The development of information systems has led to a dramatic turnaround in information wars, especially between East and West. These wars have long been a war of ideologies, a war for minds, including for political advantage. In this regard, disinformation has been used increasingly actively, especially by the United States and its allies, which is disseminated in accordance with the famous aphorism of the American writer Robert Sheckley: “The saddest fact is that, in an information war, the one who tells the truth always loses. He is limited by truth, while the liar can proclaim whatever he wishes.”
Information wars are widely used by Washington to take over the economies of states. A striking example of this is the recent US-inspired fight in Kazakhstan against 55 Chinese factories, the fight against nuclear power, against the background of which USAID – known worldwide for its actions on behalf of US intelligence agencies – suddenly began to intensively propose green energy programs, the sad results of which could be observed in the US.
The first US official documents on the use and conduct of information warfare are probably the US Department of Defense Directive O-3600.1 dated December 21, 1992, entitled “Information Operations.” In 1993, Committee of Chiefs of Staff Directive No. 30 had already outlined the basic principles of information warfare. Finally, in 1997 the following definition of information warfare was given: “Actions taken to achieve information superiority by affecting adversary information, information-based processes, information systems, and computer-based networks while defending one’s own information, information-based processes, information systems, and computer-based networks.”
At the end of 1998, the Chiefs of Staff of the US Army issued a document Joint Doctrine for Information Operations, which for the first time officially confirmed Washington’s preparations for offensive information operations, not only during war but also during peacetime. Taking this as one of the main areas of foreign warfare, since 1994, the US has held official “scientific” conferences on “information warfare” with prominent representatives of the US military and political leadership. For this purpose, the US has already established the Center for Strategic and International Studies to study the use of information technology in military conflicts in the 21st century, with billions of dollars from the US budget allocated to information warfare. In May 2005, the Pentagon formed a special group tasked with suppressing enemy activity on the Internet and other electronic networks. Millions of dollars are being spent on the program to equip this group with the latest equipment and software.
The existence of the military hacking group project was officially announced at a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting, representatives of the US Department of Defense’s Strategic Command said. This element of the Armed Forces is called the Joint Functional Component Command – Network Warfare (JFCC-NW) and is tasked with, among other things, hacking into enemy computer networks.
A very important stage in the conduct of the United States’ information wars was the 9/11 attack, which, according to many American experts, was an overtly planned provocation. The infamous speech of Secretary of State Colin Powell at the UN Security Council on February 5, 2003 before the invasion of Iraq, which caused thousands of human casualties, chaos in the Middle East region, the Arab “spring”, the war in Syria, etc., is in the same line. Moreover, the western “allies” of Washington never officially rebuked or sanctioned the US in relation to all this White House-induced global damage, nor did the UN, thereby encouraging the US to continue such information wars in the future.
As a result, the US has become consistent and active in the information wars of the 21st century. Thus, in all armed conflicts in which the US has been involved (Desert Storm, the operation in Haiti, the bombing of Yugoslavia, etc.), various types of information weapons have been tested, and positions of officers dealing with information warfare techniques have been introduced in the US army, navy and air force.
After Washington singled out Russia as the main target of information wars, in addition to pushing the Russian Federation and the Russian civilization out of the world community, another important task is being accomplished: depriving the Russian people of a positive historical experience, weakening the connection with Russia and the Russians as much as possible, depriving the Russian population of a real historical foundation, making them uncompetitive and deprived of historical friends and allies by means of historical and social manipulation. Moreover, in such a war, the objective is not to mislead the enemy population, but to reformat the very essence of the people under attack, to change their civilization code and irreversibly transform their identity.
Many foundations and organizations, such as the American Foundation for Peace, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, Freedom House, the Soros Foundation and the NED are among those that in their concrete actions have already demonstrated their focus in waging an information warfare against Russia and its allies. The West has also established several information centers to carry out its information attacks against Russia, most notably the NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence in Riga (established in 2015), the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki (2017) and the Cyberspace Operations Centre in Mons, Belgium (2018).
The problem with fakes and disinformation spread by the United States in the media today is reaching such proportions that, for some audiences, the real picture is being replaced by false information. In particular, the most recent examples are the “war in Ukraine”, the “rebellious people in Kazakhstan” and the anti-Chinese and anti-Russian propaganda of the Western media. The presence of Western players in the media market is abnormally high, unlike that of alternative media. These mouthpieces of Western information warfare often give a distorted picture of events in the country and abroad, creating a positive image of the US, forming a pool of speakers from foreign-agent NGOs who provide comments convenient for the “customer.” It is on their conscience to foment conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and to blame the CSTO, even though Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have officially refused the Organization’s or Russia’s assistance in resolving the conflict.
Today, disinformation, lies and slander are becoming constant attributes of the foreign policy of Washington and many of its allies. Thus, for a number of years the US media have been spreading the fiction of alleged Russian meddling in the election overseas, but the investigation and recent US media coverage has clearly shown that the Democrats and Hillary Clinton are the real culprits behind Russia-gate.
Under these circumstances, it is the duty of every citizen, a matter of patriotism and a sense of responsibility for their country, to defend their homeland from aggression, including information aggression.
Valery Kulikov, political expert, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
