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The Invasion of The Chinese Cyberspies
HorsesAss writes "Time Magazine has an article up entitled 'The Invasion Of The Chinese Cyberspies and the Man Who Tried to Stop Them', which outlines how Chinese PRC is cracking DOD networks and downloading massive sets of files detailing every aspect of military planning and practice." From the article: "The hackers he was stalking, part of a cyberespionage ring that federal investigators code-named Titan Rain, first caught Carpenter's eye a year earlier when he helped investigate a network break-in at Lockheed Martin in September 2003. A strikingly similar attack hit Sandia several months later, but it wasn't until Carpenter compared notes with a counterpart in Army cyberintelligence that he suspected the scope of the threat. Methodical and voracious, these hackers wanted all the files they could find, and they were getting them by penetrating secure computer networks at the country's most sensitive military bases, defense contractors and aerospace companies."
USA vs. China
While the rest of the world chooses sides or tries to get out of the way...
My blog
If the DoD systems are so easy to crack, what is stopping others to attack them?
It's not like they're terrorists or anything
Isn't this the reason that there is supposed to be an air gap between classified networks are and unclassified networks?
I'm wondering how much of what was obtained is planted information to look like something valuable. Then again, it is the government we're talking about, so it could well be national secrets.
Jerry
http://www.itcapability.com/
Is there a reason that they even bother accepting traffic from any where outside of the US?
Wow. And it isn't an article written by John Markov? I'm shocked!
I guess the government and corporate world should have been paying more attention to what breeches by harmlessly curious teenagers signaled rather than harassing and fining and jailing them for embarrassing them for their own incompetence while letting actual national threats from foreign nations occur.
It's a good thing they turned those 13 little kids from that one school into felons for typing in a password that was obvious and widely available to install stuff on the laptops they were given to use. Today, installing iChat. Tomorrow? - secret highly paid communist spies haxoring into the super elite United States government. OH NOES!
To me the whole thing sounds a bit... Dramatized. It sounds like it came from a movie. It wouldn't surprise me if the truth was exaggerated just a tiny bit.
They already did that
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
...like democratic practices.
I wonder if the clever cyberspies have downloaded the minutes from any Town Meetings, or 'subversive' documents like Robert's Rules of Order?
The US should just import in more pop culture. That is what has successfully subverted communist regimes best in the past. Send 'em Ramones, The Clash, Gang Of Four punk rawk.
resigned
Oh, and this guy is a moron. Part of the counter-intelligence game is to make sure the enemy doesn't know he's been caught. This guy is such a bull in the china shop he's destroyed any chance we'll be able to learn "means and methods" information from this ring.
While the article was written to be dramatic and exciting, this scenario is assuredly based on truth.
Does anyone seriously doubt that China, India, Russia, and Israel have teams of computer scientists probing U.S. government and corporate networks?
Does anyone doubt the U.S. has many, many teams (NSA, CIA, DIA - especially AirForce Intelligence) probing foreign networks and eavesdropping on practically ALL digital communication?
Would you be surprised if a CIA field op were found in China? Digital espionage is the future. Expect it.
China's going to "win" BTW. They're the next superpower, already competeing for resources.
D &to=CNY&amt=1&t=5d
Look at your clothes, computer, TV, video, car labels. You can bet most or all of it's from China. That's going to continue till the exchange rate sorts itself out. It's a good thing that they recently "floated" their currency and that it's rising in value.
http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=US
Deleted
It feels like someone is trying to find an excuse to go on war with China.
Not until it's hyped up a LOT more.
But that's not going to happen. Next on the list is Iran, unless they manage to get the bomb first (which is exactly the reason why they want it). Attacking China itself would be suicide, it's way too big and powerful, and already has the bomb. The only way the USA and China could end up in a war is if China starts it by attacking Taiwan, and that would be a limited scenario.
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
--Henry Kissinger
Who the hell do they think they are.
It's called "intelligence gathering", and if you think there aren't a lot of CIA guys trying to do exactly the same thing with any Chinese military server they can find, you probably also still believe in the easter bunny.
I think everybody should start blocking everything with origin out of china.
Makes it kinda hard to do business with them, which is way too profitable to give up over some silly little incident like this.
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
--Henry Kissinger
Look at your clothes, computer, TV, video, car labels.
Well, 20 years ago, you'd have said the exact same thing about Japan. They themselves were banking on their demonstrably superior manufacturing ingenuity, efficiencies, and focus to make them dominant. They then totally overextended themselves, and their economy has been more or less in the tank ever since.
Now, the difference between them and the Chinese situation (also sitting on top of an economic bubble they won't be able to sustain) is that the Chinese, having not been aggressors in WWII, don't have any of the politically correct inhibitions about using force to prop up the weak spots in their system. Taiwan would certainly be their first target, and that will cause a wretched mess. But the whole southeast Asia area will feel their influence as they look, themselves, for more resources.
I'd like to say that the currency float you mentioned was a good thing, but there isn't a single economist who sees it as anything other than an empty political gesture. All they did was let it "float" within very narrow bounds, defined by them, with essentially no impact whatsoever on the real underlying exchange mechanics.
The real issue here is going to be energy. Probably the most alarming development is the Chinese coziness with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. They're taking a lot of their cash surplus (um, that would be the cash we're spending on their inexpensive products) and pumping a lot of it into investments in that oil producing country. That's fine with Chavez, because China is the nearest thing to an idealogical opposite to the US he can find (well, one that isn't clearly a broken-down mess, like Cuba).
My guess is that Venezuela will become, is essence, a Chinese outpost. And a huge foothold, economically, in Central/South America. Just in time for the economies in Brazil and Argentina to start looking ripe for more investment.
So, we may see Wal-Mart eventually filling up with "Made in Brazil" goods, but made by firms operated by Chinese interests.
I'd not, though, call them the next "superpower" any more than one could refer to the Soviets in that sense. They were, in that they had the military and the nukes to be hugely influential, but it was a house of cards. That won't be as true of the Chinese, in that their businesses are tilting capitalist despite the (now mostly smoke) communist creed of their heavy-handed government. But as long as they are to a large degree centrally managed, they're going to make a lot of the tone-deaf mistakes that the Soviets did. And this time, a whole lot of Chinese citizens are going to be a whole lot quicker to step up and try to prevent the economic flushing that happened in Russia after the USSR tanked. It's going to be fascinating. In the meantime, I'd vote for policies that encourage more US investment in central and south America, and policies that ask the same thing of China that the US must do to do business in their country.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Bush ran Iran/Contra, and the Savings & Loan heist that underwrote so much of it. He was a lot smarter that Jr, but I still wonder whether it's just a question of the "right" act at the "right time". Certainly Bush's Carlyle Group has benefited from the way the Iraq War has been prosecuted, as well as its investments in China. Follow the money, and the different faces for different eras don't matter as much as the consistency of direction.
--
make install -not war
Look at your clothes, computer, TV, video, car labels. You can bet most or all of it's from China. That's going to continue till the exchange rate sorts itself out. It's a good thing that they recently "floated" their currency and that it's rising in value.
Unlike the USA which has no enemy country in striking distance, China has more than 2 countries capable of a long term war. They have Japan which is the economic superpower of the region. When people want quality and not cheap rip off products, they buy japanesse, not chinese. Then you have Tiwan, which will be the war to ruin China. The people of Tiwan don't want anything to do with China, and they have a military power that can fight back. How many f-16's did the USA sell Tiwan? And doesn't the USA have an aircraft carrier sitting right there? I can't even start to wonder how many nuclear subs are there too. And then there is Russia. At one time they were partners because of their shared political beliefs. But now, China and Russia act more like annoyed neighbors than partners.
Then there is Mayamar, or Burma, or whatever the hell the country is calling itself this week. They are the #1 producer of heroin and drugs in the region. And they are very unstable. If Chinese people start making any money, Burma will be ready to supply an endless stream of drugs. Unlike the USA, where we must deal with Cambodia, Burma shares a border with China.
And then there is North Korea right next to China. North Koera has weapons, and nothing else. Their people live in poverty, and they don't have enough food. That is a powderkeg waiting to explode.
And China also shares borders with India and Pakistan, two countries that have been in a pissing contest of hate for my entire lifetime. A nuclear war could break out there any time. The two countries have already had fights, with muslims murdering hindu's and hindu's trying to defend themselves.
And here is the bottom line. 20 years ago China could not grow enough food to feed all their people. The USA is the #1 exporter of food to China. If the USA stopped supplying exports of food, China would have one of the worst epidemics of famine the world has ever seen. The USA was smart, we got them to breed so many people, that if the USA withdrew food exports, millions of Chinese people would die.
How has China made money? By ripping off USA patents and copywrites. They might take a car, reverse engineer it, and then build it with low quality parts. They don't include the saftey standards. They pirate playstation games and computer games. China does not innovate, they don't produce anything the world demands.
No, China will not win. They can't feed themselves.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
Desert Storm 1 and 2.
If you think the Soviets crapped thier pants reading after action reports of the speed and leathality 12 M-1 Tanks taking out 38 T-72's and stealth bombers and fighters penetrating Iraqi air space and bombing targets of interest. The Chinese are even more frightened.
Buying Soviet manufactured technology and hardware may be robust but when a single squadron of stealth figters is able to take out your signal and command structure you need to do anything that gives you an edge.
Why invent anything while you can steal it.
It's not just a bubble, China has copied EVERYTHING Japan has done right down to the bad loans.
The dollar bought 360 yen from after the war into the 70s, just like a dollar right now buys an inordinate of RMB
China's industry started off by manufacturing cheap labor intensive goods at western company owned factories, as did Japan.
China eventually started moving up the food chain, and even making things for their own companies, as did Japan
Everyone thinks that China's record growth will continue unabated, so banks loan money to businesses that have no realistic hope of ever making a profit. Same thing happened in Japan.
China's bubble will be bursting, much like Japan's did, but as you pointed out, Japan didn't have nuclear weapons or one of the strongest conventional forces on earth when it's bubble burst.
China is heading towards having too much capacity, they can't even sell all the stuff they are making, but they are making it anyway. The problem with the export economy is that it cannot grow when it doesn't have anyone to export to anymore. The centrally planned(yes, China's economy is still centrally planned, just not as tightly controlled by the government, much like Japan's economy) works well when you are trying to grow, but the distortions introduced eventually warp the economy. For instance, everyone lists Japan's high rate of savings as one of the reasons that Japan grew so quickly, however now the problem is that they cannot get consumers to spend their money. Every economic report coming out of the country states that, and thus Japan seems to only be able to grow by exporting more.
The export economy can also warp the economy on the whole in more subtle ways as well. For instance, in Japan the export industries are among the most efficient in the world, but everything outside of it is a mess. All one has to do is walk into any big store in Japan and you are just hit with how many store clerks there are. Overemployment is phenominal there. There are even people at some of the bigger stores who are solely in charge of managing the umbrella condom dispenser(umbrella condoms=the plastic bag you put over your umbrella when you enter a building in Japan. They really aren't called umbrella condoms, but it's an accurate description) China seems to be suffering from some of the same problems, only it's going to get worse there as they have 10x the population of Japan.
I honestly don't think the world economy can continue on this pace forever. Every poor country wants to get rich the same way Japan did, but for that to happen, the dollar has to remain strong. However, for every dollar they import, the dollar just gets that much weaker. When only 1 country was doing it, but now there are a lot more, and eventually, something will have to break.
Monstar L
First, I will agree that China is over-rated as the next great powerhouse economically and militarily. Personally, I think that they are clearly a "World Power" but not on the level that either the US or EU are. China would like to be there, but they have a lot of obstacles to overcome.
The most serious is that China is not, and will probably never be, a pluralist society. The Chinese have almost always seen China as the center of the world in a way that even the US has not done. So while they go back and forth between isolationism and expansionism, the isolationism always wins out because of the huge force that ethnocentricity plays in their culture. I am not saying that this is good or bad. It just places limits on what China can achieve in a pluralist world. To a large extent, this is what crippled the Japanese expansion as well.
Currently the world has two superpowers: The US and the EU. The US is a military superpower and is largely able to dictate its will militarily, and the EU is an economic superpower which is largely able to dominate international and internationist institutions as well as dictate terms on a purely economic basis. Assuming that an EU constitution is forthcoming at some point and that the EU countries agree to have a single foreign policy, they will be in a position to actively challenge the US on any foreign policy area simply by virtue of their economic clout. Note the growing diplomatic war between the US and EU (usually referred to as "Old Europe").
I don't think it will be too long before EU-as-borg metaphores start becoming commonplace... Imagine if at some point after Iraq becomes democratic that Turkey, Russia, and Iraq end up member states of the EU. The oil reserves alone would then mean that the EU would have the largest oil reserves in the world...
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Not so sure. YOu seem to think that population makes a superpower. Yet as you also point out, most of the historical superpowers were not necessarily the most populous countries.
Instead, I think that *trade* makes a superpower. This provides a Grand Unified Theory of Geopolitics which accounts for every major superpower I can think of from the Persians and the Greeks to the US and the EU. The EU is doing a better job at that than the US at the moment, and so I think that they will continue to surpass us.
China's downfall (and Japan's too) is that they are extremely ethnocentric, which prevents them from effectively assimilating the results of the trade. Right now, China *appears* to be doing exactly this (as measured by manufacturing counterfit items) but I don't think there is any real room for pluralism in Chinese society. Even the European Powers of the 17th century had more room for pluralism than we see in China today. So China will eventually find their bubble bursting. They will still be a large power but nothing on the scope of the EU.
If I was going to be worried, I would be *much* more worried about India.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
This is like the second "evil yellow little men are trying to haxxor our WOPRs"-story on ./ in mere 3 days. Somehow this is like the WMD discussion just before the Iraq war.
Governments and nations spy on each other. The Chinese spy on the US and vice versa, the US spies on practically everyone, the Russians spy on China, and Germany spies on the US. That's the way international politics work when information is essential.
Really, if information retrieval from government webservers and "hacking" are your [US citizens] only problems, you may feel lucky, as there is one great solution: Do not connect mission-critical systems to a network or a subnet virtually everyone has access to.
Screw the FSM - Real geeks believe in the Invisible Pink Unicorn
US power has allways relied on networking with other countries, and their current state as an hegemony relies hevily to that. That is what has to be counted for when comparing countries with each other.
In example: China and India both have over 1 billion inhibitans, when US only has about 300 million. Now count in Mexico and Canada to that, which are geographically close and their economies are tightly linked to US, you get a powerhouse of over 450 million. Okey, that's not so much, but then count in Europe. Europe and North-America are basicly tied to each other economically, politically and militarily. Now you will get a networked power of over 1 billion people, the transatlantic civilization. When one notices that US is just a small part of transatlantic civilization, it's easy to understand that US power relies on leading the network. European Union could be a superpower, they have the people, developed economies, technology and military strength, what they lack is the desire to lead. The US has desire to lead, and most in importantly, their culture is most suitable for leading the network.
The suitability of US to lead a network which ties heavily Europe and Latin America to a one economic powerhouse is their firstly their commitment to capitalism being a truly multicultural and -ethnic society. Capitalism is very lucrative to all countries because it's based on anything being in sale, meaning bigger countries don't have any desire to use their power on smaller ones, as long as everything can be bought, that means vice versa that the smaller countries can use the same resources that the bigger ones, as long as they got the cash. And because US is multiracial and -cultural it doesn't have the burden of carrying a message that one race is better than others, which easily forms when other country has an overpower over another.
Thougth US won't be the only superpower in the world in 50 years, it doesn't mean that it still woudln't be leading the transatlantic civilization and it's powers. Yes, India and China will be lot stronger, but then again, they aren't networked power, they are too big to form networks. I would suspect that the tensions between superpowers will be more in Asia between India and China, an between group of smaller nations that for surely will group together to make a counterforce against China and India, namely Indonesia, Malesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Burma.
Thought then again, if the global capitalism continues to rise, in 50 years, it mighty be just the same what is the leading superpower. It just doesn't matter how much power you have when everything is for sale.
Survey research tool for commercial and scientific use
I wonder when European countries will finally stop taking part in this...
I hope I didn't brain my damage.
There wasn't a time when everything was made in a Japan. Go try to buy a toaster that isn't made in China. I don't think you can do it. When Japan was rumored to be making everything, you could still find a US made toaster and a few made in Malaysia or Hong Kong. Now you have only one choice and you don't have a choice about many other things as well from kids bikes, kitchenware, ball point pens and even food, so much is now made in China that if there is ever an economic problem between China and the US (or EU or anyone else), there is simply no place else to get some things. As it stands right now, the US can not have a war with China simply because there are not enough non-Chinese pens to fill out the red tape.
My guess is that, should the scenario you've outlinned be implemented, Uncle Sam will dust off the Monroe Doctrine and, as Teddy Rosevelt put it, walk softly up to China carrying a very big stick.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
Usually only fools think in terms of white in black, because their not bright enough to understand the true complexity of life. Will we at some level be at odds with China, most definitely. Will China be our largest trading partner, most definitely.
Therefore there will be a great deal of ambivalence in our relations, with China trying to wield its new found power and America trying to maintain a unipolar world order, but at the same time both sides not wanting to disrupt many of the delicate threads that hold their delicate economies together. Outright war is not going to happen,
America has a huge foriegn debt, trade deficit, and budget deficit that are endangering its long term economic growth while China's very booming economic expansion is at the same gathering support for the government while fostering a great deal of corruption within it. Outright war would wreck both countries.
However, on the espinage front, we really have to get on the ball and be very agressive with china and realize that we have to go after them harshly, perhaps using anti terrorism law. If this escalates things that is what must happen. There may be some saber rattling in beijing when we execute or imprison a few spies but that is what must happen, we have to use any means possible to root out chinese spies since the chinese are using any means possible to get our agents.
Its no secret that during the cold war the that the russians had a much better intelligence agency than us, thats why it was called the IRON CURTAIN, we had no idea what was going on behind the iron curtain. When they hack us, we hack back, we disable their systems, we play their game, we play harder. Our infrastructure may be fragile, but theirs is much worse and we can take advantage of that fact.
Unless the United states is for some reason willing to world war three over a Chinese annexation of Taiwan, I doubt we will see a war with China any time soon. I doubt they have any aspirations to annex a huge empire since they already have an empire and really dont like people who arent chinese, so why would they want them as part of their country?
i fail to understand why the u.s. government is treating this guy so badly. granted, he used expertise gained by his employment to do some of the things that he did, but c'mon... he is (was) doing the u.s.'s intelligence services a favor.
i would think that activities such as this would be encouraged, but then again, we're talking about a system whereby the government rewards only those within a proprietary complex of contracts, etc. maybe this is just a little more evidence that that system needs to change.
The AntiJoey
You will always have war as long as one group of people can define themselves as "us" and define different people as "them".
Which gives you the state wars, religious wars, ethnic wars, class wars (French Revolution), etc.
It's all about control of resources.
First, I will agree that China is over-rated as the next great powerhouse economically and militarily. Personally, I think that they are clearly a "World Power" but not on the level that either the US or EU are. China would like to be there, but they have a lot of obstacles to overcome.
An accurate, if somewhat rough, appraisal of the current situation and the direction of current political, economic, and military momentum.
The most serious is that China is not, and will probably never be, a pluralist society. The Chinese have almost always seen China as the center of the world in a way that even the US has not done. So while they go back and forth between isolationism and expansionism, the isolationism always wins out because of the huge force that ethnocentricity plays in their culture. I am not saying that this is good or bad. It just places limits on what China can achieve in a pluralist world. To a large extent, this is what crippled the Japanese expansion as well.
The "middle kingdom" mentality that has existed for millennia in the collective Chinese social consciousness. This is certainly a potential handicap in their international dealings, but I would not characterize this difficulty as insurmountable.
Currently the world has two superpowers: The US and the EU. The US is a military superpower and is largely able to dictate its will militarily, and the EU is an economic superpower which is largely able to dominate international and internationist institutions as well as dictate terms on a purely economic basis. Assuming that an EU constitution is forthcoming at some point and that the EU countries agree to have a single foreign policy, they will be in a position to actively challenge the US on any foreign policy area simply by virtue of their economic clout. Note the growing diplomatic war between the US and EU (usually referred to as "Old Europe").
This is where we part ways. It would be inaccurate to characterize the EU as an economic superpower in the same league as the United States (never mind the military part where the United States has a clear advantage), which has both significantly higher GDP per capita and growth than the European Union. Consider the recent trends in the economic and political development of the European Union, the defeat, by referendum, of the EU Constitution, protectionist import tariffs, the high rates of unemployment and slow rates of growth in Germany, France, Italy, and other EU states, with the notable exception of the newer Easter European members where growth is somewhat higher, and the increasingly expensive, burdensome, generous, and ultimately unsustainable social welfare programs that are seen as a birthright by citizens of the EU member nations. If the European Union wants to seriously compete with the US economy and the Asian Tigers then they need to slash government spending, cut taxes, remove onerous government regulations which distort the markets, and encourage more entrepreneurship and risk-taking with investments and capital. There seems to be a lack of will among the EU nations, France especially, to follow through with the necessary reforms on the grounds that bare knuckle American style capitalism is just not the "European" way. If the EU is serious about competing in the global economy then they need to enact meaningful reforms or leaner, meaner, and more efficient firms in the US, India, and China will eat the lunch of over-regulated, uncompetitive, and risk averse European corporations. The EU is still number two economically to the United States, but they are nowhere near overtaking the US in economic power, indeed they are in danger of losing their number two spot to more competitive Asian nations if they are slow to move on needed reforms. People in Europe are afraid of the US system and globalization, but does the European model of high taxes, massive government social service programs, and protectionist economic policies really deliver the best standard of living for all Europeans
Who needs military confrontations when we can feed them McDonalds and KFC, sell them American cigarettes, and then get them to drive fast cars on their newly-built high speed freeways.
They can retaliate by poaching our intellectual property - Ha! We will invent crappy action movies and bad pop music CDs so fast they won't be able to keep up.
Take that, Evil Commies!
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Cyberspies from China
Try to steal your information
Freelance spyhunter helps the
Fed's investigation
And if you like these kinds of cracks
It's Cyberpenetration.
-- Subvert the dominant paradigm. Repeat as desired. http://ownlifeful.com/
The story's author is Nathan Thornburgh. A look at his track records at the Time shows a total lack of technology articles. And this story isn't raising his average. Looks like the author is anything but a techie. Which doesn't prevent him from writing down to his audience about things he knows nothing about.
Frankly, I can't help but wonder if Thornburgh hasn't been completely hogwashed by this Carpenter guy. The story would also be a tad more convincing if the artcile didn't read like a bad movie script or one of those inane pulp "hacker" novels concocted by writers who think using FTP to transfer files is a great technical prowess.
Thornburgh should write B-movies for the sci-fi channel. At least he won't have to explain the technobabble.
--
Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
The same website also carries overtly anti-Semitic statements, like where he refers to "Jew Greenspan." I'll bet this guy also thinks the Protocols of the Elders of Zion wasn't a forgery. Given his apparent politics, it's no wonder he'd post a story warning of the Yellow Peril. Until I see this story somewhere else, I'll assume he pulled it out of his ass.
It's called a cold war. Just like the war with Russia, and its started already. The problem is America is losing. Americans are so greedy and selfish that China has learned to exploit Americas corporate weaknesses to its own advantage.
Outsourcing? It's simple. People who support outsourcing are supporting the Chinese. China is already kicking our asses in the economic war. If you want to win the war with China, you have to win the economic war. There is about 0% chance of the war becoming a physical war because at this level, with this much money at stake, neither country will ever want to have a physical war, and America will not go to war to defend Taiwan just as China will not require physical war to take Taiwan. China will buy Taiwan.
And before people post saying I don't know what I'm talking about, here is an blog for you all to read. Thomas PM Barnett is a war strategist. Read his blog, do some research on the subject, and then respond to my post.
Thomas P.M. Barnett is a strategic planner who has worked in national security affairs since the end of the Cold War and has operated his own consulting practice (Barnett Consulting) since 1998. Recently, Tom founded a consulting partnership with two other outstanding individuals called The New Rule Sets Project LLC. The consultancy was acquired by Enterra Solutions, LLC. in August of 2005, with Dr. Barnett as Senior Managing Director.
Thomas PM Barnett's Blog
While you are mostly right about this, you have limited the temporal scope of the point, I think, in order to focus on the US. Fact is, many (most?) world power nations have had this same problem - they require external enemies in order to thrive. This is 19th Century politics, I think (I hope), but that remains to be seen...
Your statement here represents a fond dream for some, and an overwhelming fear for others. However, it is simply not the case. The US has adopted some capitalist principles, but so have most other nations that have progressed beyond basic agricultural economies. Capitalism is not a form of government - it might be considered a sociological phenomenon, but it definitely economics, and while Economics and Politics are related, they are not precisely the same thing. The US is hybrid of a number of things - it has some Capitalist genetic heritage, but it is hardly synonymous with Capitalism. An obvious support of this idea is the dominance of monopolistic and trans-national corporations in the US economy. There is almost no economic competition within the US - there is a great deal of price fixing and monopolistic practice. That doesn't support your assertion of a "need for competition".
I will give you that in order for the monopolies to appear capitalist there must be a perception of competition, but that's an entirely different matter than Capitalism in a true sense.
Well, I hope you're wrong - I happen to be one American who believes that America can and will exist without endless hot or cold wars and manufactured threats against its security. In fact, I believe that it must take that path into the future or it will cease to exist.
I view this principle you are outlining as something I call "The Myth of the Perpetually Expanding Market". It is the (fallacious) idea that Capitalism is a short term proposition that involves nothing more than market growth.
As you say: The US has ever had a threat to deal with. From the very beginning. That's true, as far as it goes, but remember that the US is an infant in terms of national political and ideological maturity. Well, maybe an adolescent - I'm not really enough of a Historian to say - but the fact is that the US is a young nation. If we go to other nations in history and examine their growth (and in some cases, decline) we find that many nations have survived this particular phase of national development not by seeking out new, better, bigger, or more winnable wars, but by re-examining this concept of unlimited growth - the "Myth of Perpetually Expanding Markets".
The Europeans have done it. The Chinese have, as well (I think - I'm not an expert on China). For China, it the reason they have continued to survive for longer than most Americans can even imagine, let alone plan for.
Fair enough, if you assume that we must fight in order to either survive or progress. You should realize, though, that that assumption can only lead (ultimately) to the annihilation of one of the warring parties - the US has got by so far by being a very efficient killing machine. But then, there are examples throughout history of societies (nations) that tried to hold on to that "fastest gun in the west" status against the rest of the world. They have all failed. If you examine it dispassionately, it becomes evident that any nation that tries to hold onto that "best fighters
"The Internet is made of cats."