on the case, and I’m sure when the dust settles, everyone will deny responsibility and then the documents will be declassified in 50 years (or published on WikiLeaks by Thanksgiving).
Because that’s how we get things done around here – behind closed doors.
Hey, what could possibly go wrong?
License to kill,
This is dF
Reportedly.
I’m as clueless as the next guy, but I’ve been waiting for this shoe to drop. The US has a long history of meddling and scale-tipping via the CIA, and it seems unlikely an exception would be made for Libya, previous business deals notwithstanding. Which is probably why this story isn't exactly setting the media on fire. "We're secretly assisting one side of a civil war to tip the balance of power? What else is new?"
In fact, if we’re going to be entirely honest here, when the wave of protests spread from Tunisia to Egypt and other countries around the region, my inner Conspiracy Theorist Fan nudged me and said, “Dude, you KNOW that secret CIA agitators are at least partially behind these, right?”
Because why not, right? If you wanted regime change in the Middle East, and you wanted something more subtle (and infinitely cheaper) than a full-scale kick-ass invasion, why not get the locals to do it for you? Tap into that discontent under the surface and get the ball rolling.
Sure, there’s a million ways it could go wrong, starting with the likelihood that no one at the CIA speaks good-enough Arabic to pass for local. But then the Bush Posse was gullible enough to believe that Iraq 2 would be done and dusted in six weeks.
Anyway, regardless of how the Jasmine Revolution actually started, I figure it’s a given that we were always going to rely on more than no-fly zones and sweet talk to get Gaddafi (Khadafy? Qadaffi? Quadaffy?) to leave town. So it’s no surprise we’ve got the CIA on the case, and I’m sure when the dust settles, everyone will deny responsibility and then the documents will be declassified in 50 years (or published on WikiLeaks by Thanksgiving).
Because that’s how we get things done around here – behind closed doors.
Hey, what could possibly go wrong?
License to kill,
This is dF
