| -Caveat Lector-
The Consequences Of Our Actions Abroad
Americans Feeling the Effects of 'Blowback' by Chalmers Johnson Our intelligence agencies--the CIA and its rivals
in the Pentagon--have a history of creating neologisms to describe our world
that cover up more than they reveal. There have been lofty coinages like
"host-nation support," meaning foreign countries pay to base our troops on their
soil, and military jargon like "low-intensity warfare" that repackages the most
brutal strife in antiseptic language. Every now and then, however, a useful new
word emerges from the labyrinth of our secret services. The American media
recently started to use the term "blowback." Central Intelligence Agency
officials coined it for internal use in the wake of decisions by the Carter and
Reagan administrations to plunge the agency deep into the civil war in
Afghanistan. It wasn't long before the CIA was secretly arming every moujahedeen
volunteer in sight, without considering who they were or what their politics
might be--all in the name of ensuring that the Soviet Union had its own
Vietnam-like experience.
Not so many years later, these "freedom fighters"
began to turn up in unexpected places. They bombed the World Trade Center in New
York City, murdered several CIA employees in Virginia and some American
businessmen in Pakistan and gave support to Osama bin Laden, a prime CIA "asset"
back when our national security advisors had no qualms about giving guns to
religious fundamentalists.
In this context, "blowback" came to be shorthand
for the unintended consequences of U.S. policies kept secret from the American
people. In fact, to CIA officials and an increasing number of American pundits,
blowback has become a term of art acknowledging that the unconstrained, often
illegal, secret acts of the United States in other countries can result in
retaliation against innocent American citizens. The dirty tricks agencies are at
pains never to draw the connection between what they do and what sometimes
happens to those who pay their salaries.
So we are supposed to believe that the bombings of
American embassies in East Africa in 1998, the proliferation of sophisticated
weapons, not to mention devices of mass murder, around the world, or the crack
cocaine epidemic in American cities are simply examples of terrorism, the work
of unscrupulous arms dealers, drug lords, ancient hatreds, rogue states;
anything unconnected to America's global policies.
Perhaps the term "blowback" can help us to re-link
certain violent acts against Americans to the policies from which they
secretly--as far as most Americans are concerned--sprang. From refugee flows
across our southern borders from countries where U.S.-supported repression has
created hopeless conditions, to U.S.-supported economic policies that have led
to unimaginable misery, blowback reintroduces us to a world of cause and effect.
We also might consider widening the word's
application to take in the unintended consequences U.S. policies may have for
others. For example, even if the policies that our government fostered and that
produced the economic collapse of Indonesia in 1997 never blow back to the U.S.,
the unintended consequences for Indonesians have been staggering. They include
poverty, serious ethnic violence and perhaps political disintegration.
Similarly, our "dirty hands" in overthrowing President Salvador Allende in Chile
and installing Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who subsequently killed thousands of his
own citizens, are just now coming fully into the open. Even when blowback from
our policies mainly strikes other peoples, it has a corrosive effect on us,
debasing political discourse and making us feel duped when the news finally
emerges.
The United States likes to think of itself as the
winner of the Cold War. In all probability, to those looking back at blowback a
century hence, neither side will appear to have won, particularly if the United
States maintains its present imperial course.
Central Intelligence Agency
Gun Owners of America
"The only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington." -Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) http://www.gunowners.org/ ab
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om |
