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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 11, 2023

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supported by boots-on-the-ground

to commit ground forces to regime change operations

You seem to assume that the CIA actually wants this — that it is them, rather than politicians or the military, pushing for "boots on the ground."

I believe it was Jim Donald who, in speaking of rivalry between the State Department and the Defense Department, coined the phrases "blue empire of the consulates" and "red empire of the bases." He is far from alone in arguing that for Foggy Bottom, the foreign "enemy," — Al Qaeda, Saddam, the Taliban — is not the outgroup, but a fargroup, and their actual outgroup is the Pentagon. And now, I consider the connection between spies working overseas and embassies — how often the latter host and provide "diplomatic cover" for the former, and such. Thus, is it really inconceivable, then, that college-educated Langley boys might tend to prefer Foggy Bottom over the Pentagon, and thus not really want a bunch of uniformed rednecks trampling all over "their turf"? Particularly when, for the more military-friendly would-be spooks, there's the DIA to join instead of the CIA. That could add some selection effects into the mix as well.

(And now I'm reminded — yes, yes, fictional evidence — of multiple movies where the protagonists are some flavor of military special operations or such, and the villain is some shady CIA spook trying to screw them over for his own ends.)

The CIA prioritized the humiliation of Bush and Cheney, and the wider coalition effort,

I'm saying take this, and add the DoD on there as another target.