An Act of War?
Posted by JimThe cyber-fracas now going on between Google and the Chinese is perhaps a preview of how future wars between major powers will be fought. Bytes will replace bullets. It will be more important to produce hackers than high school guards.
I believe the last conventional war was fought in Korea. Terrorism and hacking are most likely to be the weapons of choice in this century. It cost far less to educate and army of cyber-warriors than it does to develop F-22s. Unfortunately for America, these new warriors have the potential to level the playing field among nations, erasing much of our current security advantages.
No one can nor wants to challenge this country on a conventional battlefield. The attack on Google was not a Pearl Harbor, but we had better pay attention to it. Our collective safety now more than ever will depend on educated workers who can design cyber-shields and airport screening devices.
It is ironic that most defense-hawks in this country would rather spend money on the tools of war and not on how to educate those who can design the new tools. Just over fifty years ago we rose to the challenge from Moscow and beat them to the moon. This was done by a concerted government-funded national effort to teach science in the schools.
We ignore this cheap lesson from the Chinese at our own peril. Wiser heads know we cannot rest on past victories. This country, since 1980 so focused on short-term rewards and low taxes, had better dig deep and start pouring money into our schools.
