Written by @stevescoins

Good Afternoon, as I looked over my RSS feeds to do today's posts, I noticed a theme in informationwar, or maybe that's just because that's what I focused on this week ;>

In any case, I'll have a link on American military IW development from a few months back, then I will go into China's IW efforts, remembering that there is a component of IW that focuses strictly on military use, and that IW in general is just one way to fight conflicts.

Like the Cold War, this has not been a total war of physical dominance, with zero-sum dilemmas, although, like the Cold War’s so-called “hot spots”, there has been elements of physical violence utilized to influence the broader context
Losing the Information War and How to Win

I'll close out today on a note regarding military arms and the trail from American arms deals to narcocartels.

Informationwar

Marines created first "information warfare group"

That's on the home front...however, the next bit of homefront news isn't so good.

Chinese Information War

It appears that one method of Chinese IW, like the Saudis before them, has been to establish propaganda/influence centers on American campuses.

It seems that the decision to make over the Institutes comes from the highest level of the Chinese government.
The Confucius Institutes, China’s vehicle for ideological warfare in America

Senator Rubio discusses this issue.

He who controls the purse strings, controls the agenda...The National Association of Scholars (NAS) issued a report last year regarding the "soft influence" of China on American higher education.

Many others have documented various examples of inappropriate political interference from China. Marshall Sahlins’ book Confucius Institutes:Academic Malware collects dozens of instances of interference, censorship, or pressure to self-censor.
Outsourced To China: Confucius Institutes and Soft Power in American Higher Education(2017)

There has been an assumption in the West that as China modernized, it would trend towards more of a democratic approach to government.

However, that assumption was recently proven to be hugely mistaken. And we have to start thinking about whether or not Chinese influences on our universities will result in more Chinese approaches to governance here...as the following...

Under pressure from #China's Communist Party, most of #HongKong’s independent bookshops have closed down within the last two years.
Victims of Communism Twitter

Cartels have more military grade arms

Mexican Cartel Tactical Note #36: Claymore Anti-Personnel Mines Recovered in Reynosa, Tamaulipas

Claymores...I remember ten years ago when a grenade was found on the side of the road here in Texas, and people just blew it off instead of admitting to the dangers that the cartels present.

THE MINE WAS TRACED BACK TO EL SALVADOR MILITARY STOCKS AS A U.S. FOREIGN MILITARY SALE (FMS) FROM THE 1980S.

MS-13 connection, perhaps? This is the problem with arms sales in general...you never can be sure where those arms end up. So I'm not saying that there was a Deep State/drug cartel in this situation, I'm saying that there was enough known corruption at the time that no sales should have been made. I think it's likely that MS-13 was able to purchase these mines at some point in time (used in training, and then off the books), and in a deal here and there these mines got into the cartels' hands.

I guess we should be glad that only two Claymores were found

That's it for today!