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My Fellow Americans, We Begin Bombing in 5 Minutes
The words absolutely scream from the printed pages and the computer screens: An Act of War.
It has come from both Democrats and Republicans, including members of the current Administration. But it is especially popular with those that are consumed with hatred for Donald Trump as they wish to paint him as a traitor to his country and unwilling to confront the Russians over their activities during the 2016 Presidential election cycle.
If we had a serious media, they wouldn’t be parroting these lines but questioning them. No one is asking even the most obvious ones: Do you really believe what you’re saying or is it just convenient rhetoric for the moment? And if you do truly believe, how far are you willing to take it? Are those peddling this narrative willing to accept the reality that the saber-rattling may escalate to a point that one of these two nuclear powers may do something tragically stupid because they may feel that the publicity surrounding an event demands an extraordinary response?
On May 7, The New York Times ran an article about US Cyber Command, pulling its headline from a quote from its Commander, Maj. Gen. Charles L. Moore, “We recognize and understand the importance of being in constant contact with the enemy in this space, especially below the level of armed conflict, so we can defend ourselves and we can impose costs.” What he did not define was the word “costs.”
The most telling sentence in the entire article is this:
The operations in the midterm elections, officials said, showed that Cyber Command could defend against Moscow’s interference campaign without jeopardizing the (National Security Agency’s) access to Russian networks.
In other words, America’s military is doing exactly what the Russians are doing, that is, constantly patrolling a potential enemy’s computer infrastructure, looking for vulnerabilities and, more than likely, pilfering information where we can. And it’s not just a case of both sides doing it. It’s a case of all sides doing it. We have even seen the NSA’s cybertools being reverse engineered and deployed against us by the Communist Chinese.
Which brings us to the brouhaha surrounding the Mueller Report. Even after the collusion narrative fell apart, many like to list off the indictments the Special Counsel obtained from the Grand Jury in the District as proof of Trump’s malfeasance. Among those were 12 Russian military officers. Does anyone actually think this was done for anything other than a dog-and-pony show? Who among the President’s opponents actually expect Vladimir Putin to extradite? And what are the odds that someone in the media will ask any of the Democrats now running to replace Trump as Commander-in-Chief, if the Russian government were to claim US military officers broke Russian law, would they be prepared to hand them over? I certainly won’t hold my breath.
Nor do I expect them to ask Joe Biden exactly why the president that he served did not retaliate against these “acts of war.” The Washington Post claimed that among the many proposals the Obama White House considered was completely shutting down Russia’s computer networks, releasing damaging information the CIA claimed it had on Putin, or the ultimate idea thrown around — cratering the Russian economy. In the end, Obama did very little. He shut down a couple of Russian owned sites and expelled 35 “diplomats” from the Russian Embassy in DC, and only when he and Trump were in the transition phase.
One high-placed Obama official seemed willing to concede that this so-called “act of war” was not really an “act of war” and that they were unwilling to risk a potential escalation. “There have been folks out there who suggest somehow if we went out there and made big announcements and thumped our chests about a bunch of stuff, that somehow it would potentially spook the Russians,” he said. “I think it doesn’t read the thought process in Russia very well.”
That high-placed official didn’t get any higher. It was Obama himself.
The irony of all of this war talk is multifaceted. Biden was at the forefront of opposing Ronald Reagan’s policies against the Soviet Union and Bernie Sanders was so in love with Lenin and the Soviet system he honeymooned there. Others attack Trump as a warmonger for pulling out of Obama’s Iran deal all the while berating him for being “soft” on the Russians. Just a cursory search on Twitter shows the most active elements of the American left is buying this narrative hook, line and sinker. For them, Trump is in Putin’s pocket until he proves otherwise.
Their “proof” may be a very dangerous place to be.
Published in Foreign Policy
Buying facebook ads is an act of war?
How did Trump end up as the adult in the room?
The Democrats will say anything, do anything, risk anything to gain the power of the government. No rational argument can prevail. They just don’t care.
The 12 Russian GRU agents indicted by Mueller’s dog and pony show were window dressing but the farce came to a sudden stop when one of the indicted Russian companies hired an American lawyer and appeared in court. They asked for discovery and pled not guilty. The Mueller dog and pony show folded its tent and vanished from view, although they did appear for a court date this week.https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/russian-company-indicted-mueller-pleads-guilty-election-meddling/story?id=55051068
Not sure if I should say “Wow!” or “Yikes.”
As that old guy in the Army commandant hat used to say on TV show “Laugh In” – “Very Interesting…”
Of course it could be that the Mueller people are off in Siberia, looking for Boris and Natasha, who were last seen in company of “Mo-oose and Squirrel.” As soon as that pair of Russian spies are located, it is curtains for Mr Trump, I tell ya, Curtains!
Great post, EJ. But I gotta say, without going into detail, and without casting aspersions upon Maj. Gen. Charles L. Moore,
Cyber Command sucks.
Evidently. Because treason is the only crime the Founding Fathers specifically chose to define in the Constitution (Article III, Section 3):
Someone actually has to be at war with the United States before they can be charged with treason. No act of war, no treason. And not even the leaders of the Confederacy were charged and tried for it. And if anybody ever made war against the United States it was Jefferson Davis & Co.
It is absolutely amazing how many “blue check thought leaders” on Twitter push this act of war nonsense.
Like people before them, they think they will be able to control events. They think that chaos never wins. Like people before them, they are wrong, and beasts unleashed will bend to no Man.
And attempting a coup is insurrection and not treason. I guess we won’t need to resize the electric chair for Comey.
The whole GRU Facebook ad thing is soooo stupid. Not only does Russia have internet stream of 24×7 “news” (RT), but they have radio broadcasting in Washington DC of Sputnik “news” service. If you can run a radio station and 24×7 TV, you do *not* need Facebook to get the word out.
EJ,
You’ve heard of the blind leading the blind. With the Dems it’s the stupid leading the stupid. The inanity of the Iran Deal and Obama’s entire continuous apology tour foreign policy should have been the tipoff. The Dems live in a magical fantasy world where not only do their absurd assumptions have a microgram of weight but they can turn those assumptions 180 degrees anytime it’s politically convenient without any ramifications.
No rational foreign policy in respect of Russia or anywhere else could possibly exist with the Dems for even a microsecond. Their political schizophrenia negates all reason from the get-go.
Regards,
Jim