Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Hiding in Plain Sight

This article is interesting in a description of Russian efforts to lie and conceal military actions; and how it is faltering in Ukraine. But it misses the point by over-complicating the problem of Russian deception efforts.

The article misses the point because everybody knew that Russia had invaded Ukraine.

On February 28, 2014, I thought Russia was invading Crimea (and I mentioned the east as a target, as well), even though conflicting reports led me to be cautious in assuming what I thought I saw happening was happening. But that fog quickly lifted despite the Russian deception techniques described in the article.

Over-analyzing Russia's deception causes the West to miss the point that "hybrid warfare" is very simple: Russia invades a country; Russia denies it has invaded a country; and the West goes along with Russian denials.

That's it. The West could have reacted very differently by simply refusing to go along with the Russian denials and acting on what we knew was going on--Russia had invaded a free (if corrupt) country.

Instead we act is if we need CSI: Donbas to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Russians are fighting inside Ukraine on the orders of Putin.

Russia just lies and doesn't care how flimsy it is:

Russia's Ministry of Defence has posted what it called "irrefutable proof" of the US aiding so-called Islamic State - but one of the images was actually taken from a video game.

The ministry claimed the image showed an IS convoy leaving a Syrian town last week aided by US forces.

Instead, it came from the smartphone game AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron.

Analysis paralysis afflicts the West, if you ask me.