Miclaucic’s “Cognitive War” is simply renaming ‘Propaganda War’
Michael Miclaucic’s Chicago Tribune op-ed “The West is losing the cognitive war with Russia and China” is hyperbolic nonsense
Ask a hundred folks who study US foreign relations what ‘cognitive war’ is and you’ll likely draw a hundred blanks.
Yet,
esteemed foreign policy educator/journalist Michael Miclaucic spends
nearly a thousand words trying to convince Trib readers there is such a
thing as cognitive war and that America is ominously losing this war to
China and Russia in the real war for world domination.
Miclaucic defines it as
“the strategic manipulation of information and redirection of
perception for the purpose of waging war and achieving war goals.” That
is simply propaganda, a nation putting its best foot forward in
defining its actions and goals in the world stage. And it has been
around since the first peoples began waring with each other thousands of
years ago.
Miclaucic posits US foreign policy is just fine but that we’re losing this propaganda war to “sworn enemies Russia and China.”
He’s
wrong on both points. US foreign policy is not fine, it’s a mess.
Enabling Israeli genocide in Gaza. Making the Russian invasion of
Ukraine inevitable thru 23 years of NATO expansion onto Russia’s
borders. Publicly proclaiming getting prepared for war with China.
Sanctioning dozens of countries and likely thousands of foreign
individuals simply for not buckling to our foreign policy demands.
Nor
are Russia and China America’s sworn enemies. The former is pushing
back against US adventurism with NATO expansion in Europe. The latter is
responding to US ramping up possible war over Taiwan. Neither
entanglement is connected to America’s true national security interests.
It’s
not better messaging from China and Russia that has caused much of the
world to withdraw from US unipolar dominance to join BRICS and Shanghai
Cooperation Organization. It’s America’s bullying and belligerence
worldwide marking the end of America as the world’s sole superpower.
Michael Miclaucic’s ominous warning of US decline harkens back 70 years ago when commentators screamed ‘The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming.’ Nothing much has changed for Miclaucic except now it’s ‘The Russians and Chinese are coming, the Russians and Chinese are coming.’
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL