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Freedom Fighters! Obama, Reagan, Libya, El Salvador
Late in February, we asked: does the CIA have any idea what's going on in the "Middle East" and "North Africa"? (Or are they, you know, behind everything?) Well! "Small groups of C.I.A. operatives have been working in Libya for several weeks as part of a shadow force of Westerners that the Obama administration hopes can help bleed Colonel Qaddafi’s military." Oh and they are authorized to arm… Libya's… rebels… which, well. Gosh. But it all worked out sort of okay, despite U.S. intervention, in El Salvador… thirty years later. And I'm sure the CIA ops in Pakistan are going to work out just great! (I'm not sure of that.)
don't forget our success in arming the mujahadeen in Afghanistan. no blowback there.
… Should we not have people on the ground to gather intelligence and make contacts with the rebels? Cuz that's all they seem to be doing so far. And we haven't given them arms yet; sending in paramilitaries and special operations troops (if we haven't already) would probably be more effective anyhow.
Correct. We should not. The only way we can stay clean-ish in this is to make sure the US goal is prevention of civilian casualties. Arming one side or another of a military conflict is going beyond "protecting civilians" and into "picking winners." Which has worked out… never? Especially when we know basically nothing about the rebels in Libya.
Especially when we know basically nothing about the rebels in Libya.
Which is kind of the point of them being there.
I have it on good authority the Indian cricket team was funded and trained by the CIA.
Never. Give. ANYBODY. Guns.
EVER!
You always end up with a country where it's easier to get a gun than a job. And just GUESS what happens then.
A thriving second-hand-gun market bolsters the economy?
Houses built entirely of bullet casings?
Men who lose legs in gunfights use other, longer guns as crutches?
You are a very talented guesser.
As a friend pointed out on Facebook, in 1962, Pravda ran an article warning Russians against falling victim to the decadent new Western fad known as "The Twist." Which would make it the Freedom Dance.
Hence Chubby Checker's campaign for the Nobel Prize.
No, seriously.