Even With A Small Economy, Military, Russia Is Threat

By Scott Benjamin

U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-4) of Greenwich says “a year ago, I wouldn’t have thought that I would be in the process of getting a doctorate degree on national security as it pertains to Russia” following reports of cyber hacking and possible tampering in the 2016 presidential election as a result of alleged collusion with members of President Donald Trump’s campaign.

The congressman said that the Russians are “playing with a weak hand, because their economy is half the size of California’s.”

However, although their overall military pales in comparison to that of the United States, they have the nuclear capacity to destroy America, former U.S. House Homeland Security Committee senior policy advisor Scott Bates, the other panelist, said during a June 10 forum on “Russia, The U.S. And Trump” that was sponsored by the Ridgefield Democratic Town Committee at the Ridgefield Library.

Himes, the ranking member of the National Security Administration and Cybersecurity subcommittee of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said it is not clear that Russian intelligence tried to “impact the outcome” of the 2016 presidential election. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and her supporters have cited it as a cause for her narrow loss in the Electoral College.

He said that testimony two days earlier by fired Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey was “troublesome on several points,” including that he called Trump “a liar” in denying that he had asked him to halt an investigation into ties between former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and the Russians.

The New York Times reported Sunday that officials at the National Security Agency fear that the controversy regarding Trump's dismissal of Comey will result in attention being "diverted from figuring out how Russia disrupted American democracy last year."

Bates of Stonington, who is Connecticut’s Assistant Secretary of the State, said Russian leader Vladimir Putin is following in a long history of Russian aggression.

“They want to have a divided Western World,” he said at the forum, which was moderated by former longtime Ridgefield Democratic Town Committee Chairman Susan Cocco.

“They want to defeat the idea that there are universal values – such as human rights and democracy,” the former congressional policy advisor said.

Bates told the audience of 250 people that the best response to the Russian cyber hacking is a united, 28-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization, noting that “it has maintained a balance of power for 70 years.”

Himes agreed, adding that there should be a present-day “Geneva Convention” among various parties to determine “what is off limits.”

The congressman said former President Barack Obama’s response to the Russian hacking was “sorely inadequate” and although he opposes military action he does support a “more concerted” response through cyber networks.

Bates declared that the United States should “move forward with confidence. If we are insular or provincial, then we lose all that gives us an advantage.”

Himes said Trump’s recent European trip was “a disaster.”

The congressman said regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was established in 1994, and the proposed 13-nation Trans Pacific Partnership, “We’re saying to the world that we’re no longer going to be there. That’s what every country has heard for the last four months.”

Bates, who announced earlier this month that he would not seek the Democratic nomination for governor in 2018, added, “From the dawn of the Cold War, the president has accrued tremendous powers that were not probably envisioned by the founding fathers. Congress needs to reestablish its authority in national security.”

“I’d like to see more congressional delegations coming out to our allies to demonstrate what American leadership and values are all about,” he explained. “We need to let them know that the president doesn’t represent all of America’s interests.”

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