I see a misdirection play at work regarding the Trump/Putin meeting and the Russian attempts at manipulating the Presidential election. Many police agencies are involved in a program called “crime prevention.” It has been around for 40 years.

Two things are required in order for a crime to occur: (1) a criminal and (2) a victim. If you remove one from the equation, you eliminate the crime. Traditionally, law enforcement has devoted considerable resources to eliminating the criminal. Somebody observed that crooks weren’t likely to mend their ways and the focus shifted to the other half of the equation. Crime prevention is the attempt to harden targets and eliminate behavior that makes one vulnerable to criminal activity.

Russian GRU agents have been indicted for hacking a variety of computer systems and targeting opinion makers in an attempt to influence the Presidential election. In the Russian view, they are professional military officers who pulled off a successful operation. It is unlikely that any will be a candidate for extradition. At least they will never see, Disney World.

The President has been roundly condemned for not taking Putin to task at the recent meeting. An indictment is probable cause and a long way from proof beyond a reasonable doubt. With no defendants available there will be no trial and the evidence to support a conviction will never see the light of day. Which works better? “Putin, you have won a minor point and embarrassed the U.S. or Putin spent a bunch of time, money and effort and what it got you is not worthy of consideration.” That takes care of the crooks, but what about the victims?

Trump handled that also. The FBI inspector general report, indictments and press reports all seem to indicate that the Russians were able to exploit a common vulnerability. The access point for Russian hacking efforts and manipulation of information had its genesis in networks owned, controlled and utilized by the democratic party and various affiliated hacks. Trump pointed that fact out. It seems reasonable, to me, to put them on notice.

All of the storm and fury about Trump’s statements is designed to cover the fact that had the democrats used basic security classification protocols, installed appropriate software, and controlled their own behavior the security breaches could have been lessened. If the democrats want to identify the real culprit, all they have to do is look in the mirror.

The good thing about Al Qaeda and the Taliban is that they don’t hate the United States nearly as much as democrats do.