Whose conflict is this?
- Post by: David Wallace
- June 5, 2021
- Comments off
Imagine you are in a family situation where an argument breaks out. You begin to debate, discuss, banter, get heated, take a break, and return to the discussion. More family members join in and it becomes a bigger discussion. People are getting upset and sometimes disrespectful, but they eventually apologize and re-engage. Everyone keeps trying to work towards a solution… or simply to agree to disagree.
Then a couple of new folks enter the discussion. Everyone is so busy expressing their opinion that no one notices they are not family members… they are just “chiming in”. No one really cares as long as they are on their side and helping them make their points.
In our country, we have a history of processing our disagreements with heated debate. This is how we do it. It’s a family feud. We might even scream and yell, or sometimes get rowdy. But this is how we work it out in America.
Oh but wait, who are the new people, you ask? Those are the foreign actors who are agitating the conversation. Stirring the pot. Making it worse. And in some cases, they were the initiators of the argument in the first place, unbeknownst to us. Their intent is not resolution, it’s dissolution – they hate us. They fan the flame of our internal conflict.
That is an example of a protracted war, or shadow war. It is also known as a people’s war. It is asymmetrical in nature and does not involve a shooting war. For the foreign adversary, it does not necessarily matter whether there is a win for them as long as America is hurt and the “United” States is damaged. It is a zero sum game that they play, and we are the losers when we get sucked into playing it.