The news hasn’t been about the news in a while. It’s a means of weaponizing and deploying strategic narratives for political gain. So it’s obvious why the media is amplifying the story about Russia providing bounties for the Taliban to kill American soldiers.
Let’s get past the question of whether it happened or not. Russia doing exactly the stuff it’s been doing for generations wouldn’t be surprising. Nor would the media making up stuff. But what’s the actual point beyond, once again, playing the Russia card against Trump? Specifically, what should we be doing?
The media and Democrats have us in scandal mode with lots of, “What did Trump know” stories. Okay, but what does it matter?
The Trump administration sanctioned Russia far more than Obama did, but sanctions accomplish fairly little, especially when targeting a major world power with whom we have a much more limited trade relationship than we do with, say, China.
The Democrats and the media are pushing the “Trump should do something” line, but neglect to specify what he should do.
It’s obvious why. When pressed their answer will be some unromantic form of sanctions with added adjectives thrown in. None of them want to call for a military response, even as over the years they’ve compared Russia’s actions to Pearl Harbor.
The media avoids asking Democrats that question because it would undo everything.
Instead there are lots of demands for “information” and “answers,” but no actual proposals. And the Russia card would go away if Republicans simply asked Democrats what they proposed to do, beyond more sanctions. Because the answer would be hot air.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism.
This article was first published by FrontPage Magazine.