World War Three!

Game on!

The next big war is on, and we have barely noticed!

There are two sides - The West and its Democratic allies, versus China, Russia and a range of also-rans including Iran and North Korea.

But where, pre tell, are the mass casualties? Why have our young people not yet been conscripted? In a sense, they have been conscripted, but not in the ways we are used to.

Read on...

"War is the continuation of politics by other means..." so said von Clausewitz.  

In the present age, war is being waged on the Internet. It is an actual war that meets any definition of "war", not of military aggression, but over public opinion.

This is perhaps a bit cryptic...it requires more background and discussion.

When states fight what we have always thought of as "wars", they do so in order to eliminate a looming competitor; or to gain land and living space; or to avenge a wrong; or to wipe out a religious or ethnic competitor; or to defend what they think is a vital interest. 

In fact, war as a policy tool has been illegal since 1928, so all wars these days are "defensive", as the only legal justification for the use of force in international law is defensive. Nonetheless, there are small wars and civil wars underway all over the globe. But I'm noting a different type of war here.

The goal of wars - any war - is almost always to leave your opponent divided and emasculated to the extent that they can no longer pose the threat, or so that they can no longer compete against a country's interests as they did previously.

This is happening right now at the level of public opinion, and it should be apparent that The West and its Democratic allies are losing this war.

What!!?? We are losing a war that is leaving us divided and emasculated? Am I the one who is LOSING IT!? Please read on, and think about Brexit...  

The Russians, through the vicious "fake news" propaganda of Cambridge Analytica and other on-line manipulation, won a magnificent victory over Europe on June 23, 2016, when Britain narrowly voted to leave the European Union. This would not have happened but for the vile lies and distortions of the Russians and their traitorous stooges.  

This is the first essential point of this wee tome...

As public opinion in democracies is at the essence of how change is made, if a malignant force wants to move a country away from its real interests and toward those of the malignant actor, that actor must change public opinion. Social Media, in that it can reach right into the minds of each and every citizen and form their opinions, has become the REAL battleground, as the results of successful media manipulation can be precisely the same as the results of a successful war of aggression.

The proof?

Three years after the referendum, Britain is now ready to formally leave Europe. In so doing, the British will leave Europe weakened and less able to confront Russia on issue like Ukraine. Brexit may even hearken the end of the United Kingdom itself, as it is very likely that the Scots will seek independence, and Northern Ireland may seek an accord with the republic to the South.

Do you see what I mean?

By manipulating democratic processes within a long-standing democracy through the propagation of mass lies and distortions via Social Media (as well as their official propaganda arms like Russia Today, or RT in the West), the Russians were able to bring about the same results of a major war against their enemies in Europe - the weakening of their primary challenger on the continent, and they may even have brought about the dismemberment of their longest-standing opponent in Europe as well!  

Hmmm...why employ armies when the Internet can get you the same results?

Not convinced? Please think about what is going on in the USA.

There is a divide in that country that now rivals the divide that was apparent there prior to the Civil War - Red State versus Blue State; Democrat versus Republican; CNN versus Fox; Right versus Left, and unlike anything since prior to World War Two, Capitalists versus Socialist. 

There is some focus on the need to confront "fake news" both on the Left and Right, with both sides hurling accusations at the other regarding their opponents questionable veracity. 

But the focus is on tools and methods, not on purpose; commentators who speak out against "fake news" note the what is happening, but not the why.  

As with Brexit, we can find the long malignant hand of Russia at work here - for them, the Cold War never ended, it has just moved to computer screens.  

It is well known that the Russians supported the election of Donald Trump in 2016. What is less known is that they also supported the evolution of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

I have news for you - the Russians don't give a hoot for either Trump or for Black people in the USA. By supporting the former, they divide the USA from the Right, and by supporting the latter, they divide the USA from the Left. 

The intense political division that we see in the USA at present is not organic - this did not evolve naturally. It has been successfully encouraged and driven on purpose by America's historic enemy.  

The point of Russian efforts is not to spread "fake news" per se - that is the tool or method being used.  The purpose behind mobilizing this tool in the United States is to weaken, if not outright dismember the Great Republic as assuredly as if the USA had lost a war. In other words, they are seeking to do to the USA what the Russians have successfully brought about in Europe, and maybe even Britain itself, via Brexit.  

What about China?

The Chinese are fighting mostly a defensive public opinion battle, designed to protect the position of the Chinese Communist Party. One primary way they do this is through threats to Western media about lost access to the mainland if they do not do what the Communists want.

For example, try finding an article about Falun Gong in Western media - they are there, but they are rare. This religion constituted the greatest threat to the Chinese Communist Party since the revolution up to the end of the 1990s. It was put down in the most horrific suppression of a religion on planet earth since the Holocaust. 

This has barely been reported on, because Western media need access to China to make money - so they do what they are told. Falun Gong has hit back with its own media source - The Epoch Times, which is now the largest weekly periodical on the planet.

To the extent that China is taking to the offensive, it is doing this through cultural means designed to slowly undermine the faith that Westerns, and especially Americans have in their institutions. One primary way has been by partnering with Hollywood in the co-production of movies. The Chinese often insist on plot lines that put the Good Ole USA in a bad light, and China in a good one.  They understand the power of the movies, and as with Russian manipulation of Social Media, they are seeking to get their message right into the minds of citizens of their adversary in order to undermine and weaken them.

Beyond the Russians and Chinese, others such as Iran and even North Korea are engaged in "war by airwaves".  There's is more direct, targeting base infrastructure in the West in something like a normal military campaign designed to reduce their enemies ability to fight. This is not like the battle for public opinion that is underway on a broader scale, however.    

Regarding the battle for public opinion, and as with all wars, we have a cavalcade of traitors and turncoats who are more than willing to sell the country out for mammon. Let me outline who these people are by way of example.

When a person knows that they are spreading Russian propaganda designed to weaken the West or even dismember their own country, they are objectively a traitor, and to the extent that they do cooperate with Putin, they may actually be guilty of treason. Now consider the US Congress... 

Recently, as part of the impeachment hearings, Republican representatives parroted the Russian propaganda line that Ukraine is the source of the e-mails that were stolen from the Democratic National Committee that ended upon Wikipedia. This is utterly false, and the people repeating these lies know it, but they want to win, and making a deal with the devil is often one way to do it.  

This illustrates a point which is that the malignant forces that seek to win a war against the Democratic West have found willing stooges on both the Left and Right. These are persons who are so involved in their own internal battles against political opponents that even if they have to truck and trade with their country's historic enemy, that is fine, as long as they win.

In that sense then, this period in history may be a bit like the Middle Ages. At that time, Europe was dominated by weak kings and strong aristocrats. If one king wanted to try to take land from another by way of a war, they could often find willing aristocratic turncoats on the other side willing to help out, as long as he undertook to reward them handsomely afterward. 

We have such turncoats now. If you think about it, you will know who they are.

There is also an entirely different perspective that warrants review here, which is the extent to which the uber wealthy are essentially driving all of this for personal gain, regardless of country, loyalty or anything other than the accumulation of more wealth. I will stay away from this topic for the time being.

So what of military campaigns, and what we normally think of as wars? 

There are wars now, but wars matter, not from the perspective of conquest, but from the perspective of the effect that managing wars may have on public opinion.  There is only one real battleground now, and it is in the minds of citizens.  

For example, did the USA pull out of Iraq for military reasons, or so that Obama could claim that he did it and move up in the public opinion polls?  The rise of ISIS suggests that the Americans left Iraq a tad early.

Did Trump order the killing of Qassem Soliemani to protect the USA and its citizens and interests, or to divert public opinion from his impending impeachment trial in the Senate? Do I really need to answer this one!?

This use of foreign military actions to influence domestic opinion is as old as history itself. But the prime importance of public opinion in all of this is new as the world has never had a situation in which the opinions of citizens in so many places matter as much as today. The ability to influence this opinion directly through Social Media is also nw - together they have wrought a revolution in warfare, from the field to the mind.

The second key point about war today...

Democracy plus Social Media may have brought an end to war as it has been known for millennia. To defeat a Western democracy now, it is not necessary to fight a traditional war - just convince population for vote for an initiative or party that is adverse to their interests and in favour of the aggressive country in question, and that is that!

So who are the soldiers in this war?

Well, if you are reading this, you are!  To the extent that you are connected via the Internet, you are also a soldier in a war being fought over your personal opinions.

The military draft? No one is more connected via IT than young people...call it Conscription by Facebook.

One final thought - where does this go when we mix in Artificial Intelligence?