John McCain and Lindsay Graham are beating the drum for a cold war with Russia in the US Senate. It’s as good of a reason to build more and better war machines as any other, but before we start the war, we need to take a long look in the mirror.
The USA has been engaged in a cyber war with Russia for a long time. In fact, we’re engaged in cyber espionage every single day of the year not only in Russia but elsewhere in an effort to *covertly engage our ‘enemies’ and reduce their economic capacity. 

*A covert operation differs from a clandestine operation in that emphasis is placed on concealment of identity of sponsor rather than on concealment of the operation.

TAMPERING WITH CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
This example, cited by Curt at the Daily Time Waster: A CIA operation to sabotage Soviet industry by duping Moscow into stealing booby-trapped software was spectacularly successful when it triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian gas pipeline. 
There is an article today that suggests that the Russians have been intruding into a Vermont power company’s computer system and we see OUTRAGE. However we allegedly blew up their gas pipeline in 2004. 
TAMPERING WITH ELECTIONS
Barack and others are howling about how Russia collected information from e-mail and made it public through Wikileaks. Assuming that’s correct and it was Russian national actors rather than a false flag operation conducted from Ft. Meade by people who don’t like Clinton, how is it so different from Secretary Clinton’s gambit to delegitimize Vladimir Putin’s election in 2011?
(NY Times) MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin accused Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday of inciting unrest in Russia, as he grappled with the prospect of large-scale political protest for the first time in his more than decade-long rule. 
In a rare personal accusation, Mr. Putin said Mrs. Clinton had sent “a signal” to “some actors in our country” after Sunday’s parliamentary elections, which were condemned as fraudulent by both international and Russian observers. Anger over the elections prompted a demonstration in which thousands chanted “Putin is a thief” and “Russia without Putin,” a development that has deeply unnerved the Kremlin. 
Speaking to political allies as he announced the formation of his presidential campaign, Mr. Putin said that hundreds of millions of dollars in “foreign money” was being used to influence Russian politics, and that Mrs. Clinton had personally spurred protesters to action. The comments indicate a breakdown in the Obama administration’s sputtering effort to “reset” the relationship between the United States and Russia. 
“I looked at the first reaction of our U.S. partners,” Mr. Putin said. “The first thing that the secretary of state did was say that they were not honest and not fair, but she had not even yet received the material from the observers.” 
“She set the tone for some actors in our country and gave them a signal,” Mr. Putin continued. “They heard the signal and with the support of the U.S. State Department began active work.”

SPIES AND TRADECRAFT

Barack closed 2 Russian facilities, now denounced as nests for spies, that the US has known about and condoned since the 1970’s – or maybe before that, and publicly PNG’d 35 Russian diplomats suspecting of being part of their clandestine service, here in the US under diplomatic cover.

Under most circumstances, the Russians would close the USGOV dacha outside Moscow and would expel 35 American diplomats, suspected of being part of our clandestine service, in Russia under diplomatic cover.

THOUGHTS

I understand clandestine activity and the need for an aggressive HUMINT service. However, before we stand on a podium and wrap ourselves in the flag, we need to acknowledge that we do the same things to the Russians that we are accusing them of. 

Senator John McCain’s outrage may be real, but come on, John. One way to avoid this is to agree with the Russians to scale it back. We don’t screw with them and they don’t screw with us. We’ll still conduct espionage and steal secrets as will they but we don’t blow up their gas pipelines and they don’t take down our electric grid. We leave their elections alone and they do likewise. This can be managed. The Russians are as reasonable as we are. We agreed many decades ago not to kill their clandestine officers and they don’t kill ours. 

Russia has signaled a willingness to do this and I think that we need to try and take them at their word. Despite what popular media would have you believe, we’ve been able to do this with the Russians in the past. Why start a war that we don’t need to start? Unless you want to use it to justify building more and better war machines…

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14 COMMENTS

  1. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Olympia Snow, Mark Kirk (who finally lost his seat to a REAL Democrat) and a few others, these are RINO's we call all do without.

    They are threatening to derail Donald Trump's selection of Rex Tillerson as SOS, but I have a feeling The Donald will get those renegade votes back from some Democrats such as Joe Manchin and a few others.

    I am not sure what The Donald has in mind for these treacherous RINO SOB's, but I am sure it will be a proportional response. And of course he will make sure that everybody within the system knows how things will work from here on in.

  2. "…we do the same things to the Russians that we are accusing them of." I've been telling everyone that ever sense the Wikileaks came out and Russia was accused. It is funny how pious our elected ones can be while know we are doing the same thing to the Ruskies and others. Got to cover our asses somehow.

  3. John McCain and Lindsay Graham. Has there ever been a war, or a potential war, these two haven't loved and voted for? While in office, of course. John might have prefered to skip the one before he got elected.

  4. Dealing with RINOs is a key component to draining the swamp.

    And for the record, I'm not agains newer and better war machines. Trump's 'peace through strength' concept is valid. We don't need to create some sort of faux war with Russia to justify it.

  6. John McCain understands how things work. He's a smart guy. But we don't need to get in a shooting match with the Russians. There is a better and 'higher' way to approach the present situation with them.

    The crisis in Syria has been exacerbated by the Obama/Clinton F-ed up foreign policy and political ham-handed management of the situation. And they blame Russia, always a convenient whipping post.

  8. The cycle can be stopped at some level where — sure, we'll still try to steal secrets, but we won't stoop to covert action like blowing up pipelines or working to take down a power grid.

  9. You could also start a war to declare martial law. Obviously I do hope that won't happen.
    Good update. Spy vs Spy does bring back the memories.

  10. We've been at war since September 11, 2001. It's now — well, almost January 1, 2017. There's no sign of that letting up. Soldiers and marines die every week in a pointless exercise in Afghanistan. Kinetic War is something that the Russians definitely don't want. I don't think that President Trump does either.

  11. Well said, LL. Surely this ramping up of hostility on the part of Obama's lame duck administration is thinly veiled lib agitprop "kitchen sink" posturing. Putin seems to recognize that as does the incoming admin.

    Let's hope for a real reset.

  12. Barack is irked by the Russians portraying him publicly as a monkey eating a banana, as an homage to his homosexual conduct, as a little boy feeling Putin's muscles and to the ice cream that is black on the outside and white in the middle. They don't show him the proper respect and he's concerned that they will respect Donald Trump, who has promised to undo all the damage that he did.

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