Gosh, how ever will famousone respond to this? Surely he will absorb new information that conflicts with his core beliefs and won't rationalize it away at all!
Trump wanting better relations with Russia didn't stop him from killing their "contractors", giving military aid and weapons to Ukraine, or applying heavy pressure to their favorite proxy and terror state: Iran.
To be fair- it’s a touch early to be making accusations. Unnamed sources of the unnamed “US intelligence community” published a report that their unnamed sources (allegedly captured Taliban and other combatants) said that Un named Russian agents offered unnamed Taliban bounties for killing unnamed US personnel. Right now- only a handful of major news outlets have picked up the story. There isn’t a lot to go on. The report doesn’t tell us who in Russia is paying these bounties, who in the government knows about it, are they acting in behalf of the state or independent?
The report doesn’t tell how much, how the money was paid, to who, how the Russian agents would get in or out of the country, where and how the meetings were set up, and so forth. So there isn’t a lot of concrete evidence we have to support the claims yet. So far in this war we have also had allegations of the Russians supplying arms and other support to the Taliban. So far those were not proven and little came from them as well.
Russia has an odd way of its “problems” and “enemies” just “coincidentally” being “taken care of.” A strange thing- a Russian defector is killed using means known to be employed by the Russians, and materials of Russian origin found almost only in Russia... and they know nothing about it. Very odd indeed. BUT- that’s the game. If Russia is behind many of the things they are accused of- they flaunt their involvement but cover it up well enough that you can’t PROVE it.
So did “Russia” offer the Taliban bribes- or did some “ultranationalist” “domestic criminal” do it on “behalf” of Russia... or... did Russia use a headliner to do it so they could claim they didn’t do it and leave basically no concrete evidence that linked official government involvement? The fact that such operations are their known speciality doesn’t help them look innocent- but it also helps hide the truth of who really did it while also letting the world be confused and scared that they COULD do it.
But don’t forget this information- as far as an reports so far to the public state- comes from prisoners under interrogation. Not only an often questionable source of information- but who are these prisoners? How do they know what the Russians did or didn’t offer the Taliban? If you capture and interrogate an American infantry private and he tells you that the US President is meeting with aliens- how would a private be privy to that information?
Another interesting question, even if the information comes from high level prisoners- how do we know that it isn’t disinformation? The US is supposedly leaving the region- but if you weren’t done gettin pay back- feeding distrust and or even war between them and a major world power is a good tactic to put them in a position where they could be weakened and or hurt. So we also have to wonder if the info is a ruse.
Then there is credibility. Raise your hands if you know where the WMD’s in Iraq were hiding and saw them yourself after “credible intelligence” of WMD’s was used to start a war. Anyone? No? Ok. Well....
So it’s complex. There are many angles and possibilities and such. If Ukrainians or any number of groups that are geographically or socially close to Russia, met and offers bribes- would the person being interrogated be able to tell the difference? Have they dealt with enough Russians to “know” a Russian- or are they assuming they are Russian because they “look” or “sound” Russian to an outsider or just said they are Russian?
My point is that we do not know yet. Intelligence is a complex field full of bluffs and deceptions and counter intelligence and complexities and variables all exacerbated by the unreliable or duplicitous or ignorant favors of the human elements involved. We, as a public, have very little information right now. We should watch, we should listen, we should feel free to discuss- but we shouldn’t make up our minds just yet, and we certainly shouldn’t call for action rashly without more facts to go by.
We did find WMDs and facilities to make nuclear, or at least dirty, bombs.
Aside from that, this really is just the same old spy vs spy, international intrigue, proxy war, bullshit.
Mostly I just wish we'd leave Europe to handle their own problems in favor of hopping in bed with Russia to counter the Chinese in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.
It’s a balancing act.we spoke in a previous post about how often the military has its hands tied when it is sent to war- for moral or political reasons- which to be honest- usually when it comes to big decisions morals are more of a political concern of perception. But we can’t team up to crush whatever major threat for a few reasons- one being that it’s bad business. Not only economically- but on the whole. Churchill wanted to arm the Nazis to fight Stalin right after they surrender. We pal up with the Russians and we let the guys in we know have been spiking our punch for a century- even if that gets rid of China as a threat- instead of changing it from a largely predictable and mostly stable single giant into many unpredictable and unstable threats- Russia comes out sweeter too- and we can’t go nuclear against them so we can only knock them down indirectly- which requires distractions.
That’s another key- they are communist pals- but not best buds- so we get some relief from Russia because they have to watch China too. Everyone does. Makes our lives easier since less attention for us. We have distance to keep us relatively safe from a good deal of the world. Vast oceans isolate us as opposed to Europe and Asian and even Northern Africa. So it is to our betterment to ensure that those continents have to keep worrying about each other and competing and fighting with each other. Keeps individuals and tag teams from coming after us.
By the same token that keeping some percentage of those continents resources committed to self protection and watching each other- if we commit our forces to hard- not just military but intelligence, counter intel, etc- we leave ourselves open. It’s a game, but a game that only rich powerful people tend to really win while the poor and the young die and pay for that. We also ha e to be careful how and where we use and show strength. Too much is actually a bad thing. Russia can play at invading countries as can we- our policies make the world expect it. If Italy starts taking land or Germany or Japan... that’s too different. People would get worried. Countries would team up. So even Russia and America have to be careful to never go too far or too hard- North Korea is good at that game. Enough to remind people you can bite, not enough that the neighbors decide you need to be put down.
Putin is a global leader who needs to be talked to above board to avoid repeats of the Cuban crisis, pulling out of Germany goes well with our goals of pulling out of the Middle East and of refusing to be Europe's blood bank, and it's really hard to take "Russian cyber warfare" claims seriously when people are calling me a Russian bot on just about every site I've ever shared an opinion on, including this one.
I don't like the accusations, but it's not like we and our proxies haven't been doing just as bad or worse to Russia.
Aside from that, this really is just the same old spy vs spy, international intrigue, proxy war, bullshit.
Mostly I just wish we'd leave Europe to handle their own problems in favor of hopping in bed with Russia to counter the Chinese in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.
I don't like the accusations, but it's not like we and our proxies haven't been doing just as bad or worse to Russia.