So, we have all heard the battle cry ”the Russian’s, the Russian’s” for sometime now, in truth it almost became a parody of mid 80’s Hollywood flicks, but now with the CIA saying they have some degree of certainty that the Russians were hacking into election related material, and I’m reading today a senior Republican senator believed that both his and Podestas accounts were hacked by Russians…. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38325364 There doesn’t seem to be any claims that the Russians were fiddling the vote counts, but if they are getting themselves into servers, pulling out and releasing information, playing away, attempting to put influence on things to suit their means, at what stage does this go from being those pesky Russians to being something more serious? Did they bomb the USA, no, but if reports are to be taken at face value (this is always a challenge), then they attacked America and attempted to subvert the democratic process. Let’s leave aside the election result and the we would have won if….. crap. Maybe for this thread, forget about allegiances and just concentrate on the emerging details that the Russian government were attempting to influence US electoral affairs. Should there be a response? Should these things just be accepted? How serious is it and remember Western governments themselves have got vast experience of trying to shape the leaderships of other countries. How much outrage, if any, should there be? *Note, the purpose of this thread is not to say Hillary would have won if it wasn’t for those Russians!*
Trump is correct that Chinese hack used to obtain intellectual property, chiefly business plans and product designs, is a massive problem especially since Russia is copying that strategy. Such theft, just from the US to China, supposedly amounts to $300 billion per year which is almost 3/4ths of the $450 billion per year trade deficit with China. Even if the actual sum is half that amount it represents a consideravle lose in profits and employment. A sterner line simply must be taken and, as the Chinese have spent decades ignoring the soft touch of asking nicely, negatively effecting their trade seems the appropriate course of action. From the 1950's to 1990's the Japanese would discourage foreign imports by subjecting them to lengthy and expensive "safety checks". A foreign made car would have to be completely disassembled and then reassembled by customs agents in order to pass the checks thus making it virtually impossible to commercially import cars. Subject Chinese made goods to similar official checks and suddenly it will not be profitable to export from China. When China actually cracks down on unfair or objectionable practices then such checks could be waved but until then their export businesses would crash into bankruptcy thus giving a powerful economic incentive to comply.
An act of war in the sense that we should respond with military force? Never, unless it somehow results in actual lives lost. But economic sanctions and cyber counter-warfare of some sort would be on the table.
It becomes an act of war when the other side decides to go over war over it. We don't have policies developed yet to judge these new cases, but in general I think the same vagueness applies as to traditional foreign espionage.
Yep, I forgot, you only get excited at the thought of sitting on your toilet seat dredging through 10 year old internet threads
