Blowback is what happens when a policy rebounds against its perpetrator. A much-cited example is Afghanistan, where America backed mujahideen insurgents fighting the Soviet Union, only to find them later training their sights on New York. Something similar may be happening in Syria and Lebanon, where recent bombings look likely to be the work of jihadist groups that have turned against their former patrons. Yet the irony in this case is double, because shadowy manipulators in Lebanon and Syria each hoped to turn the jihadists against the other, and because more lately both countries' leaders have been trying to make friends.
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