Cyber Command Or Cyber Cop?
68Never Mind The Code
With the brand-new creation of the U.S. Cyber Command, cryptologists of all stripes scrambled to decode the cute little string of letters and digits shown on the Command logo. It didn't take long, as it was a relatively simple encryption of the Command's mission statement. Fun and games. Also spooky as unidentified noises in the middle of the night or yelling "Sarah Palin!" in a theater full of liberals.
Because it's not about the logo. It's about the capability and the Commander In Chief's willingness to politicize anything and everything within reach.
Wait. Wait. Brain spin. Slow down a sec...okay.
First things first: The mission statement:
"USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries."
As a science fiction fan and writer myself, I love that mission statement. It's cool. It could be a key element underpinning any sci fi classic ever penned--or, in these days, keyboarded. Likewise, there's no question that the United States needs to have this capacity in cyberspace. Unfortunately, it's also as scary as an invisible rattlesnake buzzing in tall grass.
The scary part? The last phrase: "...and deny the same to our adversaries". Sounds good if by "our adversaries" it means, "the enemies of We the People of these United States". Sounds bad if it means, "anyone or anything expressing an opinion Barack Obama doesn't like". The entire list of Presidential Enemies wouldn't fit in this brief hub. For that matter, it wouldn't fit into a set of pages the size of the Encyclopedia Britannica. But a teensy few worrisome examples:
--Arizona is one our adversaries. It must be. OzBama of the Thin Skin has his Department of Injustice suing the state for daring to write SB 1070, the law via which state and local law enforcement will actually help the feds (gasp!) enforce federal immigration law.
--Black Panthers who want to kill white Americans and their babies are not our adversaries. They must not be. DOI drops a slam-dunk case against a cracker-killer...oh, you already knew about that one?
--American voters are our adversaries. Apparently. At any rate, the Big O, Reid, & Pelosi Triumvirate decided to drag us kicking and screaming to Health Care Deformed because we are too stupid to know what's good for us.
--People anywhere near the BP oil spill are our adversaries. Obviously. Thugs have begun threatening anyone near, for example, one of the booms designed to hold back the oil. Not allowed to get close, they've been told. We'll send you to jail if you get too close.
How worried should we be, folks? In the short term, maybe not too much. It's a new Command, and unless the military types can tempt some of the top civilian hackers, Cyber Command may not have the ability to go after--oh, say, you and me-- for a while yet.
But Get Ready
The short term probability of incompetence is definitely encouraging. It may--not a sure thing, but it may--give us time to vote most of the bums out in November 2010 and kick the last two rats off the ship (which is not sinking, thank you) in November 2012. And if Obama politicizes Cyber Command like he politicizes what has become the Department of Injustice, if he tries to use them as an enforcement arm in the immediate future, they may bumble sufficiently for everything to blow up in his face politically.
When we view the long term, the picture is grim:
1. Cyber Command will never disappear from our midst. The case can too easily be made for its existence, and it just. Sounds. So. Cool.
2. Sooner or later, the Command will gain a degree of online competence beyond typing a few words into a Google search box and hitting Enter.
3. Obama will not succeed because he's been too incompetent, too blatant, too open in his attempt to take over America's entire governmental structure by storm trooper. Uh, I meant, by storm...no, "by storm trooper" does say it better. But our enemies--and when I use that term, I do mean the enemies of the American people--our enemies sometimes have an actual capacity to learn from their mistakes. This Progressive is going down in political flames. But there will be another, and a Progressive by any name smells as rotten. How about, oh, say, 40 years from now when most of us Vietnam Era veterans are over 100 years of age and possibly not quite as politically active, not quite as available to sound the alarm? Do you think it's likely Cyber Command might target your "subversive" blog that dared to point out the evils of the 2050 administration? Oh, you don't worry about stuff that far ahead?
Too bad. THEY do.
I don't expect this hub to have any impact whatsoever at this time. That's fine. It's not written for this year's batch of politics but for future history students. Will this page continue to be available on the world wide web indefinitely? Hard to say. But if you're reading this, and if the year is 2048, and you just can't bring yourself to trust the person who just got elected President...hey, this is for you. If you're speaking up, please, please do a couple of things:
Line up a few safe houses. And, oh yes, keep your attorney on speed dial.
CommentsLoading...
The Bill of Rights, it seems, is dead. And the really worrying part is that our government isn't even bothering to lie about it. I was comfortable with the lying, it was expected. Why did they have to go an change that?
Exactly, Ivorwen. The struggle between those wishing to oppress others and those refusing to be oppressed is neverending. I sometimes illustrate that point in discussions by insisting that any time you get three people together, two of three will immediately begin plotting against the third. That's not QUITE literaly true in every case, of course, but it does make the point.
Jarn, I get what you're saying. In my case, I actually appreciate the fact that they're being so blatant about it BECAUSE in doing so, they've given us a target big enough and bright enough that We the People may well score big time at the polls in November. It really seems like they believed--and possibly still believe--that with the election of Barack Obama, they had all they needed to completely take over and "fundamentally transform" every aspect of American life "forever".
Their misjudgement is monumental, however. There's a reason we are who we are. The fire of Liberty runs deep in this land, with greater strength of purpose and willingness to sacrifice than anywhere else in the world. Progressives don't understand this at all. They label us as greedy, racist, selfish, and all those other negative adjectives...and they come to believe those labels reflect reality. But they don't. It is often difficult for conservatives to understand the Progressive mindset, but a true Progressive can NEVER understand the conservative view of Life or the conservative heart.
Remember in November.
Ivorwen Level 1 Commenter 22 months ago
It seems that the more technology there is the easier it is to be controlled, and the less privacy there is, but then I read records from the middle ages, and wonder if our assumption is true. It seems there have always been those ready to trample the rights of the masses.