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You're wrong about them being out of control: this, the hacking, spying, compromise of foreign nations, etc, is what the American people want. You're confusing

You're wrong about them being out of control: this, the hacking, spying, compromise of foreign nations, etc, is what the American people want. You're confusing a vocal minority that agrees with you for consensus. From the perspective of most Americans, the IC are loyal soldiers who brought nearly the whole globe under American control at a price below that of our latest fighter plane. Total information warfare superiority. The new nuclear dominance. Now, you (and I) might find that unsavory, but for people who are fans of real politik, it wasn't even a question. If anything, the IC should've done more to neutralize Chinese and Russian capabilities. I would argue the real politik view is simplistic, but yours is also naive. You're simply wrong about the US going to war if others did the same -- they do and we don't. We retaliate in cyberspace, dissident funding, etc. That state of continuous covert warfare is normal, everyone does it, and there are many reasons the US wants to dominate at it. The only criticism I have of the IC is failing to advance our defensive capabilities, not for keeping us at the forefront of the cyber battlefield.

iamacynic 10y ago
you could say that the continual, un-ending nature of covert cyber/internet and financial war prevents any individual player or group from gaining sudden over-proportional power (as is possible with the two arm leverage of technology and finance) and causing a large-scale conflict. i.e. it's the new multi-lateral cold war of the 21st century.
- SomeStupidPoint 10y ago
  It's just the cyberization of the economic, psychological, and ideological warfare that has existed... Well, probably since always, but I've heard of at least to the 1600s and the birth of the modern nation-state. Nations have always jockeyed for economic advantage, harmed the cohesion of rival nations (eg, psyops and funding dissidents), and advanced groups in those nations ideologically sympathetic to themselves. Sometimes it spills in to small scale conflicts or actual revolutions or wars.
- theparanoid 10y ago
  In the overt corporate space Microsoft sure did win during the 90's. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Iran schlonged their middle-east rivals in cyber warefare this or the next decade.

iamacynic 10y ago

you could say that the continual, un-ending nature of covert cyber/internet and financial war prevents any individual player or group from gaining sudden over-proportional power (as is possible with the two arm leverage of technology and finance) and causing a large-scale conflict. i.e. it's the new multi-lateral cold war of the 21st century.

SomeStupidPoint 10y ago
It's just the cyberization of the economic, psychological, and ideological warfare that has existed... Well, probably since always, but I've heard of at least to the 1600s and the birth of the modern nation-state. Nations have always jockeyed for economic advantage, harmed the cohesion of rival nations (eg, psyops and funding dissidents), and advanced groups in those nations ideologically sympathetic to themselves. Sometimes it spills in to small scale conflicts or actual revolutions or wars.
theparanoid 10y ago
In the overt corporate space Microsoft sure did win during the 90's. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Iran schlonged their middle-east rivals in cyber warefare this or the next decade.