The Continued Use of Unrestricted Warfare Against America by her Political Rivals

The United States of America is currently in a state of disruption, going through one of the most polarizing presidency in its long history of democratic rule. The probe into Russia's election interference to get Donald Trump elected has created a huge rift between his supporters and opponents. In this essay, we shall evaluate the possibility of the Trump presidency being a weapon of war by Russia, indicating that the strife created since the start of the 2016 presidential elections could potentially lead to another civil war in America.

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According to Ludes and Jacobson (2017), Trump has been a highly destabilizing president on the international front, breaking with long-established precedents on US cooperation with her allies. However, the Trump presidency has been most impactful within the United States. In almost every important social, moral, political, and economic issue, the Trump administration evokes near-equal parts support and opposition (Polyakova & Boyer, 2018). Many of these issues are extremely divisive and could be fatal to the continued thriving of the United States as a world superpower. According to Dayspring (2015), immigration is one of the commonplace things that have the potential for use by enemies to cause strife in a country as a means of waging war. Immigration is one of the most divisive issues in America today, and Trump's tough stand on it has created a lot of undue friction. Other issues include guns, LGBTQ rights, and race, all of which Trump has always taken a polarizing stand and greatly agitated the country (Ludes & Jacobson, 2017).

Disinformation, fabrications, and misrepresentation have continued to instigate friction in regards to gun rights, immigration, and race. Divisions on these issues could potentially trigger the second American civil war or break up the United States (Connell & Vogler, 2016). Already, the country has witnessed numerous cases of gun violence, the media, and the internet have interpreted some of Trump's tweeted opinions as being racist, and the country has already experienced massive protests to some of Trump's anti-immigration policies. According to Boston and Massicot (2017), Russia's principal tool of warfare is the use of conflict among the enemy to destabilize and make conquest easier. The continued conflict of opinions, if sustained over a long time, often leads to more and more incidences of open confrontations and potentially breaks up the country (Murphy, 2016). Some states like California have expressed muted calls for secession, with Russia openly supporting the move and granting them an embassy in Moscow (Myers, 2016 quoted in Ludes & Jacobson, 2017). An American civil war or broken union would ultimately hand over power to Russia as the United States' most aggressive rival.

As the head of state and commander-in-chief of the US armed forces, it falls on the president to put in place interventions to cushion the country against unrestricted warfare from an enemy (Connell & Vogler, 2016). However, the role of Donald Trump in promoting dissent, including his attacks on the media, the tough stand on immigration, and his dalliance with Russia's president Vladimir Putin makes him highly unlikely to intervene. According to Vickey, et al. (2015), in Europe, Russia understood that it could not thrive with the European Union still firmly in place. Investigators have discovered evidence of Russia's interference in the Brexit poll in Britain in early 2016 through massive information warfare on social media (Zakem, McBride, & Hammerberg, 2018). Similarly, the strength of America lies in the unity of the states, and Russia seeks to compromise that. Unfortunately, as a relatively new means of warfare, America currently has no defenses against information warfare (Connell & Vogler, 2016).

Conclusion

To evade the civil strife and possible breakup coming their way, Americans need to reconcile their views on the most divisive issues, compromise and move towards building a stronger country. Party affiliations are the most accurate depictions of the conflict of opinions in America, with Democrats and Republicans being the main rivals (Dayspring, 2015). On all divisive issues, American citizens must be willing to meet in the middle and address their differences in an open manner, with community leaders taking the fore. It is not time to maintain Republican and Democratic stances, nor is it time to settle old scores or plan a revitalization to take the other party down. At this time, when America faces its most dangerous enemy yet, the most important thing for patriotic citizens to do is to come together and find common ground or detente in the interest of the greater good. It does not matter if the president preaches hate, or that the political elite remains oblivious to the threat. To preserve the sanctity of the United States, every citizen needs to play their role and become more understanding of those with opinions different from his/hers. Otherwise, stubbornly clinging to our own beliefs will bring us ever closer to conflict, and that will be just like handing ourselves over to the enemy, trussed up and ready to roast.

References

Dayspring, S. M. (2018). Toward a theory of hybrid warfare: the Russian conduct of war during peace. Montgomery: Calhoun Naval Postgraduate School Institutional Archive

Dickey, J. V., Everett, T. B., Galvach, Z. M., Mesko, M. J., & Soltis, A. V. (2015). Russian political warfare: Origin, evolution, and application. Montgomery: Calhoun Naval Postgraduate School Institutional Archive

Connell, M. & Vogler, S. (2016). Russia's approach to cyber warfare. Arlington: CAN Analysis & Solutions

Ludes, J. M. & Jacobson, M. R. (2017). Shatter the house of mirrors: A conference report on Russian influence operations. Newport: Pell Center at Salve Regina University

Zakem, V., McBride, M. K., & Hammerberg, K. (2018). Exploring the utility of memes for U.S. government influence campaigns. Arlington: CAN Analysis & Solutions

Polyakova, A. & Boyer, S. P. (2018). The future of political warfare: Russia, the West, and the coming of global digital competition. Washington: Brookings - Robert Bosch Foundation Transatlantic Initiative

Murphy, M. N. (2016). Understanding Russia's concept for total war in Europe. Washington: The Heritage Foundation

Boston, S. & Massicot, D. (2017). The Russian way of warfare: A primer. Washington: Rand Corporation