Information War in Miniature

We got a tiny piece of Information War in the news today with a Russian press conference that reminds me a lot of the ones they held with one of their missiles shot down a civilian airliner in the Ukraine.  Although, they are getting better at it with more professional graphics and better tight shots of military officers who speak like they aren't reading from a screenplay.

This time, they are trying to explain that it was not Russian planes that bombed the UN convoy of food and aide that was going to the long-suffering people in Aleppo.  The US says it was them.  The Russians deny it.

Rarely is denial enough, so we have the new "evidence" that the US had a drone in the area of that convoy.  Never mind that drones are principally for surveillance and not for attacking many vehicles at one time.  Drones are a little short on ordinance to be attacking multiple vehicles.  Never mind that, watch this video where the convoy is clearly seen, then we overlay that track of that drone and we can "prove" that drone was up to no good.  The inference is that the US must have blown up that convoy and not us.  They know most people will not believe that.

This serves two purposes.  First, a few people will believe that this is sufficient evidence of wrong doing on the part of the US, but most of them are probably Russians in Russia.  That is OK if you are playing to that domestic audience, but international audiences are not listening to this kind of stuff.  Second, it takes attention away from the inquiry which is leading back to Russian bombers attacking that convoy for reasons that almost anyone with a brian would have to think insane.  The Russians are going to need a coverup at least as good at the one in the Ukraine for anyone to believe their story, and unlike Ukraine, they don't control the territory where it happened.  People saw those planes and know what they are.  Radars saw where they came from and where they went.  Trying to get out in front of this one is going to take more than a few inferences of drones in the area.  It sounds too much like the story they invented for the airliner which said the Ukrainians shot it down while trying to hit Putin's aircraft as it flew through.  Totally incredible.