Respecting Facts

During my time in combat as a tactical intelligence officer, I developed a healthy respect for facts, even the ones I didn't like. Failure to respect them could get you killed, or perhaps even worse, get someone else killed.

Maintaining that respect for the facts and staying true to my duty of candor with my command and staff was not always easy. Senior commanders are seldom selected for their lack of professional opinions or will power. Summoning the courage to contradict their sometimes wishful thinking with an inconvenient fact sometimes resulted in unpleasant confrontation. Nonetheless, those confrontations were always worth it - especially when lives were on the line. Those moments were always ones worth "betting your bars" on.

This is where we find ourselves today. Our current president ran for re-election. The votes have almost all been tallied. In some cases those votes have been challenged in court. Those legal challenges have largely been dismissed or otherwise dealt with. Though some challenges are still outstanding, the numbers of votes now being challenged will in no way change the final outcomes in the states where that is occurring. Even the Georgia recount is unlikely to overcome the more than 14,000 point lead that Biden currently holds over Trump. And even if it did, the electoral votes from all the other states would still be an overwhelming victory for Biden.

Yesterday the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Department of Homeland Security released a statement by the Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council - a bi-partisan group of federal, state, and local officials - declaring that the 2020 election was "the most secure in American history" and that "there is no evidence" of tampering with any voting systems.

There are two things to note about this statement of fact.

1. Our preparations at all levels of government to counter the cyber threats posed by foreign governments and non-governmental actors seem to have been successful. Being forewarned, and acting on that warning, resulted in us being forearmed and well-prepared to deal with whatever intrusions were attempted, as I am sure we will discover in the coming months and years. Kudos to our professional cyberwarriors at all levels of government whom I am sure spent many sleepless nights and long hours both preparing the strategy and executing the plan that apparently rendered those attacks toothless. We should all celebrate this victory as Americans and be proud of the people who defended our election. Election 2020 was free and fairly held.
2. The current president's own administration - his own executive branch of government - released this statement. It certainly was not in the professional interest of the political appointees who head Department of Homeland Security to accept this statement of fact and publish it, but they did. Like all of us at some time, they had to respect the facts for what they were.

Most of the people I interact with on Linked-In are leaders - either in industry or government. All of us have had to accept hard facts at some point. We have all learned to deal with those facts, accept them, and move on with either solving the problems they have posed, or adapting to them. And that is precisely where we find ourselves now - solving the problems this election have brought up, and/or adapting to them.

Continuing to condemn the people who ran these elections, continuing to question the process does nothing but call into question the very nature of our democratic systems and the constitution itself. By all means, pursue whatever legal options are open to you, but once the courts have decided, accept that decision and move on.

This is not a political statement. This is a statement of fact.

And we must respect facts, or perish.

https://www.cisa.gov/news/2020/11/12/joint-statement-elections-infrastructure-government-coordinating-council-election