For the past six months, there have been a considerable rise in the pro-Assad comments made on the systems of major news outlets in the US. Assad invades the US comment systems.
From a rhetoric of non-intervention, to Assad fighting “terrorists” in Syria, to making positive comments on news items that seem to carry the water for the non-intervention crowd or the Jihadists problem Assad helped create, it looks like the Syrian Electronic Army is spending a considerable time and effort on shaping Western opinions.
No wonder President Obama and Senator Rand Paul ignore the Syrian tragedy and other international hot potatoes.
No wonder attacking Israel has become the “GQ” right of passage of the elitists and the far left.
No wonder Mr. Obama does not think Jordan is in imminent danger.
Americans should view the US news media outlets “Comment” systems as instant polls that never stop producing live data and too fast for the real, but slow, opinion shapers to react to. Our enemies have figured they can also shape our opinions, which means the direction a nation takes because of the tendency of elected officials to read the pulse of a nation when making important decisions on national security issues.
This should raise some alarms. The First Amendment applies to people who actually express their opinions from within the US borders and should not be used against the US best interests by unsavory foreigners posing as passionate citizens of the world. We can debate with Swedish or Italian citizens who disagree with US policy, but how can you debate the same with an Iranian Government operative whose job is to monitor the US media outlets to plant lies in the “Comment” systems to favor the policies of his country.
The NSA listens on phone calls and reads emails of foreigners who wish to harm the US. But does the NSA protect the US from within, as it claims it does when it mines billions of records on US citizens, by making sure the public is not subjected to large scale brainwashing propaganda campaigns by our enemies. Terror is as much about words as it is about swords.
When Assad invades the US comment systems, he is invading our minds in our own homes.
Leaking how vulnerable the US is, in this domain, will tighten the rules of the sturdy and mature US “Comment” systems, which have become a source of business data mining to sell more for less. However, how about data mining the same system to understand the danger of free speech our enemies seem to take advantage of to stop us eventually from speaking freely.
The shaping of opinions on the net, using the large public “Comment” systems in place, has become an important conduit for ideas. If the US does not monitor such systems and the media news outlets do not insure it is available as a platform for free speech by anyone except the few countries that promote terror or have a history of a sinister agenda to harm the US, then we are inviting our enemies to divide us and conquer us from within.
Ask a Reaganite who worked for the late President Reagan what the Soviets are capable of to understand that we have opened our doors to self-destruction by simply showing how vulnerable we are to promoting ideas that are divisive and can lead to more homegrown terror.
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