U.S. and Russia both try to sway political outcomes

Concerning the possible influence of Russia on the presidential elections: Let’s take the first step of staying away from partisan politics and focus instead on the subject – foreign government intervention into the politics of another government.

The United States and Russia are famous for their intelligence communities and espionage capabilities. It is foolish to think that these capabilities are limited for domestic protection. Invasions (Bay of Pigs/Panama/Crimea) and assassination attempts (Castro/Gaddafi/Djukanovic) are examples of explicit attempts to promote these governments’ respective agendas.

Are we really so naïve to believe that neither of these intelligence communities has ever thought to influence the political process of its opposition in less dramatic ways? Remember all of the scare tactics of the Cold War?

As witnesses to our own multi-party political system we should be familiar with the practices of spreading disinformation (now called fake news), embarrassing information or, sadly, whatever it takes to do that very thing…exert influence on the political process.

We need to be realistic and recognize this recent activity, if true, for what it is: the probable customary practices of intelligence communities of foreign sovereign states.

This story was originally published January 21, 2017 at 1:04 PM with the headline "U.S. and Russia both try to sway political outcomes."