As a child, growing up during World War II there was always dinner table talk about America’s enemies.
Being we were in the midst of a war, our two main antagonists were Germany and Japan.
In the years that followed, our debates were about capitalism and communism. From my perspective, the debate today should be about America’s major enemy, which is Russia.
At no time in our post-war history have we been under such intense attack from Russia as now.
There may be no bullets flying through the air but in a thousand unseen ways, the Russians have invaded this country.
Each day we find out more and more about how Russia interfered in the American election process as well as the elections of a dozen other countries.
The “I Love President Trump” crowd will never believe that the Russians interfered in the last presidential election because it undermines their choice at the ballot box.
As of the beginning of this year, it was determined that Russian groups tried to infiltrate the election machinery of sixteen states during the 2016 elections.
By interfere I mean attempted to hack into those systems. Luckily, most of those attempts were thwarted.
A few short weeks ago, our Homeland Security officials determined that Russian hackers say they have the ability to infiltrate our water, sewer and power plant security systems, which would enable them to shut down the operations of dozens of American cities and interfere with the health, safety and welfare of millions of Americans.
If you follow the stories in the media about Facebook’s trauma, you have to be aware of the successful attempts by a Russian backed company to steal the personal information of 50 million Americans and use that information to help the Trump campaign. This is not some flimsy allegation.
The videotapes on British television have vividly disclosed that much of our sensitive data was used to help the Trump campaign in such states as Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin.
There is no doubt that Facebook will deal with its security problem but the invasion of our privacy has cost them big time.
The naysayers and Trump loyalists will continue to proclaim that the Russian invasion of America is fake news but there are too many facts out there that prove that Russia has done what the Germans and the Japanese failed to do, which is undermine our democratic systems.
In these days of cyber warfare, you don’t have to land on American soil to conduct a war. All you have to do is invade our information network and you can cause chaos.
It is fascinating to watch our president studiously avoid criticizing the Russians at the same time as our country announces that it is shutting down Russian facilities and kicking out spies in retaliation for the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in England.
It is hard to believe that the president isn’t aware of the testimony before numerous Congressional committees that Russian sources will again try to poison our 2018 elections.
At the same time as the “White House” announces punitive actions against Russia, the president orders his staff not to talk publicly about Russia at any time.
Some may ask why Russia would aggressively try to undermine the American way of life? The answer is simple.
We are a successful country and still the leader of the free world and Russia can’t accept that fact. With the exception of a few brief years when both sides were talking, we have been a continuing Russian target since World War II.
If you travel around our state, especially when you are in New York City, you can’t help but notice the fact that there are untold numbers of former residents of the then Soviet Union who have chosen to make this country their home.
Ask anyone of them why they are living in America and they will give you an earful about today’s Russia.
If you can accurately verify the number of Americans who have fled to Russia over the past 10 years, I will be happy to buy you dinner at a fine restaurant.
Back in 1945, my parents warned me about the threat that Russia would be to the survival of America.
Like all the kids of that time, I thought it was fiction. But, just as they were right about a lot of things then their warning was right on the money.
