Countering the Russian Threat in Eastern Europe Through Counterintelligence | Small Wars Journal

Do you think that RU is the only country to mess with Elections? What about China.
What about Pres Obama and Israel? We try to influence the elections of our friends, and yet other complain when our enemies try to influence our elections???

The whole “influencing elections” narrative has achieved certain levels of notoriety in this country because it is a convenient propaganda tool for those who would seek to attain positions of political power here that they were unable to obtain through the formal electoral process. I do not doubt that other countries, at different points in time, may have attempted to “influence” our elections. And I know that WE have tried to influence the elections (or the leadership selection process, if the electoral process does not apply in a given country) in many, many cases. In some of those cases, we tried to influence the elections in countries which were “rivals” or allied with rivals. In other cases, we tried to influence the elections in countries which are our allies. In even other cases, we “aided and abetted” or gave a “green light” approving a leadership change through assassination. So any public governmental “indignation” about this is, at best, a display of hypocrisy.
This is not to say that we should not be vigilant. We need to be. But we don’t need to be melodramatic simply because we suspect that others are doing what we have been doing for many decades.
The question we need to answer is not whether this or that country tried to “influence” our elections. I am sure that many would at least make some attempt, for political or financial reasons. The question we need to answer is whether those attempts were, in fact, effective. What we have seen so far tells us that they really were not. Sure, some disinformation was distributed by some foreign entities here and there. But I saw MUCH more disinformation being put out consistently, on a daily basis, by political organizations, PACs, campaign organizations and what not… and they were all US organizations. And if some foreign entity allowed us, as a people, to obtain access to information that would otherwise be hidden from us, then …Hey! …we need to thank those folks, especially if the information reveals verifiable wrongdoing. That’s help… and we need all the help we can get if we want to maintain some semblance of honesty among our politicians.
Now… the people who “complain” (we will call it that just to avoid calling it what it really is: propaganda to support a specific agenda) about “foreign attempts” to “influence” our election with disinformation and propaganda, interestingly, do not complain about the HUGE amount of propaganda, disinformation, lies and outright garbage that THEY generate in an attempt to “influence” our elections. Nor do they complain about the millions they received from those same foreign sources that they complain about. Therefore, excuse me for being a bit cynical when faced with the gross hypocrisy of these “complainers”.
Getting back to the article, it is a good piece. It focuses on Eastern Europe and takes into account the specific demographic and geopolitical circumstances prevalent in the area. We need to understand that Russian operations in that theater are necessarily different from what they would be in other places… precisely because of those demographic, geopolitical and historic factors. So, within the context of the subject area it addresses, it’s a good piece.
With regards to the implications in the statement, I would modify it a bit by stating that “They attempted to play both sides in a not too effective effort to sow disorder.” However, I am not sure that we can state that we are “behind” in this game. There have been a substantial number of regime changes in Africa and Latin America that have our fingerprints all over them. The same can be said for the Caribbean, Central America and the Far East. Heck, even the fall of the Soviet Union is attributed to a combined effort by the US, England and The Vatican. I think if you add up the point scores, we’ll come out quite ahead.
You are right though when you indicate that they are proud of their intel and clandestine game. They have always been excellent at subversion, and what is happening now in the US with regards to “political correctness”, and certain “initiatives” that began during the past 8 years, is a very good example of that.
Well, I wrote much more about this than I originally intended. I apologize for that. Thank you for sharing a very interesting article.

SSgt (Join to see) thanks for the read and share of the most informative.