Russia's Hybrid War Against the West
As NATO struggles to figure out what to do, four more years of ass-kissing trumpism will surely guarantee Putin victory.
Trumpists and other not-so-observant people love to imagine that had Trump won in 2020, Russia would never have invaded Ukraine. Well, let them chew on this one: Had Hillary won in 2016, Putin would never have invaded Ukraine.
The four years of chaos and ass-kissing that took place under Trump from 2017 to 2020 so empowered Putin and weakened the U.S. that when Biden entered the White House, and COVID — and Trump’s criminal mismanagement — Putin felt not only ready to move on Ukraine but felt confident a United States severely distracted with rebuilding its weakened institutions and economy would have little appetite for stopping Russia.
It’s like two neighbors fighting over the apples falling from a tree that stands on the opposite side of the fence. The neighbor who owns the tree wants those apples back, but the one whose yard they fall into refuses. Then, the tree owner and his wife break up, and interest in the apples wanes. After the struggling couple makes up, their attention refocuses on the apples, but by this time, tons already lie in storage in the neighbor’s barn. It’s too late. Those apples are forever gone. When Biden came to the White House, it was too late to restrain an emboldened Putin. Having spent four years doing whatever he wanted in that part of the world, there was no way he would return those apples voluntarily.
By 2025, thanks to the war in Ukraine, the military use of drones has escalated to the point of no return. First, it was the Ukrainians, in acts of desperation, who learned to use them brilliantly in a new form of partisan warfare that occupied citizens mastered against the Germans in World War II. The big, slow-moving Russian raping and murdering military learned from its mistakes and began using drones in effective and creative ways — remember “smekalka?” Russians use our creativity against us in unexpected ways to beat us. In 2024, Russia upped increased its hybrid attacks against the West in ways that demand concerted military responses.
When mysterious drones began appearing over oil rigs and wind farms off Norway’s coast about three years ago, officials were not certain where they came from.
But “we knew what they were doing,” Stale Ulriksen, a researcher at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy, said in a recent interview. “Some of it was espionage, where they are charting a lot of things. Some of it, I think, was positioning in case of a war or a deep crisis.”
The drones were suspected of being launched from Russian-controlled ships in the North Sea, Mr. Ulriksen said, including some ships that were near underwater energy pipelines. Norway could not do much to stop them, he added, given that they were flying over international waters (How Hybrid Tactics Target the West).
How do we know that Moscow is behind this? Let’s take the Russia-reality test.
“Russia, are you behind this?”
“Hahaha, that’s ridiculous. Come on! No way, Jose!”
Alarm bells ring! Fail! If the Kremlin is denying it, then we know its behind the attacks. Russian culture has never had much respect for the truth and the penchant for lying filters down through the DNA.
Russia has repeatedly denied launching hybrid attacks against NATO, in many cases ridiculing the accusations, even though NATO officials say Moscow has set up a special directorate focused on carrying them out.
Russian officials also say they are the ones being targeted. “What is going on in Ukraine is that some people call it hybrid war,” Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said in an interview with Tucker Carlson in early December. “I would call it hybrid war as well (How Hybrid Tactics Target the West).”
Vladimir Putin is absolutely giddy at the prospect of Trump and his MAGA cult taking over the U.S. government. First of all, it proves to him and many Russians that democracy is inherently flawed. A criminal and loser the likes of Trump was chosen for a second time to run a country as vital as the United States. It also shows how dangerously misinformed, if not stupid, half of the country is that they chose him (really, I don’t care if Trumpists get offended at what I write so please don’t tell me we need to be nice to them).
Secondly, Putin knows that Trump will be so obsessed with doing what is best for Trump and his family of grifters that all Putin has to do is offer up some, “Yo, Donny, whaddaryatalkingabouts…you look really powerful in that black suit with Nazi-red tie. Geesh, I wouldn’t wanna be on your wrong side, Big D?” And the orange dope will melt like a creamsicle on the hood of a car in Texas in February (average daily temperature nowadays, 82).
Choices have consequences. Our ride is only just beginning. Get your puke bag and hold on.
Ridiculous. What empowered Putin was the incredibly poorly managed Afghan withdrawal, which revealed serious weakness that has only since been confirmed by vacillation and waffling vis a vis Ukraine and especially Israel, which thank goodness chose to ignore "advice" from the Biden Administration.