Congress, Media, Whoever… This Accusation Demands a Provable Answer, And Now.
Let me get this straight… reports from multiple outlets are asserting that Russia — operating through a branch of the GRU, their spy agency — offered Taliban fighters money for the killing of American (and Nato) soldiers in Afghanistan.
To repeat…
Russia offered the Taliban “bounties” to kill American soldiers serving in Afghanistan.
U.S. intelligence is reported to have confirmed this, partly through their interrogations of captured Taliban operatives, and informed President Trump in late March. The same reports then stated that the President was presented with a variety of options for a response, but has not chosen to exercise any of them.
The reports are being provided by a broad swath of media across the ideological spectrum, from the N.Y. Times to the Wall Street Journal and overseas. The story broke yesterday (Friday, June 27) and is going national as I write this.
There are stories that are disappointing, curious, provocative. There are times when they provoke academic debate, or ideological questioning. Some simply don’t make sense, and need public examination and explanations. Not this one, not this time.
This one hit my gut, and I can’t stop the sting.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have two children currently serving in the military. My extraordinary son is a Lieutenant and EDO in the Navy Reserves; his brilliant bride is active duty in the Air Force, a Major and OBGYN physician. They are currently stationed in California, recently returned to this country. They, and my other two amazing children, are the prides of my life. I am not impartial. I am not neutral.
If these reports are true, if they are sufficiently proven, I am not interested in the international ramifications and balances of power. These reports are a direct threat to my children, and to their friends and partners serving in our military. I want scalps, and one of them may well be tinted orange.
Russia is, and has been for decades, an active enemy and a sinister provocateur. That they should promote the killing of American soldiers in a conflict that doesn’t directly involve them is hardly news, and simply one in a series of attempts to create problems and chaos for our country. This accusation is simply a confirmation of who and what they are, not some shocking revelation.
That said, it is a confirmation. It is another in a long line of acknowledgements that Russia is actively seeking to undermine American interests, and cause harm to American lives. If we want to close our eyes, and pretend that they are simply another competing country on the world stage, this is another light forcing those eyes open, and denying that falsehood.
Given that exposure, the timing and subsequent events are important. There is a very simple sequence here: the President was notified by his intelligence agencies in late March. He did not respond, not even a complaint. He did not choose one of the options given to him for making Russia pay something, for proving that we stand for our troops. In May, the President demanded over the objections of all of our allies, that Putin be re-instated into the now G7. In June, over the objections of many in his own party, the President stunningly announced that he intends to substantially reduce the U.S. forces currently stationed in Germany, forces instrumental to restraining Russian adventurism. Again, our allies expressed shock and disapproval.
And still, no response to the intelligence that Putin’s Russia put a bounty — one that was apparently collected — on the heads of American military serving in Afghanistan. Nothing, except standing up strongly for Putin’s interests against the loudly stated wishes of our allies and his own party.
A bounty that could have potentially been paid for the death of my children. That was paid for the death of someone else’s children.
I need to know that this is either true or not. If it is true, then I don’t care what the strategic or ideological reasons the President has for pandering so obviously to a our adversary. I don’t care whether Russia has something over Trump, or whether Trump just wants to curry favor with another dictator. I want him gone, not in November or January, but today. I want him away from any position that allows him to interact with our enemies. I want someone, anyone else serving as the Commander in Chief of my children. I want him gone, now.
This is not political. This is visceral. The President has ultimate control over the lives and safety of two people that mean everything to me. If he isn’t willing to stand up to threats against them, if he can’t muster the strength to punish transgressors, but insists on coddling our enemies and currying favor with their leaders, every day matters.
There are many things that the two parties splitting America should exempt from partisan posturing, but don’t. We are struggling with epic, life and death battles against the pandemic, and the inexcusable hunger and loss from the economic collapse it caused. The nation has finally risen to demand an end to systemic inequality and racism. These are too great to allow petty partisanship to deprive our citizens of resolution.
But there may be nothing as simply, intrinsically non-partisan as the defense of our military. There are no controversies, no ideologies involved here, just right and wrong… those who choose to serve our nation deserve nothing less from our government. Getting to the bottom of this demands their attention, and their action once a determination is made. This is not an election issue; who exactly is running on a pro-Putin platform this year, who is advocating for supporting the placement of a bounty on our soldier’s heads?
The first step has been taken. The nation is now aware of the accusations, and the actions that followed, or more to the point, didn’t. There are any number of important issues being dealt with, and they must continue to be served… but there are tens of thousands of men and women in the offices of our government, and an appropriate number of them can be diverted to this purpose.
We need to know if the reports are true, if the President was, in fact, so informed, and subsequently did not respond, but instead chose to support the Russian leader’s interests even more provocatively.
The serving children of millions of American parents deserve to know that their lives, their safety is not for sale by their Commander in Chief, that the leader of their adversaries is not being promoted by their President. Their parents need to know that the fear already in their hearts is not being amplified by our own nation’s disregard.
The story has broken. Now, it is imperative that it be proven or disproven. There can be no neutral here, no partisan gamesmanship with the investigation… it has to be the protection of our service men and women, period.
