Starnes’ post, made in the aftermath of two explosions at the Kabul airport on Thursday, seemingly blamed all Afghans for the carnage, which left at least 60 people dead, including 12 American servicemembers and numerous Afghan civilians.
© Twitter / @toddstarnesBut ethnically-misguided revenge fantasies from American talk show hosts are a dime a dozen, and have been throughout the ‘War on Terror’. The really shocking part of Starnes’ statement was that it was made on Twitter, which would normally send its moderators to swarm all over an opinion expressed by a conservative pundit. Even Twitter’s most free speech-friendly competitors ban incitement to violence, as well as expressions of ethnically- or nationally-based hate. Yet Starnes’ jingoistic tweet remained online, where many fellow tweeters used it as a piñata.
Plenty of users pointed out that the US and its allies were already well on their way toward achieving such grisly proportions with almost 20 years of war.
And others rolled their eyes at what this would realistically accomplish.
After hours of such abuse, Starnes apparently deleted the tweet. Rather than simply erase it and slink away with his tail between his legs, however, he doubled down on the sentiment, insisting “the killing will continue” if “you do not threaten the Taliban with this sort of language.” That’s despite the fact that the attack was carried out by Islamic State, and not the Taliban, which suffered its own losses in the aftermath.
Some attempted to talk him back down to reality, pointing out that there was no evidence the Taliban had had anything to do with “the killing” and that 20 years of tough talk with the Taliban had produced the US retreat already underway.
…but it was of no use.
Several countries’ intelligence agencies had picked up ‘chatter’ about an impending attack on the airport, with the UK and US among others urging their citizens to vacate the area on Thursday morning. Even the Taliban had warned NATO that some terrorists might find the massive crowds thronging the airport irresistible and seek to attack it, then blame the Taliban in order to hurt its “reputation” in a false flag attack. The group had agreed to give the Americans until August 31 to evacuate, but refused to postpone the date any further.
Twitter was one of the few social media platforms that didn’t deplatform senior members of the Taliban upon the news they had taken control of Kabul earlier this month. It’s questionable this is the type of dialogue they were hoping to have, however.
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