AllTop Viral!

The G7 Summit meetings require intelligence, poise, thoughtfulness, and a deep knowledge of international relations. In other words, it’s exactly the place U.S. President Donald Trump shouldn’t be. During a dinner at the G7 summit, Trump caused a stir by demanding that Russia be allowed back in––even though it illegally annexed Crimea back in 2014. This is yet another reason that Trump is a terrible commander in chief.

Donald Trump has opted to spend $20 billion over the next two decades in order to keep the USS Harry S. Truman operating, reversing his February decision to retire it. Here’s the problem: the Navy didn’t want that carrier still running. They planned to use that money on more advanced technologies and preparing for cyber warfare.

This is a terrible decision on Trump’s part, one that comes out of his tendency to appeal to hyper-masculine displays of aggression. The only problem is that wars are no longer won through the kind of aggression the aircraft carrier represents. Wars are now fought in a variety of different ways, from the streets of Afghani villages to cyberspace. Trump’s inability to see that is doubly dangerous because the two biggest threats to the United States––China and Russia––full understand this fact.

Russia’s election meddling should have been enough to inspire the Commander in Chief to immediately demand increased cybersecurity. Trump does not want that, of course, since the Russian meddling in the election so clearly helped him win. His short sightedness will prove to be a major problem for the future, for Russia has proven it will resort to a variety of measures, including fueling conspiracy theories, to destabilize the United States.

Vladimir Putin relies on maligning the West to perpetuate his popularity and power. He seeks to prove that the West is not as great as Russia. Russia’s military is far from capable of handling the United States military, even accounting for the USS Harry S. Truman‘s retirement. In 2013, before Russia annexed Crimea, a Russian general wrote of a new kind of warfare emerging the new millennium: “the enemy’s economy and state command-and-control system will be the priority targets. Besides traditional spheres of armed struggle, the information sphere and space will be actively involved. Countering communications, reconnaissance and navigation systems will play a special role.” I have emphasized “the information sphere” and “countering communications” because I think that’s what many of us have forgotten as the Mueller investigations go on.

According to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, U.S. intelligence has observed “persistent Russian efforts using social media, sympathetic spokespeople and other fronts to sow discord and divisiveness amongst the American people, though not necessarily focused on specific politicians or political campaigns.” Why are Russians doing this? To solidify their internal power. Sewing discord among the Americans allows Russian leaders to juxtapose themselves with Western leaders, to cultivate an external enemy to unite the people against, and to weaken the U.S. so that they can reenter the international sphere as a superpower.

More news.