Obama & Russia: Gulf of Tonkin, Redux?

Lots of excited tweets and press reporting about Russian "hacking," and Obama's "tough" actions against the Soviet Russian diplomatic presence in the USA. The State Department has ordered 35 Russian personnel out of the US, declaring them PNG, and shut down two large Russian owned compounds one on Long Island, New York, and the other in Centreville, Maryland. In its last three weeks in office, Obama's misadministration suddenly discovered that Russia spies on us, that many of Russia's diplomats are actually spies, and that those two compounds, owned by the USSR and Russia for decades, are used for "espionage." Ask the folks at Aberdeen Proving Grounds about that Maryland compound.

Wow! I guess Romney was right when he worried about the 1980's being back, eh?

There's a lot to say on all of this, but I will only say a bit--many others out there smarter than I are writing a lot about this. I am, however, just taken, really quite impressed, in fact, by how patriotic and national security conscious the Dems and the progs, in general, have suddenly become. Suddenly (there's that word, again) American security and sovereignty are at the top of prog and media concerns. They demand respect--Demand it, I tell you!--for the office of the President and his sole prerogative on foreign policy matters. We only have one President at a time, we are reminded whenever Trump's camp comments on anything having to do with foreign affairs. Those of us skeptical of some or much of the Russian "hacking" tale, get told that we have to believe the President and to stop siding with the evil Putin. I have to wonder if that will be the same line taken after January 20? Will Obama respect that admonition?

But, I digress, we have Commies Russkies to hunt down!

Re the "hacking," The Hill has published the FBI/DHS report on the matter. There are lots of people much better equipped than I to analyze it, BUT let me just note that on reading that report, I don't think it really makes the case. There are a lot of assertions but no real proof. Well, first it's not clear what the case is it is trying to make. Is it trying to convince us that Russia spies on the USA? Hey, Elmer, does the sun rise in the east? There are some interesting expositions on Soviet/Russian espionage techniques and history, and some flat assertions, but nothing that comes near being a smoking gun. Maybe that's in a more classified version of this investigation, and we will just have to wait, but for now, the "proof" is rather skimpy if the charge is the Russians "hacked" our elections in an effort to throw them to one side. As the report itself seems to indicate, access was gained to the DNC computers via an "old fashioned" phishing scheme that got a senior official (John Podesta, it seems) to give away his password and other information to "hackers" who then used his email account to gain access to the DNC. That's kind of a standard, run-of-the-mill Nigerian-Romanian-Chinese-Russian, etc. method. Anyhow, read the report; those more technically savvy than I can try to convince me that the proof is there for the accusation of Russian state "hacking" of our election.

As I have said MANY times, I am perfectly willing to accept, if for no other reason, on the basis of my own nearly 34 years in the Foreign Service, that Russian state actors engage in espionage and influence operations against and in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, and elsewhere. I also am quite willing to believe that this administration has proven notably passive and inept in responding to Russian, Chinese, Iranian, Cuban, and North Korean penetrations of our computers and nets, both public and private. I also must wonder if all this "tough" response would be happening if Hillary had won the elections? Kinda doubt it.

One additional problem is that I am old enough to remember the actions of another Democratic President, the late LBJ, and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which opened the door for our massive involvement in Vietnam, a place of no particular strategic or economic importance to us. There were a lot of creative accounts of the Gulf of Tonkin incident, not to say "lies" coming from the White House and Pentagon. I also recall many of the same people now demanding that we believe Obama as sitting in the front rows of the "Bush lied!" chorus when it came to our intervention in Iraq in search of WMDs. In that case, however, I would note that Bush did not lie; he relied on the intel provided him with great unanimity by agencies not just within our government but from around the world. Let's just agree that intel is not a settled science, it is subject to interpretation, and, of course, to political manipulation.

Let me note yet another problem I have: This particular administration is not known for truth-telling. The examples of outright lies by Obama and his people come tumbling out with the gentlest of pokes at the Great Prog Piñata: Obamacare, Benghazi, Iran Deal, Solyndra, Fast and Furious, job number reports, policy on Israel, etc. This is not a group of "folks" with an impressive record for telling the truth or for being concerned about our security and sovereignty. Suddenly they are doing both? Nah, still ain't buying it.

Happy New Year.