![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/022722.jpg\")
\n(This image from Ukraine is what got Melissa going this morning. And the rest of us).<\/p>\n
\n(This image from Ukraine is what got Melissa going this morning. And the rest of us).<\/p>\n
Melissa led it off this morning. We naturally expected Splash to start the discussion on the fourth day of war. Mr. Putin has placed his nuclear forces on the highest alert, and that had him up early. This is, he said gravely, a messaging exercise. We generally agree with that professional assessment, though the \u201cstrategic exercise\u201d the Russians conducted last week brushed the cobwebs off a potent threat to human civilization.<\/p>\n
There followed an agitated discussion of nuclear messaging around the Fire Ring under uncertain skies, and the fact that the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, already contaminated, could be a place to make a small demonstration of adamant resolve. You can imagine that got the old Cold Warriors agitated with old thinking not exercised in decades.<\/p>\n
Melissa\u2019s point was more direct. \u201cYou saw how I reacted yesterday to that cute blonde woman broadcasting from a bomb shelter, holding her baby. You have no idea how wrenching that is to any woman who has held her baby in times of uncertainty. How can Putin allow that messaging to come out of a place in which no one believes there is justification to threaten infants with tanks?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Old Salts agreed from a practical military standpoint. It was a function of professional planning. First step was always Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses- what we called SEAD in our time. Effective operations require a campaign to disable the defensive capabilities of a place you are going to occupy by force. Without it, you have disaster.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about that yesterday with the nod back to Height 776. It was a military disaster for the Russians that had to be turned around into a story of heroism. The key is to not have a humiliating event to spin around. You want to humiliate other peple.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLike a Mom huddled in a basement?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sort of horror is to be expected. The key is to suppress the message before the media runs it again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, as a practical matter, how do you do that? I would put it right up there with turning off the power grid and the ability to communicate as first items on the Targets That Count list.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAgree. There is something new here in terms of technology transforming our old trade. Word this morning is that Elon Musk\u2019s StarLink orbital media system is being used to allow that Mom to represent Ukraine. And that old video from other wars is being re-cycled to demonstrate other stories that aren\u2019t happening now, but did happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShooting down two large transport aircraft and ambushing a mechanized column to destroy fifty vehicles and the young men driving them is pretty effective messaging. You don\u2019t need that in terms of perception management on a war that appears unjustified.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the key to why things appear the way they are. The Kremlin not only announced the nuclear option, but said they might hav to take out the International Space Station.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich is totally harmless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Splash was already deep into that message. \u201cThe crew onboard Expedition 62 numbers seven, mostly male, but a representative sample of some of the glob\u2019s men and women. Today they were supposed to be doing experiments in the \u201cdifferences in human bone biology in microgravity. Part OsteoOmics-02 experiment they announced last week.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, destroying the Space Station is effective in what freaking manner? Spreading eight people and a bunch of twisted metal and plastic in low earth orbit?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDemonstration of resolve.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the blonde lady in the bunker is more effective. But isn\u2019t her message being spread by Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceLink internet system?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the system we would like to have here in the Piedmont to get decent broadband. So we can stream all sorts of new movies.\u201d Loma was barely through his third cup of steaming java.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd messaging,\u201d said Melissa thoughtfully.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe might want to examine the nature of warfighting. It seems to have changed again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah,\u201d said Splash, nodding in Melissa\u2019s direction. \u201cIt\u2019s for the children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(This image from Ukraine is what got Melissa going this morning. And the rest of us). Melissa led it off this morning. We naturally expected Splash to start the discussion on the fourth day of war. Mr. Putin has placed his nuclear forces on the highest alert, and that had him up early. This is, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23337,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23335\/revisions\/23337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}