The State Department asked people to share their solutions following a three-day summit at the White House this week on Countering Violent Extremism. It's apparently such a tough issue that State has figured out that they simply don't have the brainpower to solve it themselves. So why not put it to net denizens?
We want your input. Share solutions you think are critical to countering violent extremism. http://t.co/lmVRNT7CAl pic.twitter.com/ivZKtwEQ8a
— Department of State (@StateDept) February 20, 2015
The answer as to why that was probably not a great idea lies in the responses. One called it for what it is.
In other news, looks like the @StateDept is now crowd sourcing fight against ISIS.
— Tommy (@FirstTeamTommy) February 20, 2015
Some people were not happy to be asked to do someone else's job they're actually paying them for.
'What the hell are we paying you for?' Here's how State Dept.'s fighting terrorism [pic] http://t.co/C06CDZx6tG
— TwitchyTeam (@TwitchyTeam) February 20, 2015
Resign. ALL of you. MT @StateDept: We want your input. Share solutions you think are critical to countering violent extremism.
— WitCoHE (@E__Strobel) February 20, 2015
Not surprisingly, it opened up a Twitter tirade against the commander-in-chief.
A president with balls?. "MT: @StateDept: We want input. Share solutions you think are critical to countering violent extremism."
— Brandon Darby (@brandondarby) February 20, 2015
Others were equally unhelpful to State, though many in the Department of Defense probably wish this was possible.
.@StateDept Here's a solution I think is critical to countering violent extremism: pic.twitter.com/zLnGwUtb9X
— jimgeraghty (@jimgeraghty) February 20, 2015
In that very vein, neo-con Senator Tom Cotton offered some suggestions.
Glad you asked-I have some ideas…RT @StateDept: We want your input. Share solutions you think are critical to countering violent extremism
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 20, 2015
However, all of Cotton's proposals really sifted down to one concept: bomb, bomb… bomb, bomb IS.
.@StateDept A-10 Warthog pic.twitter.com/NJqLlzBlrR
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 20, 2015
.@StateDept B2 Bomber pic.twitter.com/GgIr3d1TtJ
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 20, 2015
.@StateDept Tomahawk strike pic.twitter.com/rVU4KWC5bk
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 20, 2015
.@StateDept C-130 pic.twitter.com/cVuijxIYdx
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 20, 2015
One of Cotton's followers took it even further, apparently fine with the idea of killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people as collateral damage.
@SenTomCotton @TAYLORFPOTTS @StateDept Two of these worked for Japan pic.twitter.com/jJ8fXqv5Iu
— Mike (@mikehall6565) February 21, 2015
However, to be fair to the senator from Arkansas, he's fine with an invasion putting some boots on the ground as well.
.@StateDept 101st Airborne pic.twitter.com/kDk49g5iwu
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 20, 2015
.@StateDept Special Forces #RLTW pic.twitter.com/RUDBTIiOiI
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 20, 2015
Of course, the 37-year-old Army veteran was only married last year and doesn't have children who would be part of that invasion.
These are probably not the types of responses the State Department was looking for, but the strategy does beg the question: What else can we crowd source? A result of recent budgets cuts, the IRS has fewer agents to process returns. Why not put those out to tweeters? "@IRS: Hey, anyone want to process this return for John Smith?"
The Secret Service has done such a notoriously bad job of protecting the White House, how about crowd sourcing for that? They could make a Facebook group event with calendars for caring citizens to show up at the gates at scheduled times to protect the president and his family.
Then there's the TSA. That one should be easy to recruit for: "Come gawk at nude people on X-rays!"
Then there's the crowd sourcing for national defense.
Oh, wait. That's right. They already did that. That's why we now have the military industrial complex.
