The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations

by John McCain

We briefly discussed Russia’s interference in the election, the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s and John Podesta’s emails, which U.S. intelligence services concurred had been part of a Kremlin attempt to sabotage Hillary Clinton’s chances and improve Trump’s. We speculated about what Putin hoped to gain by taking such a risk, and discussed how to dissuade him from similar mischief in the future. I’m of the opinion that unless Putin is made to regret his decision he will return to the scene of the crime again and again. Crime has most certainly paid for Vladimir Putin, while leaving his country underdeveloped and over-dependent on its oil and gas resources. I’ve heard it speculated that he might be the wealthiest person on earth, and every ruble of his wealth will have been stolen from the Russian people. Imposing sanctions on Putin and his closest confederates, freezing assets, travel bans, and financial and trade restrictions on Russian entities tied to the Kremlin are appropriate and helpful. But to make Putin deeply regret his assault on the foundation of our democracy—free and fair elections—we should seriously consider retaliating with the kinds of weapons he used. We are in an information war with Russia whether we want to recognize it or not, and in this war offense might be our best defense. We have cyber capabilities, too. They could be used to expose the epic scale of his regime’s corruption or to embarrass him in other ways. Although discussions o...