Curse That Diabolically Clever Hybrid Warfare!
Who knows what is going on and who is behind the little green men, really!
An article on Russian and Chinese covert actions against NATO in support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine really annoys be by its definition of "hybrid warfare" that encompasses the actions in question.
Hybrid attacks are a generic security term that covers actions that state or non-state actors use to harm other countries without waging open warfare.
As a rule, they are difficult or impossible to attribute to a specific perpetrator.
Too often the identity of the aggressor is fairly clear. But targets may kind of like the lack of court-level proof in order to deny they can act against the aggressor. I mean, back in 2014 when Russia's "little green men" invasion of Ukraine's Crimea was obviously taking place, the American government just couldn't say for sure that Russia was invading:
Our intelligence people don't think Russia is planning an invasion.
Define "invasion" please. I will say that the figure of 150,000 Russian troops massed in exercises is misleading. That includes forces from the Ukrainian border to the Barents Sea and includes naval and air forces. I don't know how many ground troops are present.
But this wouldn't include troops preparing in the central region able to move toward Ukraine. Nor would it include southern district troops already on high readiness status from war in the Caucasus and the Winter Olympics security operations.
I don't think Russia could occupy all of Ukraine. But Russia could grab chunks in the east and in Crimea. Does that count as an "invasion" in our intelligence agencies?
The fluffing Westerners did to inflate this kind of aggression was astounding. As I often commented about Russia's dread hybrid warfare as I reflected on Russia's first invasions of Ukraine:
But we know Putin invaded Ukraine. It doesn't matter that Putin has denied it. If we wanted to, we could have reacted far more vigorously than we have to help Ukraine fight and regain their territory.
After all, there are few limits to the ability to get away with a denial of aggression when you consider that China denied fighting the American-led United Nations alliance in the Korean War.
China didn't send in the People's Liberation Army. No, China sent in the People's Volunteer Army, which had nothing at all to do with China. Just a bunch of heavily armed Chinese men with a deep affection for North Korea.
Three million Chinese troops and civilians (I won't dare call them "little yellow men") served in that "volunteer" army before the war ended.
That fiction didn't prevent America and our allies from waging war on China on the Korean peninsula. We just called it a "police action."
We met fiction with fiction.
Perhaps we should organize an effort to help Ukraine wage a "police action" against the separatists in Donbas—that Russia claims they have nothing to do with—in order to reclaim their lost territories.
And help Ukraine build up mine warfare and long-range missiles to put the Sevastopol base are in danger.
Good Lord people, Russian "hybrid warfare" is just Russian aggression that we pretend isn't happening. Sadly, there's nothing new or novel about that.
But as that initial article reports, at least today NATO is sure enough that Russia and China are attacking its members to order a response. The Baltic Sea has a demonstrated need:
The NATO alliance has begun planning for its own fleet of unmanned boats meant to help protect critical undersea infrastructure across the Baltic and Mediterranean seas.
Once you pull off the mask, the great and powerful strategy just looks weary and pathetic.
NOTE: I made the image with Bing.