The late and not-so-great Republican Senator John McCain once provocatively described Russia as “a giant gas station masquerading as a country”.
Mitt Romney, the former presidential candidate and fellow Republican Senator, was quoted in US media over the weekend channeling McCain's contemptuous description of Russia.
Russophobia among the American political class has become hysterical over the past week since prominent media outlets reported on an alleged massive cyber-attack attributed to Russian agents.
For any objective reader, such “reports” (more accurately “propaganda”) are ludicrous. There is no evidence to support the lurid claims of Russian hacking. The “story” – as in countless other “stories” in the past about alleged Russian malfeasance, from election interference to bounty-hunters killing US troops in Afghanistan – relies on anonymous sources, innuendo and gullible journalists.
It's so obviously a psychological operation orchestrated by the US military-intelligence nexus which is facilitated by hacks at the New York Times and other major outlets who are in the pocket of the CIA.
The Pavlovian response among the American politicians is a classic demonstration of ideological conditioning. Republicans and Democrats are accusing Russia of committing an act of war from the alleged cyber-assault. They are hence braying for a “cyber-retaliation” against Russia.
Recall from whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations about Vault 7 that…
