Iran and the Forgotten Cognitive Front

 

Iran and the Forgotten Cognitive Front

There are two fronts in every war – one kinetic, one cognitive. The kinetic front is obvious, the cognitive not so. We will succeed on the kinetic front in the Iran war in the next few weeks, but what happens on the cognitive front will be the determining factor of success or failure. The cognitive front is fought to influence will, support, and ideology. It is the forgotten front, as our decades being mired in Afghanistan and Iraq demonstrated.

We must understand how, and if, we are impacting the cognitive front against the Iranian leadership, military, and their supporters, their citizens, and our own citizens. Unfortunately, we have many challenges to overcome.

One challenge, is denying, disrupting, and proactively superseding the global front of propaganda, false images and narratives of Iran, Russia, and China driving fear, economic reaction, and creating doubt. Success could severely diminish resolve amongst Iranians to rise up and seize their country back.

The other challenge is denying, disrupting, and proactively superseding similar impacts to the domestic cognitive front being waged by elected leaders (mostly Democrats, but also a few Republicans), media, and radical activists. Failure is their desired outcome. They are a fifth column of media, politicians, activists, and useful idiots purposefully subverting our efforts in Iran. Most view their actions as political resistance. This lack of understanding explains the reactive nature to the subversive efforts of this group over the last several decades. The Steele Dossier, lawfare, fraudulent elections, invasion of illegals, and abuses of national security are not political, they are a blood sport for absolute power.

I assess this domestic fifth column is employing active measures, covert or deniable political operations, to influence policy, undermine trust, and divide us. Examples prior to the Iran war are readily available - the Free Palestine, BLM, CRT, DEI, transgender, climate change, lawfare movements, and assassination attempts are a few. The recent “pop-up” antiwar or pro-Iranian regime demonstrations are just an extension of those measures.

There is an innate alignment between our adversaries in China, Iran, Russia, Cuba, etc. and this fifth column. Democrats, media, and activists consistently demonstrate their disdain for our Constitution, freedoms, and lives of innocent Americans. Look no further than the slaughter of innocent Americans in the streets by illegals, whom they shed not a tear for, or even cover in the news. Yet they cry for two demonstrators killed as they assaulted law enforcement. The fifth column provides financial support and continues to incite proxy fringe elements (i.e., transgenders, radical Islamists, or domestic terrorists like Antifa) to violence, assassination, and murder.

My assessment is also based on numerous Democrats stating they intend to remove the filibuster, stack the SCOTUS, increase the number of judicial activists, to add DC and Puerto Rico as states, and provide illegals the right to vote. What follows is removal or severe restriction of constitutional rights to bear arms and free speech. The 2024 election slowed but did not stop their efforts, as we see they continue in Viriginia, Minnesota, California, and every Democrat state or city.

To further support his assessment, we see similar cognitive fronts waged in Canada, Australia, the EU, and United Kingdom via mass immigration, extreme censorship of free speech, and removal of gun rights. The reality of this fifth column is disturbingly uncomfortable but must be acknowledged.

For five decades Iran exported terror, evil, hate, and death against America, their neighbors, and the world. Well over a thousand Americans were maimed or murdered during that time. Most understood the consequences of a nuclear Iran being a world held hostage to nuclear blackmail while their proxies spread terror unhindered. With their ballistic missiles and enough weapons grade material for eleven nuclear weapons – their quest to destroy the Great Satan – the USA – was close.

This is a war of choice, but a desirable choice. The outcome portends a sea change in the Middle East, and global stage, resulting in centuries of peace. The alternative is another century of wars, terror, enabled via nuclear blackmail. Peace tends to undermine tyranny, which is why our adversaries export terror and the fifth column enables terror.

To counter and win on the cognitive fronts requires specific capacity, capabilities, and expertise. Do they exist? The efforts of President Trump, Secretary Rubio, and congressional allies are not enough to deny, counter, and proactively engage our global adversaries and this fifth column.

To fight and win on the domestic and global cognitive fronts, advance and sustain our objectives in Iran and in America, we must acknowledge the enemy within, and respond accordingly. In lieu of that, our enemies will continue to exploit our blissful ignorance to advance their subversion of America. We won both WWII and the Cold War because we understood the primary battleground was, is, and will remain a cognitive battle of ideas, ideology, and will. If we fail, we will find peace short-lived, and the kinetic fronts expanded.

• Edward Haugland is the author of “The Cognitive War” and a leading national expert in this field. He is an award-winning CIA analyst and retired Defense Department intelligence executive, as well as a U.S. Air Force veteran, with more than four decades of service in national security across multiple executive branch departments and agencies.