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December 23, 2013 at 1:52 pm
I’m gonna repeat myself on this one from a few months back because there’s really not much new to add: The US acts as if it is the exceptional nation in cyberspace. It reserves the right to criticize and lecture others on what constitutes proper conduct but reserves the right to do what it pleases because of its allegedly exceptional nature.
The US, you see, only wages cyberwar, or cyber-espionage, campaigns in defense of freedom and to keep Americans safe. No other nations do similar things. They only cyber-spy on us and probe the net infrastructure to cause damage and steal our wealth.
The country has been in a terrible position to talk terms in cyberspace ever since it started up a hot clandestine war on the Iranian nuclear program and subsequent related malware spilled over into other nations.
The Edward Snowden affair only underlines it.
One could add a chapter or two on the growing together of the private sector and defense structure in the national security megaplex and the fact that it’s a gigantic engine, one with a major focus in finding and security evermore revenue in tax dollars. Mix in the total apathy of the public and a supine media for over ten years in the cause of the war-on-terror. The fact that random ‘friends’ are outraged and posting on FB about an agency they never thought about before is trivial, people complaining about another thing they were too busy or self-centered to pay any attention to before it really got out of hand.
I would make Edward Snowden man of the year. Whether you like what you know of him or not, he did something that made a difference. Domestically, I would be surprised if anything changes. However, when Brazil cancels an order for American-made fighter bombers for Saab Grippens and specifically says US cyberspying was the reason one begins to see how external change might be enforced and extract a cost.
Snowden derailed the propaganda train on China and cyberwar, bringing it about. The cyberwar cult was always one of avarice and bootlicking stenography in the mainstream and tech press. At the end of 2013 no one with sense could possibly believe its a central issue threatening the economic lives and future of the majority, a sword of Damocles hanging by a thread which we must empower computer security warriors to do something about.
December 23, 2013 at 2:23 pm
That’s as apt a description of “American Exceptionalism” as I’ve seen.
America excepts itself from standards, international law (such as it is), and its own Bill of Rights.