jonspelledwithoutanh

http://www.reddit.com/user/jonspelledwithoutanh

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jonspelledwithoutanh-5 karma

Congratulations on having your third book published and thank you for all the work you do. The leadership principles distilled from your hard-won experience are applicable in virtually any life scenario, and the podcast has introduced us, your faithful audience, to dozens of stories and individuals that have valuable perspective on leadership, life, and war. We are in your debt, both for your service, and for the work you do in private life.

As you are aware, Russia is engaged in an overt, and more importantly ongoing, Active Measures (активные мероприятия) campaign against American democracy. This campaign takes several forms: spreading propaganda and disinformation aimed at supporting or tearing down specific candidates, widespread use of social media for amplification of this disinformation and propaganda to engage in provokatsiya, and the use of compromised American agents of influence to distort the national conversation. The Active Measures campaign has continued to this day, as easily identifiable social media bots and trolls continue to polarize American discourse through propaganda and disinformation. And before you discount social media as unimportant, that is largely how democracy (save the singular act of voting) is done in 2017. Rhetorically, how many more people does your message reach through it compared to a world without it?

A major front of the Russian Active Measures campaign was weaponized leaks. GRU-linked Russian hackers (Fancy Bear, Guccifer 2.0) illegally stole private data from both the DNC and John Podesta. This data was then passed to WikiLeaks for publication, which is hosted partly in Russia (it got RU hosting a week before the Podesta emails were released). This is the same WikiLeaks that has released NSA cyber-weapons stolen via what appear to be FSB connections with Kaspersky Antivirus, the same WikiLeaks that arranged Edward Snowden’s massive NSA data breach (he now lives in an FSB safe house outside Moscow), and whose editor, Julian Assange, has been working tirelessly for years to discredit the United States, but rarely, if ever, releasing information unfavorable to authoritarian regimes. In fact, within minutes of the infamous Access Hollywood tape release last year by the Washington Post, WikiLeaks began releasing periodic tranches of John Podesta’s stolen emails to mitigate the former’s impact.

Consensus report from the intelligence community released in January: https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf

During the campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly made references to the illegally obtained emails (“Russia, if you’re listening…”) and WikiLeaks, including mentioning WikiLeaks over 150 times while campaigning in the final month before the election. Furthermore, since his election, Donald Trump has repeatedly worked hand in glove with the Russian influence operations, most recently by repeatedly questioning the patriotism of people kneeling during the national anthem, a major theme amplified by Russian social media bots and trolls. Donald Trump did not create the fissures in our society, but he has no problem driving the biggest wedges he can find into them for his own political benefit.

Donald Trump embraces Russian Active Measures.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/technology/twitter-russia-election.html

https://medium.com/dfrlab/botspot-bots-boost-nfl-divides-abec2e025ddb note: while bot activity cannot be definitively tied to Russia, someone is paying the bills, and circumstanial evidence points that direction (see NYT article)

https://i.imgur.com/Rf7e5gK.jpg In which fake opposition forgets to turn off location sharing.

And our president, driving that wedge as deep as he can: https://i.imgur.com/YchpOvo.png https://i.imgur.com/fQNAvHI.png https://i.imgur.com/fdVMCyf.png https://i.imgur.com/Ab51YNn.png https://i.imgur.com/pB0kutx.png https://i.imgur.com/6NCvCEb.png https://i.imgur.com/YchpOvo.png https://i.imgur.com/MJ8AKYD.png

“Authoritarianism watch.”

Current trends in Russian social media influence campaigns (on Twitter) can be explored at the Hamilton 68 project: http://dashboard.securingdemocracy.org/

Russian Active Measures are best thought of as part of Hybrid War strategy (see: “Gerasimov doctrine.”) Clausewitz said that “war is the continuation of politics by other means.” Hybrid war is the space in between. They are aimed at internally destabilizing our society with lower attribution than outright violence in order to strategically neutralize it. Our president participates in this, to the detriment of our shared Republic. If you disagree, ask yourself one question: what is American posture toward Russia under Donald Trump? “To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme art of war.” -- Sun Tzu

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/05/gerasimov-doctrine-russia-foreign-policy-215538

This playbook of dividing the nation in order to consolidate power is familiar to anyone with a passing understanding of post-Soviet Eastern European authoritarian kleptocracies, where Chekist tactics are a standard means of maintaining control. For those unfamiliar, Chekism is the institutional philosophy of the Russian secret police, which became the KGB, now FSB. As Vladimir Putin (in the Soviet days, a KGB officer) once said, “There are no former Chekists.”

http://observer.com/2017/03/kremlingate-russia-spy-game-disinformation/

You and Leif have made no secret of your disdain for Hillary Clinton, which is fine, no one was going to convince you to vote for her. However, both of you engaged in evidence-free conspiracy theories about her, suggesting that she was far worse than any other option, including Trump, who is now being investigated for possibly conspiring with Kremlin-linked actors to win the election, in addition to the numerous other crimes and moral abominations he has brought into our national discourse (remember torture? Killing the families? Glad we have President Mattis.)

https://i.imgur.com/z6u8guj.jpg “Hamilton rule” essay suggests that conservatives should vote country over party if Trump gets nomination.

https://i.imgur.com/cihBgee.png You’re smart enough to understand the statistical probabilities that make this effectively an endorsement of Trump.

https://i.imgur.com/KTDHa87.png Stick a pin in this one…

https://i.imgur.com/VB9Xe5h.jpg Here’s that “Obama created ISIS” meme. We all know about the 2008 Status of Forces Agreement, right? Remember Bush dodging the flying shoes? Or should we have been occupying at gunpoint a country we invaded, then helped rebuild, against the will of its duly elected representatives?

https://i.imgur.com/2gsX1RT.jpg Bold accusation. Evidence? If Leif is talking about Benghazi, multiple Congressional investigations run by Republicans have turned up no wrongdoing, no “stand down” order.

In fact, Jocko, you went so far as to encourage your Twitter followers to participate in the Russian Active Measures campaign: https://i.imgur.com/Vu4xApX.png (I realize the quoted tweet is blocked, but come on. Context. Look at the date. Screenshots from WikiLeaks in replies, too.)

That seems like kind of a big deal to me.

As I have mentioned before, the principles enumerated in your book are extremely valuable, and can serve as a lens through which one can analyze someone in a leadership position’s ability to lead. In fact, you and Leif have done exactly this, criticizing Barack Obama in a Washington Times Op-Ed, describing him as “the worst kind of leader” and a “tortured genius.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/23/leif-babin-jocko-willinik-president-obama-does-not/

Given that Trump (at least in my estimation, as I have noted in the past) objectively fails as a leader on every Extreme Ownership dimension, it is all the more odd that, as his presidency spirals into the void in terms of approval ratings, ability to execute on his agenda, and the fact that his campaign likely engaged in a criminal conspiracy against our shared democracy, not to mention his flagrant violations of the law and Constitution, both you and Leif have been almost completely silent since his election. This, in spite of the fact that he speaks approvingly of, and appears to want to emulate, Russian president Vladimir Putin, a man I believe you have referred to as a “thug.” Furthermore, like Putin and the other global leaders he has praised, Trump embodies the (populist) authoritarian style, which as best as I can understand, is the diametric opposite of what you and Leif teach.

You and Leif teach leadership principles that facilitate trust within teams and organizations. This president and his administration lie to or mislead the American people several orders of magnitude more frequently than any previous president, over a thousand times since inauguration according to a recent count by the Washington Post, which only erodes trust with anyone outside of his core supporters, and he can only survive doing this with media enablers willing to excuse and obfuscate it. As I have said before, the President, his administration, and his media enablers are waging a disinformation campaign against the American people. An administration that functions this way makes national self-government impossible, as there are no standards by which to judge our national leaders. Furthermore, it is my understanding that an officer in the military must never lie or tolerate those who do, and yet, here we are.

With all due respect, please help this trooper understand.

If silence can be interpreted as acceptance, this trooper wants to understand the Extreme Ownership case for the Donald Trump presidency, which only seems fair given you and Leif’s prior contributions to the national discourse. This is not about politics.

“It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.” I read that in a book somewhere.

P.S. When all of this comes to a head, make sure you have John Schindler (@20committee) booked as a podcast guest.