Countries A, B, C, (and others) have been in conflict for years now.
Country B invaded and seized land of Country K, who now been conducting a campaign of major initiatives for several years now. Country K carries out a highly asymmetrical attack against Country B that takes out over a third (about 2/5, actually) of B’s nuclear-capable air force, which had been used against K for some time. Country A and Country C have been duking it out with trade and not hardware, but the noises are being made constantly. Country A shares a close working relationship with Country B and has been repeatedly accused of helping B fight against K.
The press was gob-smacked, tho’ some of the lesser lights of the media pointed out that the idea has been around for several years.
The asymmetry of it all is what people need to be paying more attention to, and while a strategic issue has been raised (as it should be), we need to be focusing on other scenarios that benefit from such asymmetries.
Consider:
The Country C’s current regime has been slashing funding for agencies responsible for data and information gathering and analysis, counter-cyberwarfare, and meteorological data gathering and analysis and forecasting. So they miss the chatter taking place of an assault that takes advantage of the chaos of a government that is having issues passing budgets, cutting vital defensive services including the prediction and surveillance of their well-known summer storms. Given the increasing average severity of these storms, it is highly likely that any storm in the next season will be more than usually catastrophic.
But then if you no longer support the tracking and surveillance programs that the rest of the world is using, then you won’t know. But your enemies will and if they’ve been following along the past 15 years or so, they very well may have laid preparations. But you no longer have the intelligence-gathering capacity that you used to have because you’ve alienated all your previous allies.
Country K’s brilliant attack was some 18 months in the making…
Here’s a “Look! A squirrel!” moment to wash that previous away —
Unprocessed phone capture, near the Quartier des Spectacles, on a recent sojourn.
