Come on, let’s face it: “Russia attacked our democracy” is a hackneyed Dem chant to delegitimize the 2016 election. Yes, other culprits like the alleged red neck hatred for the “marginalized” have pride of place in lefty boilerplate. But the Russia mantra offers the unique opportunity to enlist the fabled objectivity of our intelligence agencies in the excuse-mongering. It only works, though, if the history of US meddling (aka “attack”) goes down the memory hole.
To be clear, much past US meddling was a response to Soviet/communist meddling. It is reassuring to know that Mosaddegh and Allende didn’t succeed in turning Iran and Chile into a part of Russia’s “near-abroad”.
Still, one cannot say that political interference was invented by Putin. We have a well-documented history of “attacking” elections, and, yes, even in Russia. Just ask the ghost of Boris Yeltsin. Boat loads of cash were funneled to Yeltsin’s political clan, some of it laundered through the IMF, to ensure his victory in 1996. (4) Or maybe we should ask Benjamin Netanyahu. In 1999, Clinton sent James Carville over to advise the Labor candidate, Ehud Barak, against Bebe. (3)
Obama’s meddling in Israeli elections mirrors the recent murky Russian activities. US money goes into one organization and then into another and then into assorted anti-Likud voter drives and electioneering. Obama wasn’t content with “hacking”, Twitter, and Facebook, like the Russians. He sent over to Israel part of his political brain trust – Jeremy Bird, fresh off of Obama’s 2012 field operations. (1)
Obama’s hostility to Netanyahu was glaring in 2010 when he rudely left Netanyahu simmering with his aides in the Roosevelt for over an hour. (5)
Maybe comments from experienced intelligence community hands would calm excitable lefties. (4)
* Countering the charge that the Russian effort was exceptional is 30-year CIA veteran Steven Hall: “If you ask an intelligence officer, did the Russians break the rules or do something bizarre, the answer is no, not at all”.
* Loch K. Johnson, American intelligence scholar and staffer on the Senate’s Church Committee from the 1970’s: “We’ve been doing this kind of thing since the C.I.A. was created in 1947. We’ve used posters, pamphlets, mailers, banners — you name it. We’ve planted false information in foreign newspapers. We’ve used what the British call ‘King George’s cavalry’: suitcases of cash.”
* Dov H. Levin, Carnegie-Mellon scholar, documents 81 US and 36 Russian instances of attempts to influence foreign elections from 1946 to 2000.
You might call this kind of thing a well-traveled approach to foreign policy. This isn’t an excuse, and when it happens to us, it is up to us to sanction the offenders and install additional safeguards. But, please, stop feigning shock and horror at something that is part of the toolkit to bend nations toward your preferred interests.
Grow up, or, better yet, read and listen a little more to sources outside the echo chamber.
RogerG
Footnotes and sources:
1. “The Obama Campaign Strategist Who Could Break the Israeli Elections Wide Open”, Roy Arad, Haaretz, 1/26/2015, https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-could-obama-s-strategist-break-elections-wide-open-1.5365391
2. “Blog claims U.S. funded anti-Netanyahu election effort in Israel”, Jon Greenberg, PunditFact, 3/25/2015, http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/mar/25/blog-posting/blog-claims-us-funded-anti-netanyahu-election-effo/
3. “The U.S. is no stranger to interfering in the elections of other countries”, Nina Agrawal, LA Times, 12/21/2016, http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-us-intervention-foreign-elections-20161213-story.html
4. “Russia Isn’t the Only One Meddling in Elections. We Do It, Too.”, Scott Shane, NY Times, 2/17/2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/17/sunday-review/russia-isnt-the-only-one-meddling-in-elections-we-do-it-too.html
5. “Obama snubbed Netanyahu for dinner with Michelle and the girls, Israelis claim”, Adrian Blomfield, The Telegraph, 3/25/2010, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/7521220/Obama-snubbed-Netanyahu-for-dinner-with-Michelle-and-the-girls-Israelis-claim.html