"America's Original 5 Ring Circus"
Home of Political Creatures of All Kinds, All Continents, All Persuasions
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| -Land of the Free |
| Americans Shouldn't Be Treated Like ISIS Insurgents |
| 2021-02-07 |
| [Reason] Adopting "counterinsurgency" tactics for use against wide swaths of Americans can only make the situation worse. Members of the political class are buying into burgeoning fantasies about a second civil war, indulging visions about sparring with parts of their own subject populations. In the wake of recent conflicts culminating in the Capitol riot, prominent figures have been extrapolating from our violent polarization to a dystopian future of insurgency within our borders. Officialdom seems dead set on fanning the sparks of existing political strife into something resembling a national house fire. "The challenge facing us now is one of counterinsurgency," Robert Grenier, former CIA station chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan and later director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center, insists in The New York Times. "Though one may recoil at the thought, it provides the most useful template for action." The danger, Grenier adds, lies in "a large, religiously conservative segment of the population, disproportionately (though not entirely) rural and culturally marginalized." He doesn't believe that the entire segment is violent, but it constitutes "a mass of citizens—sullen, angry and nursing their grudges—among whom the truly violent minority will be able to live undetectably, attracting new adherents to their cause." In a subsequent NPR interview he elaborated, "I think what is most important is that we drive a wedge between those violent individuals and the people who may otherwise see them as reflecting their interests and fighting on their behalf." Days earlier, former CIA director John Brennan had similarly claimed that the Biden administration is focusing on "what looks very similar to insurgency movements that we've seen overseas," consisting of "an unholy alliance" of "religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, Nativists, even libertarians." Brennan added that officialdom is "doing everything possible to root out what seems to be a very, very serious and insidious threat to our democracy and our republic." While neither Grenier nor Brennan are currently in government, both are well-connected and influential. Tellingly, the same day that Grenier's Times screed appeared, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a terrorism bulletin that read like a sales brochure for the former CIA officials' desired domestic policies. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #12 Washington, District of Columbia "America's Original 5 Ring Circus" Home of Political Creatures of All Kinds, All Continents, All Persuasions |
| Posted by: Kofi tse Tung7611 2021-02-07 19:14 |
#11 burst aneurysm family does not wish to discuss nicknack death with public < Bing it |
| Posted by: Kofi tse Tung7611 2021-02-07 19:05 |
| #10 He died of Narrative |
| Posted by: Frank G 2021-02-07 18:57 |
| #9 Apparently that officer's cause of death has still not been revealed - more than a month later. Somehow I doubt it was blunt force trauma, as reported |
| Posted by: Chuckles Elmavigum2123 2021-02-07 17:45 |
| #8 It's questionable if the Capital Police officer who died during the riots died because of violence at this point. So basically the only person that died due to violence that day was one of the rioters. They want draconic measures because they were embarrassed and because that is their nature. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2021-02-07 17:12 |
| #7 Once again "Reason" magazine libtard libertarians are coming to the realization that the left is not, and never has been, their "friend". Suck it nerds, you brought this on all of us. |
| Posted by: Deadeye Jaiting7534 2021-02-07 15:50 |
| #6 They have a very rude awakening coming if they think it'll be anything like Afghanistan or Iraq. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2021-02-07 14:37 |
| #5 All joking aside, they are coming for their opponents. They will start with lawfare and the IRS. Then it will get worse. |
| Posted by: Spoter B 2021-02-07 08:33 |
| #4 If they wanted to treat Americans like ISIS then instead of gun control measures they would be passing out humvees, weapons and ammunition. |
| Posted by: Airandee 2021-02-07 06:45 |
| #3 We would be lucky to be treated like ISIS Insurgents. No I think the left has much worse plans ... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2021-02-07 02:44 |
| #2 Americans Shouldn't Be Treated Like ISIS Insurgents You mean with kid gloves? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2021-02-07 01:32 |
| #1 No they should not. No way. Absolutely unacceptable! And very hurtful. Please don't kick us. Please |
| Posted by: Clush Big Foot1588 2021-02-07 01:30 |