Pentagon Alarmed Russia Is Gaining ‘Sympathy’ Among US Troops

An alarmist headline out of US state-funded media arm Voice of America: “Pentagon Concerned Russia Cultivating Sympathy Among US Troops”. The story begins as follows:

Russian efforts to weaken the West through a relentless campaign of information warfare may be starting to pay off, cracking a key bastion of the U.S. line of defense: the military. While most Americans still see Moscow as a key U.S. adversary, new polling suggests that view is changing, most notably among the households of military members. 

Remember when Russia bombed Belgrade back to the middle ages, invaded and occupied Iraq, started an eighteen-year long quagmire in Afghanistan, created anarchy in Libya, funded and armed al-Qaeda in Syria, and expanded its bases right up to US borders? Neither do we. 

Perhaps American soldiers are simply sick and tired of the US military and intelligence machine’s legacy of ashes across the globe and recognize the inconvenient fact that Russia most often has been on the complete opposite side of Washington’s disastrous regime change wars.

Nothing to see here…

The second annual Reagan National Defense Survey, completed in late October, found nearly half of armed services households questioned, 46%, said they viewed Russia as ally.

Overall, the survey found 28% of Americans identified Russia as an ally, up from 19% the previous year.

…While a majority, 71% of all Americans and 53% of military households, still views Russia as an enemy, the spike in pro-Russian sentiment has defense officials concerned. —VOA

Perhaps US military households are also smart enough to know the Cold War is long over, and only bad things can come from a direct confrontation with Russia, not to mention that involvement in proxy war in Ukraine has nothing to do with America’s national defense or to “protect and defend the Constitution”. 

To be expected, the VOA’s presentation of the new poll which finds more service members are ‘sympathetic’ to Russia is heavy on the supposed ‘Trump-Russia nexus’ narrative and emphasizes an uptick in Kremlin propaganda, while failing to acknowledge a failed legacy of ‘endless wars’ and destabilizing US influence across the globe. 

The poll itself claimed the changing numbers were “predominantly driven by Republicans who have responded to positive cues from [U.S.] President [Donald] Trump about Russia.”

“There is an effort, on the part of Russia, to flood the media with disinformation to sow doubt and confusion,” DoD spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Carla Gleason was cited in the VOA report as saying. Ah yes, a few Kremlin-sponsored Facebook posts and Trump’s expressed desire for better relations with Putin, and suddenly the military too is ‘pro-Putin’! apparently.

Perhaps the “doubt and confusion” comes via trillion dollar endless wars of regime change and pointless occupations which cost American lives? In other words, this is not a ‘Russia problem’ at all, but lies too close to home for Washington pundits and pollsters to admit. 

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Finally, we should ask, would US military members see in today’s foreign policy adventurism anything remotely resembling John Quincy Adams’ famous 1821 admonition? 

“But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force…. She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit…”