Russian efforts to weaken the West through a relentless campaign of information warfare may be starting to pay off, cracking a key bastion of the U.S. line of defense: the military.
While most Americans still see Moscow as a key U.S. adversary, new polling suggests that view is changing, most notably among the households of military members.
Huh? The Russians are lying bastards. And I haven't changed my mind. But maybe that comes from enlisting in the Cold War. One of our running cadences was "Russia, Russia, you better beware. The U.S. Army is coming there. We're going to take your tanks and melt them down. Then we'll sell them back to you for a dollar a pound." Feel free to recycle in military basic training.
And what happened to the "Ivan" targets we shot at?
I don't know how anyone can view Russia as an American ally. I certainly didn't get that from Trump. Sure, the Russians aren't nearly as strong as they like to portray. But while they are not the Big Bad, even as the sidekick to the Big Bad, Russia is a threat.
Perhaps a more likely explanation for the polling is that Democrats have no credibility in screaming about Russia given their sudden conversion to thinking of Russia as an enemy. It would be understandable if people thought that anything the hysterical Democrats are yammering on about must mean the target of their ire can't be all bad.
But the reality is more nuanced, dare I say. Both Russia and America should want Russia to switch from being friendly to China to being friendly with the West:
We must prepare to resist Russian aggression. But it would be nice to settle that conflict.
While Russia cannot hope to get American help to fight China over Russian interests, Russia could at least get a peaceful western front from a peace deal with America and NATO.
And the risk for Russia of continuing their stupid hostility toward the West that would never pose a threat to Russia absent unrelenting Russian hostility is clear.
If China resets relations with America at sea, China would have a free hand to exploit gains inland at Russia's expense. As long as Russia remains hostile to America and NATO, that's a good deal for America, our allies in Asia, and China.
But that doesn't mean we make concessions to the SOBs to get them to do this:
The basic idea by the author that Russia should be a friend of NATO in order to focus on China is correct. I've said that for a long time, arguing European Russia could be a secure rear area so Russia can focus on holding their Far East.
But the author's idea that America should throw Ukraine under the bus to get Russian cooperation makes no sense. ...
Really, Russia (and European NATO states, of course) and not America has something to gain from peace between Russia and NATO. The question should be what Russia can give to NATO to get peace so Russia can deter China from invading and liberating portions of the Far East that Russia took from China in the 19th century.
It has to be on mutually recognized interests in countering China.
And short of that kind of Russian Awakening, I'd rather have more tensions between Russia and China and fewer tensions with a Russia that sides with China in order to minimize the amount of force we need to devote to holding Europe:
One of the problems with Democrats going full Jack (D) Ripper on the Russky threat is that while we should block Russian attempts to dominate their western border neighbors and intimidate NATO, reacting too much is a gift to China which is a rising rather than faltering power.
China would love it if more of our power is sucked up by political pressure to confront Russia.
I'd rather have NATO Europe arm up to hold Europe with minimal American help, to free up American power for the Indo-Pacific theater (and sigh, I still wish it was renamed the Pacific-India Command--PAINCOM). I don't really expect more than nominal European help in the Pacific Ocean.
Only China would benefit if Russia and NATO go to war.
Russia is clearly our enemy--or at least Russia likes to act like we are their enemy for strategic or psychological reasons. If our military services can't reinforce that concept on new recruits, they are doing something terribly wrong.
And if you want some real nuance, consider this from that initial article:
A Gallup survey published in February of this year found only 24% of Americans had a positive view of Russia, down from a 44% favorable rating in February of 2013.
Maybe that whole Obama era "reset" with Russia was far worse than anything Trump has said or Russia has done with propaganda in getting Americans to view Russia more favorably.
