Russia's cyber threat should concern world

Newsweek, 60 minutes, and several defense-oriented websites have all recently covered the growth, rearming, and mission orienting of the Russian military under Vladimir Putin. The general consensus is that Putin is trying to restore Russia's military to Cold War levels and strengths. The Soviet Union is gone, but Russians want their country to again be an influential political force ready to step in and replace the U.S. as the U.S. withdraws as the world leader. Worse, Russian invasions of Crimea and the Ukraine are reminiscent of Soviet military actions against its Eastern European neighbors. Russian meddling in national elections has been claimed by France and England among other nations.

German Chancellor Andrea Merkel has said, "Cyberattacks, or hybrid conflicts as they are known in Russian doctrine, are now part of daily life and we must learn to cope with them. We must inform people a lot on this point." The important question is what can election and information meddling really accomplish?

The most obvious accomplishment of that meddling is the selection of a candidate who was not the electorate's choice. There is, however, a more important issue. If elections can be manipulated by cyberattacks, the confidence of the American electorate in our election results will be destroyed. If our ability to choose our president and our legislature is undermined, the public will lose confidence in our elections and government, and those elections are the backbone of our democracy. If pro-Russian governments control nations, those nations will be subservient to Russia. And Russia has no history of sharing power.

Right now our two most important allies, as well as other nations. agree with all of our intelligence agencies that Russia is currently doing its best to use its cyber capabilities against other nations. These actions are acts of war, and if nothing else it proves that Russia is an enemy of Western democracies. President Trump's refusal to recognize this threat is creating a security nightmare, and he is damaging the public's confidence in our intelligence capabilities. Make no mistake. The guns are silent for now, but we are being attacked.

Jack Dragoni attended Boston College and served in the U.S. Army in Berlin and Vietnam. He lives in Chaffee, Missouri.