04.09.10
Cult of Cyberwar & the grand old party of crazy mean people
Today, speaking for itself:
Several Republicans have criticized President Obama for placing new limits on the use of U.S. nuclear weapons, but Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., raised eyebrows among liberal foreign policy observers by suggesting during a Wednesday rally with Sarah Palin that the American nuclear arsenal is needed even to deter cyber attacks.
“If in fact there is a nation who is compliant with all of the rules ahead of time and they’ve complied with the United Nations on nuclear proliferation, if they fire against the United States a biological weapon, a chemical weapon or maybe a cyber attack, well then we aren’t going to be firing back with nuclear weapons,” Bachmann said. “Doesn’t that make us all feel safe?”
“No!??? shouted the crowd of thousands in Minneapolis.
Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly seems surprised by the outburst here.
He shouldn’t be.
When prime media real estate like 60 Minutes and the Washington Post’s editorial pages have been given over to one person — Mike McConnell — screeching about how the US either is losing or would lose a ‘cyberwar,’ it’s unsurprising when a famously stupid person from the GOP says such a thing. After all, one of McConnell’s favored tropes is that a cyberwar on Wall Street would be worse than 9/11.
I covered this years ago when no one was interested in the subject. Institutional memory is in short supply. However, idiotic statements never have been. And they always have more leg.
Cult of Cyberwar — from the archives. Boy, that’s a lot of stories.