Russia attacked us. Call it by its name.
‘Meddling’ is something that your in-laws do
The more we learn about Russia’s role in America’s elections, the more the commonly used description of it — meddling — seems inadequate.
At one time, before we knew what we know now, meddling might have been an appropriate characterization. And, for headline writers, meddling is shorter than some of the alternatives. But the word, typically understood to mean unwelcome or annoying intervention, fails to convey the severity of the situation.
Meddling is what your in-laws do when you’re trying to decide where to put the sofa or what to name the new baby. Merriam-Webster’s first example of use of the word in a sentence is this: “Please stop meddling in your sister’s marriage, even though you mean well.”
We don’t say that the Japanese meddled with the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. We don’t say that the Watergate burglars tried to meddle with the Democratic National Committee on June 17, 1972. We don’t say that al-Qaeda meddled with normal operations at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
And we shouldn’t continue saying that the Kremlin meddled in the 2016 elections and threatens to do so again this year. But we do. The phrase “Russian meddling” produced 17.5 million Google hits one day this month.
Probably because the word minimizes the impact, it is President Trump’s favorite description of Moscow’s electronic assault on American democracy — that is, when he’s willing to acknowledge it at all. “The Russians had no impact on our votes whatsoever” — something Trump has no way of knowing — “but certainly there was meddling, and probably there was meddling from other countries and maybe other individuals,” the president said recently.
Contrast Trump’s wishy-washy response to a violation of national sovereignty with British Prime Minister Theresa May’s reaction to the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter living in England. May didn’t say Russia might have meddled with the pair’s nervous systems. She said Britain is prepared to consider the incident “an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom.”
Russia’s attack on America’s elections was no Pearl Harbor or 9/11, and some of the efforts were amateurish at best. But as special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment spelled out in startling detail last month, it was more than unwelcome or annoying. It was a sophisticated plot involving millions of dollars and hundreds of saboteurs:
❚ A Russian organization called the Internet Research Agency set up a management group, a graphics department, a data analysis department, a search-engine optimization department and an IT department to wage “information warfare” against the U.S.
❚ The plotters “had a strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 presidential campaign.” By the middle of the election year, “operations included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaging Hillary Clinton.”
❚ The defendants are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
Tellingly, the word meddling doesn’t appear anywhere in the 37-page indictment of 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies.
The indictment captures only a piece of the Kremlin-backed campaign. More criminal charges are anticipated against Russians who hacked leading Democrats’ emails, and who tried to infiltrate election-related computer systems in several states. Just last week, the Department of Homeland Security said Russian state hackers have targeted U.S. utilities since March 2016.
All this nefarious activity is well beyond the capabilities of your in-laws or, as Trump put it in one of the presidential debates, “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.”
So call what the Russians did attacking, or sabotaging, or undermining, or interfering or disrupting.
Just don’t call it meddling.
Bill Sternberg is the editorial page editor of USA TODAY.