President Biden was right, we're in a battle for the "soul of our nation."
And our National Security Community is unarmed
TAT readers,
It’s a rainy day here in San Antonio and in many ways, this is an apt metaphor for how I view our current vulnerability and national security. Our enemies cannot defeat us militarily, but they are truly eating away our national identity to the point, where our constitutional republic is perched precipitously over the edge of the cliff. All matters regarding “identity” are by default, Narrative Warfare/ NW, my core specialty. Narrative alone is difficult to explain and NW even more so, but in order for today’s TAT to make sense, I will give you some bare bones insights before launching into why it is the most acute threat to US and in fact, all global democracy. For the purpose of this essay, I will use identity, instead of what President Biden is calling “soul.”
The basics:
Every person has their own unique identity, even identical twins in many respects.
Our identity is shaped based on everything that we experience in our lives and that shape is essentially, a picture frame of sorts, regarding how we see and interpret, everything that we experience throughout our lives. It has been so since humans first walked upright, and that frame is intended to tell us how to interpret all that we experience. We all have countless layers of identity. In other words, it is how each of us make sense of the world around us and how we respond to everything… or not.
In the beginning, families were their own tribe. Over time, tribes became larger and included more families. Today, tribes are sports teams, political parties and movements, nations, religions etc. The more layers of identity a tribe shares, the more similar, their identities and the more likely, most of the tribe will subconsciously and consciously react or behave in a similar way. They share a similar worldview or frame.
Although experts disagree as to a specific percentage, I will conservatively say that roughly 80-85% of our daily actions and decisions occur subconsciously, which leaves our brain more time and energy to focus on what our brain considers the most important decisions. Such decisions often have to do with perceived wants, needs and especially what makes and keeps us safe. This is why conspiracy theories and fearmongering are so powerful in triggering reactions.
Immoral influencers in particular, use this to their advantage. The ability to predictably trigger the reactions that influencers want, is narrative warfare in a nutshell. To do so, requires a complete understanding of the identity (s) of your target or target audiences. Even with understanding those identities, you must also know how to operate with NW. The US and NATO security communities are clueless, willfully so.
Today, I won’t go into the nepotistic, waste, fraud and abuse that goes on in defense contracting that has rendered my profession impotent for four decades, but will leave a couple of links below, to full-in-depth analysis.
Without factoring "brainwashing" into the equation for 2024, we're doomed to another far-right, extremist administration, no matter what pollsters say. (truthaboutthreats.com)
J'accuse our National Security community for influence, of putting our Republic, at significant risk. (truthaboutthreats.com)
Combat ineffective, the rusted, broken hulk of US Influence Operations (truthaboutthreats.com)
Unrestricted Social Media platforms are a severe threat to the US/ NATO and all democracy. (truthaboutthreats.com)
It’s no longer Liberal vs. Conservative… It’s reality vs detachment from it. (truthaboutthreats.com)
Now that we have the basics regarding the threats to US national security from being unarmed on the battlefield of influence, let’s get down to the nuts and bolts of why this and recent election cycles are an ominous and acute threat.
What many readers know of my writing lately is that I have allegedly, been focusing on political issues and am opposed to conservatives. This couldn’t be further from the truth. I write about the most acute national security threats to our nation and by extension, the world. It just so happens that today’s MAGA controlled GOP is neither “conservative” nor a political party. It is an extremist movement operating almost exclusively on un-American, extreme right-wing ideology, primarily defined by fascism, oligarchy and White Christian Nationalism. President Biden was spot on in September of 2022 when he gave his speech about being in an ongoing “battle for the soul of the nation” speech. When considering the narrative principles just discussed, replace the word “soul” for the word “identity.”
The bottom line is that the MAGA/ GOP is engaged in a civil war against our republic. They have altered the soul or if you will, the identity of an entire political party into an extremist movement. Based on my long CT career in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, I see little difference between the Taliban or Iranian theocracies and today’s MAGA movement. Abusive, dictatorial, theocratic and corrupt, define all three. Most importantly, remember that when someone wishes to manipulate and influence in NW, the key is to know and control the identity of an audience.
As I explained in-depth, earlier this week, by family tradition and professional standards, I don’t discuss politics and religion publicly. Were we not already engaged in a nine-year civil war with pro-Putin, far-right extremism called today’s GOP, I would again be writing more about Ukraine, Israel, Latin America, China, Iran, CT/ Counterterrorism, etc. In regard to today’s topic, my analysis clearly demonstrates that if we do not regain our natural national identity, we are incapable of fulfilling our responsibility as a world leader, for the greater good. If we don’t unite, we cannot effectively manage any other national security threat either. See this vulnerability as an “Achilles Heel.”
Now, let’s look specifically at why, I raise the issue of Narrative Warfare today, in regard to the GOP.
All honest Americans wince nightly, while the RNC Convention holds our TV screens hostage. We are witnessing NW in Realtime. The GOP platform and its direct affiliate, Project 2025 are the written expression of the conspiracy theories of fake patriotism, corrupt views of US domestic and foreign national security and the reinforcing of the internal extremist narratives dominating the minds of GOP voters. This zombie-like hold over GOP voters has been cultivated for decades by the likes of the GOP itself and its primary dissemination outlet, FOX News.
Last night as Trump “accepted” the GOP nomination, his bizarre, meandering speech was anything but unifying, as promised. He revisited all of his grievances, primary conspiracy theories and of course, there was little to no truth involved. It doesn’t matter to those under the spell of far-right narratives. To them it is and will remain gospel. This is how narrative works, and it means simply that today’s GOP voters are functionally, divorced from reality.
In the age of Trump, now there are countless media outlets that daily saturate GOP voters with new and existing conspiracy theories while reinforcing and sustaining the primary false narratives like those listed below. I have written on most of these topics and will link my insights or a related credible source, beneath the appropriate false GOP narrative.
That there is high crime under the Biden administration, cities and states
That our economy is a disaster
2024 Current State of the Union: US Economy (usafacts.org)
That the Biden Administration is bad for oil production
Big oil, oligarchy, and the threat they pose to US and global security. (truthaboutthreats.com)
That the southern border is all POTUS Biden’s fault
That there is equivalence between right and left political violence
That the GOP is patriotic and that the left is somehow “socialist”
That Trump has had success at national security
That Putin isn’t a bad guy and that the war in Ukraine is NATO’s fault.
These utterly false GOP narratives are simply the same ole’ conspiracy theories that are indelibly etched into the identities of GOP voters and are represented in both the 2024 GOP Presidential Platform and Project 2025. All of these have been carefully cultivated by Russia, in conjunction with GOP influence operatives like Brad Parscale and of course, the primary culprit, FOX News and their ilk. Don’t forget, FOX paid Tucker Carlson for years, to spew Putin’s propaganda, nearly verbatim.
Now let’s for moment remember the core points about narrative and Narrative Warfare. Specifically, it is about identity and whoever understands the audience’s narrative identity best, can, with practice and professional expertise, trigger it reflexively. In fact, Soviet and now Russian intelligence services have long called their influence operations, Active Measures. The key component of this is something called reflexive control. In other words, once they understand an audience’s identity, they can with a few words, colors, symbology, music etc., cause people to act in a certain way.
Of course, just like a seed in a field, with NW, you must tend the land, water, feed and care for it before it can bear fruit. In this case, reinforcing well-rooted conspiracies living rent free in MAGA minds, comes in the form of reinforcing them in the GOP Platform and more dangerously in Project 2025 false narratives.
During my years in CT, I became quite aware that once a radicalized individual passed a certain threshold on the spectrum of radicalization, only a tiny percentage fully recovered, no matter the type of intervention. Here’s the admittedly, overly simplified explanation:
"When a cognitively vulnerable person is approached either personally or in some form of media and introduced to extremist concepts, they become susceptible to radicalization. Should they fall victim to the approaches of recruiters and friends that already believe the propaganda on some level, their indoctrination becomes more entrenched, but they can still, with proper professional intervention, be saved. If they cross the threshold into extremist propaganda, it becomes extremely difficult to undo the compromised aspects of their identity. When they cross the final threshold into violent extremism, it becomes exceptionally rare to rehabilitate their identity fully." - Cobaugh - 2024/ 2018
This understanding makes it particularly sad for me. We all have family, friends and work colleagues that have fallen victim, not just to MAGA extremism but any form of extremism ideology, like cults, aberrant religious practices, etc. It is hard to accept but if they are too far gone, they may just end up being the proverbial, “uncle at Thanksgiving that no one wants to sit next to.” Though I am not a psychologist or similar by trade, there is also the mourning, that goes with the idea that you may have lost someone dear. Just because they walk and talk around us, they are not, in many ways the person that you’ve known and loved prior. Again, there is at a certain point, little chance of getting them back.
There are cases, where the majority populations of entire nations became this compromised on some level. Nazi Germany, Communist China or the Soviet Union at times, are good examples of how easy it is to lose a generation or so of our loved ones to Narrative Warfare. There are for example, powerful corollaries between MAGA extremism and Southern ideology prior to, throughout and well past, the US Civil War. For example, much that dominated the cognition of Southern supporters during the Civil War, was a plantation-based oligarchy, underpinned by White Christian Nationalism. Both are dominant features today, in both the GOP Platform and Project 2025.
It’s time to begin wrapping up today’s TAT, which is already far too long but is also, at a length to be a profitable weekend read. Off now to the conclusion.
So today we began by framing this essay in terms of President Biden’s, “battle for the soul of the nation,” or rather I would suggest, our identity. He was right then and is still correct. Nearly half of American voters, have had their identity modified by Russian influence operations from whom GOP propagandists took their cues. After all, part of Trump’s identity is built on his lifelong appreciation of authoritarianism, such as that of Russian organized crime and associated oligarchy.
Like Putin who wields the power of the Russian Orthodox Church and the propaganda of White Christian Nationalism as their ideology, Trump and today’s MAGA/ GOP leadership are hellbent on doing the same. This is why oligarchs such as Elon Musk, Harlan Crow, Rupert Murdoch and others are such fans of Trumpism. They become more powerful and wealthy, with less and less oversight that should, but no longer protects regular citizens. Their primary obstacle to success, is the true identity of most Americans. Yes, those of us who are true believers in our constitutional republic.
Another glaring vulnerability in our National Security community is that not only do they have no working understanding of narrative and Narrative Warfare, but they fail to realize that it is the core, of building and sustaining resilience to false, un-American narratives. In fact, they refuse to even listen to successful, operational experts, preferring instead to chase some non-existent, technology-based solution.
Every day that we fail to address the true issue, is another day we invest in losing our loved ones and nation, irrevocably. Should our nation’s true values be further compromised, it will have extremely negative impacts on global democracy as well. The bottom line is simple and painful, we must rebuild our national resilience to any and all forms of extremism in our lives, especially our political identities. If we don’t, we are tangentially imposing increased oppression on our fellow citizens and countless global citizens as well. This is in no way, hyperbole. A telling indicator is the precipitous degradation of global democracy in most decades after the fall of the Soviet Union.
This last sentence requires at least an entire essay but not today my friends. Today’s essay is neither easy nor light reading. So now as I take my leave, I will close with and couple of sentences that most of you are already familiar with.
The second edition of my book, Modern Day Minutemen and Women/ The Art of Influence: Narrative Strategy, a Voter Education Guide, has just been published by, The Athina Press and it is oriented not only towards voters, but more so, towards the US and NATO national security communities. It is also available with Barnes and Noble and for collegiate adoptions. The discounts though are only through, The Athina Press. The pictured book is the professor’s edition with a less expensive version available for students.
The primary purpose of this book is for our nation of principles, to survive for the sake of my children, grandchildren and those of fellow citizens. Without our founding principles, there is no American identity, hence, no America. Those who favor oligarchism and Christian Nationalism, just like the Confederacy over a hundred and fifty years ago, are threatening to destroy all that we’ve built for the US and the world. They do this, exclusively for their own selfish purposes.
There is no cavalry coming from the national security community. In order to rebuild a resilient national identity based on our true values and constitutional principles, we must all be the Minutemen and Women, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, facing those who would deny us our rights of citizenship. American democracy depends on all of us. The ballot box is the battle, we cannot afford to lose.
My very best for everyone's weekend,
Paul