Social distancing and work from home orders have turned millions of Americans into full-time observers — and critics — of how government works. Received this from a friend? SUBSCRIBE [[link removed]] CRITICAL STATE Your weekly foreign policy fix. If you read just one thing…

… read about the high cost of whistleblowing.

Social distancing and work from home orders have turned millions of Americans into full-time observers — and critics — of how government works. But the most important and vulnerable critics of bureaucratic function are government workers who see problems up-close that their superiors refuse to address. These whistleblowers face enormous pressure not to rock the boat, and when they do, a recent report [[link removed]] shows, the lack of support afforded to them can lead to tragic results. Steven Luke worked in the Pentagon’s Office of the Inspector General, where he worked with whistleblowers within the Defense Department. Yet, intimate knowledge of the process was no substitute for psychological support, and shortly after he began to report suspected malfeasance in his office, he took his own life. According to whistleblower advocates, Luke’s story is not a massive outlier — fully half of whistleblowers experience suicidal thoughts at some point in the process.

When ‘less than lethal’ is less than true

Long running anti-government protests in Iraq have been unusually deadly, despite security forces ostensibly containing the protesters with so-called “less than lethal” weapons. Amnesty International investigated the discrepancy and found that a major source of the deaths is tear gas canisters being fired at such a low angle that the canisters themselves become deadly projectiles. To prove their case, Amnesty investigators put together a hugely impressive digital re-creation [[link removed]] of the area around Jumhuriya Bridge in Baghdad, where many of the deaths have taken place.

Using a combination of digital maps of individual buildings and cell phone footage of clashes between protesters and police, investigators were able to both identify the weapons used and offer direct evidence that police are aiming tear gas canisters to kill protesters, rather than simply disperse them.

The canisters weigh half a pound and come out of their launchers carrying more force than shotgun shells, which makes turning them into lethal munitions a distressingly easy process.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] The most accurate family separation data we’re ever likely to get

Government Accountability Office reports are often frustrating documents. On one hand, they are the result of deep audits by dedicated investigators who have unparalleled access to federal government processes. On the other hand, they are written in language so dry that trying to read it aloud is like taking the cinnamon challenge [[link removed]]. The new GAO report [[link removed]] on family separations at the border is no different: It drops the bomb that no one knows for sure how many children Border Patrol officers took from their families by saying, “Thus, it is unclear whether Border Patrol has accurate records of all separated parents and children in its automated data system.”

The report includes other important data, including that arrests of families with children have gone from comprising 22% of Border Patrol detentions in 2016 to over half of Border Patrol arrests in the first six months of 2019.

Investigators also found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which detains families arrested by Border Patrol, does not systematically record family separations into its internal databases, making it impossible for parents separated from their children to know where their children are being sent.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] MIDNIGHT OIL

This week’s Midnight Oil guest is Matt Gallagher, a writer whose new novel, “Empire City, [[link removed]]” will be released in April. Gallagher is the author of two other books and co-editor of a third, all of which deal with America’s post-9/11 wars and their long term effects. Gallagher’s first book, “Kaboom,” was adapted from his blog of the same name, kept during his time serving as a US Army officer in Iraq in 2007 and 2008.

WHAT IS THE HARDEST PROBLEM YOU WORK ON?

The hardest problem I try to solve in my work — and this has been an ongoing problem for me as I made the transition from Army officer to nonfiction writer and essayist to novelist — is how to make the American people care about the foreign wars being waged in their name. For decades preceding these wars and 9/11, Americans have been conditioned to not take ownership of foreign policy, leaving matters of war and peace to experts and volunteers to handle. And I think that’s just a deeply unhealthy way for a republic to conduct itself. If you’re a thinking person, these issues belong to all of us.

A really early lesson for me about shared responsibility for foreign policy was going on patrols in Iraq in 2007 and 2008 and being reminded that we weren’t just wearing the patch of our unit but we were wearing the patch of the American flag. Everything that we did, good, bad, and ugly, at any moment, would be representative of that. I get why, in these times of great peril, of coronavirus, of a tanking economy, of people just trying to make sure they can pay their rent or their mortgage or put enough food on the table, that one more thing to care about that seems so far away and distant for them might be too much to ask for, but I take it as a kind of an intellectual challenge to try and connect with more people and get them to engage with this stuff. Even if they read my stories and novels and arrive maybe at a different conclusion about these things than I personally feel, that’s okay, that’s how it’s supposed to be. Just care. Just read. Just think. Something tells me this’ll be something I grapple with for as long as I walk this earth, to be honest.

HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT TRYING TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM?

Through a lot of trial and error, I’ve learned to start at the human level. Each passing year, as I write about conflict, I write far less about my own experiences — what I saw, what I did, what my platoon saw or did — and instead focus on other people’s experiences. As part of the veteran writer community, I’m able to meet people and learn how these wars have affected them, including younger veterans, younger people who’ve gone abroad with the State Department or as journalists, and even friends here in the States who interface and interact with these wars through the news.

I’ve found that a lot of being a good novelist about these wars is probably a lot like being a good reporter — being willing to go ask people questions, knowing when to interrupt and push, and knowing when to just shut up and listen. That’s been super helpful — I consider it research. But on a personal level, I find it really engaging and stimulating because it allows me to take kind of my hyper-focused, myopic experiences during the surge and the counterinsurgency effort in 2007 and 2008 and see how it relates to these wars and our republic’s foreign policy in the macro. And as I learn more, I try to use those inputs to produce new writing that is broader, different, and hopefully more interesting than what I’d written before.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] SHOW US THE RECEIPTS

Jorge Valencia reported [[link removed]] on the long term dangers posed by governments taking on emergency powers in Latin America as part of their COVID-19 response. El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have all suspended some constitutional civil liberties protections, and human rights advocates worry that governments will use their powers for more than just public health measures. In El Salvador in particular, President Nayib Bukele demonstrated a willingness to utilize security forces to counter legislative power before the COVID-19 crisis, and some observers are concerned that the incentives to do so have only increased in the current environment.

Bridget Moix called [[link removed]] for Congress to move $5 billion of Pentagon funding into a global peacebuilding fund that would support civil society efforts to reduce conflict around the world. The fund, Moix argued, could play a key role in maintaining peace in Afghanistan in the wake of America’s peace deal with the Taliban and subsequent military withdrawal. Organizations like the Afghan Women’s Network and the Afghan Civil Society Forum, which the fund would support, have the knowledge and flexibility to address conflict drivers at the local level.

Rupa Shenoy spoke [[link removed]] to international students at US universities whose visa statuses are threatened by the COVID-19 era shift to online learning. The Department of Homeland Security has temporarily waived caps on online classes for international students, but many are still concerned about what will happen if they choose to return home while their campuses are closed. Some lack internet access in their homes, while others face the prospect of taking all their classes in the middle of the night due to time differences.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] WELL PLAYED

As the economy tanks due to COVID-19 and Congress contemplates stimulus plans, one idea that’s made a comeback is to mint the coin. Specifically, Rep. Rashida Tlaib proposed [[link removed]] that the US Mint create two coins worth $1 trillion each and then sell them to the Federal Reserve to generate stimulus funds. Of course, Tlaib’s proposal immediately prompted the internet to start asking crucial logistical [[link removed]] questions [[link removed]]… about how to steal the coins.

The United Arab Emirates has spent hundreds of millions on its charm offensive over the years, buying [[link removed]] soccer teams, fêting Hollywood celebrities, and hiring [[link removed]] the best-placed Washington consultants money can buy, all so that now, in a moment of crisis, it could deploy this [[link removed]] trusted voice to assure the world that the UAE is safe from COVID-19.

Never let it be said that game theory can’t be applied to practical problems [[link removed]].

For years, debate has raged about whether video games encourage players to emulate the games’ protagonists. Does playing Grand Theft Auto [[link removed]] encourage young people to take up a life of automotive crime? Does a youth misspent in control of the Mario Brothers [[link removed](2009_video_game)] presage a hatred of turtles in adulthood? The evidence in favor is scant so far, but there is still time for games to prove directly influential. In unrelated news, some Nazis just moved into a castle [[link removed]].

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Critical State is written by Sam Ratner and is a collaboration between The World and Inkstick Media.

The World is a weekday public radio show and podcast on global issues, news and insights from PRX, BBC, and WGBH.

With an online magazine and podcast featuring a diversity of expert voices, Inkstick Media is “foreign policy for the rest of us.”

Critical State is made possible in part by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

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