Meet our new allies: Russia
They planned to put bombs on our planes, but we are pursuing glorious partnerships with them. Al-Qaeda asks: WTF?
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ALEX’S WEEKLY RANT
If you’ve followed me for a while, you already know that the kinetic war in Ukraine is inextricably linked to our own security. Given Russia’s inability to confront NATO and the Western alliance directly, Vladimir Putin has pursued a strategy to destabilize our democracies and our unity from within.
It looks like he has achieved his goal. And he did so with the help of the president of the United States.
On Tuesday, just as I was going on stage to give a presentation at the Naval Post Graduate School about how important supporting Ukraine is to our own national security, news broke out of Riyadh that Trump’s foreign policy minions had commenced brokering a deal to throw Ukraine under the Russian bus end the war in Ukraine. Not present at that meeting: Ukraine. Also not present: Europe, which Trump has repeatedly said needs to take the lead on Ukraine’s security. How does he expect them to do that when Trump and Putin are intent on carving countries up without anyone else’s input?
Needless to say, this kind of fucked up my presentation. There I am, on stage, advocating for giving Ukraine all the weapons and support they need, while news kept coming out that instead, the US was not just working alone with Russia on a peace plan, but was offering Russia everything Putin wants, without getting any concessions in return.
This new US stands ready to give Russia occupied lands in Ukraine, ease sanctions, and allow Russia back into the G7. Indeed, on Thursday, the US blocked the G7 statement addressing the third anniversary of the start of the war, refusing to agree to language that names Russia as the aggressor.
US envoys also agreed that Ukraine needs to hold an election. Notably, Ukraine’s constitution calls for not holding elections while the country is under martial law (as it currently is, thanks to Russia’s aggression). Furthermore, and this may surprise some of you: Russia interferes in elections to boost their preferred candidate (see Yanukovych in Ukraine, Georgescu in Romania, and Trump in the USA). Any election in Ukraine under these conditions would be a backdoor for Russia to install a puppet regime in Kyiv.
Lil Marco Rubio, our Secretary of State in name only, looked like a hollowed out shell of himself as he sat in front of cameras and discussed “pretty unique and potentially historic economic partnerships” with Russia. Oh, Marco. The problem when you latch on to the shark is that you eventually get eaten, or at least your soul does. Remember when you were head of the Senate Intelligence Committee and signed off on the bipartisan report on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 US Election that concluded:
“[T]he Russian intelligence services’ assault on the integrity of the 2016 US electoral process[,] and Trump and his associates’ participation in and enabling of this Russian activity, represents one of the single most grave counterintelligence threats to American national security in the modern era.”
Water under the bridge, right? Sure, as long as Russia doesn’t blow up that bridge or poison that water. Because those are the kinds of attacks Russia has been carrying out in Europe and the United States, using sabotage, arson, cyber attacks, and more to target our critical infrastructure. Not to mention that Russia was pursuing a plan to place bombs on passenger and cargo planes bound for the US, and tested the devices. When al-Qaeda did shit like that, we called it terrorism. Or that Russia paid the Taliban to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan. Or when Russia targeted our diplomats and spies with..some kind of weapon we don’t even understand yet…to cause traumatic brain injury (i.e. Havana Syndrome).
But sure, Russia sounds like a great and reliable partner with whom to pursue incredible and unique opportunities.
By the following day, Trump was calling Zelenskyy a dictator and said Ukraine started the war. For those of you not familiar with the complexities of the start of the war, I highly recommend this explainer from Kyiv Independent. In fact, I’m just going to quote the whole thing here, because I find it so helpful:
Who started the war in Ukraine?
Russia.
The ass kissers of authoritarians also agreed to pursue allowing Russia to bring spies back into the US. Yes, seriously. After Russia interfered in our elections and tried to assassinate a defector in Salisbury with novichok and a string of other attacks, the US kicked out a bunch of “diplomats” (spoiler: they were spies) and closed consulates in San Francisco, Houston, and Seattle, all believed to have been hotbeds of Russian intelligence activity in the US (which is why we kicked them out!).
But in Riyadh, Rubio et al. agreed to discuss letting Russian “diplomats” back in and handing back those compounds.
Oh, and also: China is cheering on this new US-Russia detente.
So, just to be clear: On one side of this conflict now, we have Europe and Ukraine. And on the other side we have the US, Russia, and China. Cool.
All this when, in fact, Russia is at its weakest. Its economy is about to tank, soldiers are taking taxis and donkeys to the front, wounded soldiers get sent into the meat grinder on crutches, and people around Putin are beginning to tell him the war is affecting Russia’s ability to win friends and influence people in Central Asia and Africa.
America has never acted like such a weakling as it is now under Trump, who looks at Putin the way a freshman football player looks at the star quarterback. He so badly wants to be him. And we are all suffering for it.
THE WEEK’S LINKS
A roundup of things you should be reading
TRUMP EXTORTION OF UKRAINE
US could cut Ukraine’s access to Starlink internet services over minerals, say sources (Reuters)
EXCELLENT RESOURCES!
Just Security has launched WHAT JUST HAPPENED? as well as a litigation tracker to help readers keep up with the chaos
Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She writes and teaches about terrorism, disinformation / covert influence, and oligarch yachts. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Reductress, Funny or Die, POLITICO, The Center for Public Integrity, and other publications. She has spoken to the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, France24, and numerous other media outlets. She was also invited once to speak at Harvard, which she now tells everyone within the first ten seconds of meeting them. She is the author of the Victor Caro series, satirical novels about the CIA. Before joining the CIA, Alex was a journalist, covering Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy. She reported on issues related to national security, intelligence, and homeland security. Did she mention she was invited to speak at Harvard?
Everything our war dead fought and died for is at risk. They weaponised social media and turned it against the people.
What are your thoughts on Trump turning the US military on American citizens? I feel this is looming on the horizon and Trump et all see this as the final blow to democracy. declare martial law, prohibit elections and erase the final remnants of democracy.