War By Other Means

     Is that a Russian baked into the bread recipe you shared on social media?  Maybe.  They're certainly up to no good -- and when they've successfully sowed fear, uncertainly and doubt, that's a win.  This article in The Atlantic will rub many of you the wrong way, here and there, but have a look anyway; you can quibble over the details but the big picture is the same.

     China plays a similar game, and they've played the whole world into a corner over SARS-CoV-2.  The only consolation is that they're stuck in it, too -- and "playing not to lose" by knocking everyone else down to the same level might not have been their direct goal but you can bet they've welcomed the outcome.  There's a military white paper on that going around, which is worth reading.

     The same paper addresses the need for the U. S. to get back into the black/gray/white propaganda wars.  Oh, they don't call it that, and as Western Civilization generally does, they separate gray/white (essentially defensive) work from black/gray (mostly offense).

     Our gray/white work in the past -- Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, the Voice of America -- has been very effective.  Now we're up against Russia Today, Sputnik radio and their Red Chinese counterparts, and we're not doing so well.  Time we went to work on that.

     We can get back to intramural Red/Blue contests as they come up, like in November -- but we need to keep them intramural, even if it means working with those horrible-awful people across the aisle.  I can promise you there's way worse squatting in Moscow and Beijing, only too happy to jam a stick in our spokes.