Loose Lips Sink Ships, a variation of a poster slogan used during World War Two, seems extremely relevant today, albeit in a different sense. 
Back then it was a reminder to Americans to watch what they say to avoid giving away strategic war secrets to the enemy. The “enemy” was more likely to be an individual stranger who, upon hearing some errant comment, would tip off the opponents and thwart the American plan.
In 2012, the “enemy” has very different characteristics.
For one thing, the “enemy” is fluid, unpredictable, and sometimes illogical.
As U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton has been pointing out, the United States was hugely instrumental in liberating the people of Libya. That, however, has failed to impress the anti-American elements who might have used the YouTube trailer of a blasphemous schlock film -- produced by some guy who allegedly duped the actors into participating and whose motives are still very much a mystery--as an excuse or a cover for a previously-planned guerrilla attack on the American embassy in Benghazi. U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, State Department information management officer Sean Smith, and former Navy Seals Glen Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods died in that assault, according to the State Department.
As a result of the irresponsible content of a low-budget film that deliberately mocks Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, protesters are airing their anti-American anger in Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
So, very much like the last century’s Viet Cong, “the enemy” does not wear a uniform or dog tags, is not led by a military hierarchy, and is a mixture of surreptitious plots by organized interests and spontaneous eruptions of ordinary citizens.
A second characteristic of “the enemy” in the Information Age is instant access to communications. Instead of armies acting upon a formal declaration of war we have a relative handful of individuals, in effect, pulling the trigger with the stroke of the Enter key on a keyboard. One American of dubious origin and allegiance now has the ability to not only leak national secrets but also to strike the match that ignites the entire Middle East.
With everybody exercising their freedom of speech, without concern for consequences, to the billions of the world’s electronically-connected people, it is not a stretch at all to foresee a conflagration of global proportions caused by one shady ex-convict with multiple aliases who is high on hate.
Apparently Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the admitted producer and poster of the offending film trailer , is not at all regretful for making the film.
What hath technology wrought?
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Terry McKenna
Jacob Sugarman
Devi Hart
M.Stan Yow
Man Talk Now
Kim Gamble
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The few moments we walk on two feet might be better spent looking at our fellow life forms and enjoing the ride than wasting it on either chicken little or the three little pigs. But obiviously I am almost alone in my quest to put culture where it belongs - in a time out. And ..yes I talk toooo much!!
As for WWIII being launched on the internet, I'll say it's most unlikely. As I commented on Steel Breeze's latest post about the uninformed opinions of typical American men at the local bar:
http://open.salon.com/blog/steel_breeze/2012/09/14/informal_poll
"I imagine that you'll find the same kind of guys in coffee houses in Turkey and tea bars in Cairo or Islamabad, except that 75% of them would agree that all Christians and Westerners should be thrown out of the country."
rated.
Deborah: I don't know how you can be so sure of your allegations about who has what and why, but you do have the right to make them. Why must you sound so angry and insulting? You know very well I am aware of our constitutional right to free speech
With everybody exercising their freedom of speech, without concern for consequences, to the billions of the world’s electronically-connected people, it is not a stretch at all to foresee a conflagration of global proportions caused by one shady ex-convict with multiple aliases who is high on hate.
Marilyn: Thanks
Snowden: No, you don't talk too much.
jmac1949: I'll have to read your comment in context.
Are full of passionate intensity.
Yeats wrote that in 1919, in a very different world.
But as in the post-WWI world, today's folks with level heads are not the ones calling the shots, making the plays.
This film thing is insane; so are the yahoos of three old and distinguished countries in East Asia needlessly raising blood pressures over heaps of rocks in ocean.
We all know better; let's act that way.
While this insulting crap is defended by our empty-minded fanatics under a thin veneer of free speech, the fact is they support enraging those fanatics and, when it puts Americans in harm's way, bend that into a defense of their brain-dead fanaticism. Then, as if they hadn't killed off enough IQ points, those who criticize the ignorant video are accused of assaulting free speech. This from the same fools who claim to know the Constitution.
Deborah,
Your track record of relevant analysis is well established. However, in spite of that I'll go ahead and point out that whoever launched the attack in Libya didn't need cover to do so. In your world where logical connections are invisible and alien, the protests in 11 countries were all about setting up the Libya attack...that didn't need such cover. Adding to the obliviousness, and subtracting from your stature, the video their fanatics used to incite those fanatics wasn't used. No, it was just a spontaneous eruption of hatred, no matter what the protesting fanatics claim.
Politely stated, politics, logic and analysis ain't your forte.
What can be done about it though, after all, freedom of speech is at the root of the problem. If history teaches us anything it is that when faced with the choice of freedom or security, people almost always chose security.
Paul: I am really impressed by your polite restraint. It does take enablers to make these haters succeed.
"Every religion and cult is mocked continuously in our country; only Islamists kill people."
I guess she's already forgotten (or conveniently failed to mention) the recent murderous attack on a Sikh temple by a white supremacist with impeccable American cultural values. As Paul mentioned, logic and analysis, not to mention statements of fact, obviously ain't Deborah's strong points.
postmormongirl: Thanks.
jlsathre: That’s the point I tried to make. Thanks.
nanatehay: Oh, there is a lot she has forgotten. Conveniently.
Joanie: Yes, it is.
result: widespread hatred and contempt of america, rage and shame at being unable to resist effectively, and a willingness among many to do anything at any cost if the result will be an american death. the internet might be the trigger, but the explosive is 'made-in-america,' the handiwork of american politicians long before electronics figured in international relations.
Al, I don't disagree with this at all. My point is simply how easy it is for lunatics to pull the trigger and hit the powder keg that is the Middle East.
You don't see American Muslims flipping out, or Bosnians, or Turks, or most Indonesians, or the Muslims in India (the largest population in the world). You see guys in Libya, Palestine, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen. This is the rage of young men looking for a way out of their dead-end lives and finding a target, even an irrelevant one.
And it seems to be getting closer to truth!!!!
r./
The murder of Stevens and the others seems to have been planned and they used the mob as cover. One thing I'm not clear on is when the vid first went up on YouTube and when it first circulated in Libya. Those dates would make clearer the likelihood of the two actions being coordinated.
As for the protests and vandalism at other embassies, some is due to outrage (misplaced and excessive imo) about the vid while pent-up resentment of the US is another factor. It's hard to know how to weight them.
These demonstrators, however, do not represent the majority of Muslims. They are a bunch of ignorant savages. In fact, earlier, Hillary Clinton was greeted with tomatoes and shoes because of the rumor that the US rigged the elections in Egypt in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The only thing I would say to those right wingers all up in arms about free speech is this: Go to the American Embassy in Egypt, go inside, go up to the balcony, and then tell the mob about free speech! Excellent post, Lezlie. R
The unhealthy emphasis on Muslim religious violence ignores the violence perpetrated by just about every religion in the world by its most extreme elements with the possible exception of Buddhism. Frankly, I don't know of any extreme Buddhist violence against other religions, but if someone would point that out to me that would be great.
Let's review the facts: Baptist church bombers in Alabama in the 1960s. . Protestants and Catholics killing each other in Northern Ireland.
Jewish extremists shooting at Palestinians and murdering Prime Minister Peres.
Hindu extremists engaging in anti-Muslim riots in India and massacring hundreds or thousands of Muslims at a time.
I could go on and on, providing current examples of religious extremism and violence.
Relgious extremism of any stripe is more often than not a symptom of a greater social disease. Conditions of extreme income inequality, lack of job opportunity, repressive governments, and demagogues capable of inciting mayhem for their own power and ego thinly disguised as a holy war are merely sparks that set off religious violence.
As to the particular conditions in the Middle East, let us not forget America's major interest in oil and its automatic support of ruling elites to keep our petroleum addiction going. Let's not forget the weapons that our foreign aid supplies to those rulers so that they can torture and kill innocents in their countries.
The Muslims of Libya and elsewhere don't riot against American embassies because they hate Christianity necessarily. They riot because of our power relations that we impose on Middle Eastern countries.
If the Muslims hate Christianity so much why didn't they bomb the Dutch or Swedish embassies?
2. This is why we didn't assist Egypt's democracy movement until it was a national embarrassment in the world press and we had little choice but to save face as the great arbiters of democracy...except, we don't want democracy there because we have been shitting on these people and raping their natural resources for so long that they are justifiably anti-US. This is why almost all of our allies are dictators, monarchies, emirates or Turkey (and Israel).
3. The only consequence to the truth is the end of tyranny. Just because we're the ones who are tyrannical doesn't mean we shouldn't still be opposed to it. It's what the founding fathers would have done.
Iran, which is also a 'middle-class' country with no reason to be 'humiliated', is the same.
Don't forgot that the 9/11 terrorists were well-educated, middle-class men.
As for technology being the cause of war, the Crusades, Islamic conquests, Mongols, Alexander the Great, and two World Wars were all started without a computer in sight.
hi, it's me again. i wrote a full-length version of the note i posted further up this sled. it's called Make Great Poets Envy Us. cheers.
Internet and so-called social media was a big part of CIA's work in the area to achieve regime changes and 'Arab Spring'. Now others are fighting back using quite similar tools.
The film was just an excuse for the pre-planned attack; it created the atmosphere so that locals could accept the attack.
I wrote earlier in my blog:
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"the big problem is that powerful intelligency agencies are well aware of the trend that people are trying to use the Net and social media to get more reliable information. And they are using the Net to spread their own misleading information nowadays especially there.
I'm quite sure CIA used especially the Net to arrange regime changes in the Middle East. It was probably by them during the elections in Iran, too; to spread rumors of that particular 'killed lady', who later seemed not to have been existing at all. "
http://open.salon.com/blog/hannu_virtanen/2012/07/13/are_we_reliable
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While CIA is spreading information in the social media, mainstream media is spreading mainstream lies about 'the enemies' in newspapers.
In Europe the discussion about the realities in Syria and in the region in general has already got a different tone.
Americans have admitted that they are supporting 'the rebels' in Syria, but who are 'the rebels' and what are they actually doing in Syria?
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"... the German government admitted that it had received several reports from the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, on the May 25 massacre in the Syrian town of Houla...
... at least three major German newspapers – Die Welt, the FAZ, and the mass-market tabloid Bild – have published reports attributing responsibility for the massacre to anti-government rebel forces or treating this as the most probable scenario.
Writing in Bild, longtime German war correspondent Jurgen Todenhofer accused the rebels of “deliberately killing civilians and then presenting them as victims of the government”. He described this “massacre-marketing strategy” as being “among the most disgusting things that I have ever experienced in an armed conflict”. Todenhofer had recently been to Damascus, where he interviewed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for Germany’s ARD public television."
http://open.salon.com/blog/hannu_virtanen/2012/08/12/americas_syrian_policy
Please see this, too:
http://www.blacklistednews.com/German_Intelligence:_“al-Qaeda”_All_Over_Syria/20704/0/0/0/Y/M.html
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So, it is no wonder, it was easy 'to pull the trigger'.
There is already a big war going on in the Net. America's intelligency agencies (aided by Google and others) have been until now the most skilled to use these tools, but others are learning the game, too.
My answer is, in short, yes, and, as a matter of fact, it will also be fought on the internet where it has already begun.
We are overloaded with data, but data can be true or false, and we have no editorial mechanisms in place to evaluate the data and differentiate between the true and the false. As a consequence we are all operating on misinformation because it has become virtually impossible to back check the data back to its sources.
At the same time, there has been a tremendous increase in what I call the credulity factor. Time and time again, I read articles based on assumptions that I know are false on the basis of the facts at my disposal.
When any entity experiences data overload, the universal tendency through out the animal kingdom is to reduce the amount of input we are able to absorb. We do this by becoming increasingly selective about the amount of information we take in and the sources we get them from.
The end result of this process is anarchy, which is what you get when people insist on their own facts but draw those facts from opinions rather than real factual data.
The internet is the Tower of Babel, rebuilt.
Wars between big global powers, wars between big IT companies, intellingency agencies trying to misled general public...
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http://www.stonesoft.com/en/press_and_media/releases/en/2012/13082012.html
Press Release
Stonesoft: Gauss is a part of global cyber warfare
Helsinki, Finland – 13 August 2012 – The Gauss malware discovered in the Middle East has been one of the hottest topics in the media recently. Jarno Limnéll, Doctor of Military Science, Director, Cyber Security at Stonesoft, is not at all surprised about the discovery.
“Gauss is just another example of the cyber espionage that is going on all the time. As the information is stored in computers and networks, digital espionage is a significant threat both in politics and business globally. Because of this, it is crucial that organizations protect themselves by using security systems that are dynamic and flexible enough to meet the ever evolving threats”, said Dr. Limnell.
The Russian security company Kaspersky Lab announced the discovery of the Gauss malware at the end of last week. The virus has been compared to Flame and Stuxnet, both nation-state sponsored espionage malware. Limnéll believes this is also the case with Gauss.
“I believe that the purpose of Gauss is to spy on bank transactions in the Middle East. More than two third of the infections have been discovered in Lebanon, the home base of the political and military Hezbollah organization. In a state of war, Hezbollah would represent Iran, so it would attack against Israel. Information about bank transactions in Lebanon would naturally be beneficial in that situation, for example to evaluate the arms trades”, Limnéll said.
Dr. Limnéll says that the likelihood of a severe cyber conflict is constantly growing, and Gauss just backs up this trend.
“Stuxnet, Duqu, Flame and Gauss are just a peek into the future. More and increasingly sophisticated malware is constantly being developed around the world. It is quite interesting that Kaspersky has discovered all the most significant malware that has recently been featured in the media. It is also quite likely that all four have been developed at the same location. President Obama has already announced that Stuxnet was produced by the United States. This may be the case also with regard to Gauss. Kaspersky is a Russian company – could it be that their discoveries are part of the cyber war between United States and Russia, where US cyber weapons are being revealed?” Limnéll speculates.
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And today we read that hundreds of millions of computers are vulnerable for targeted attacks:
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/german-it-security-agency-warns-of-security-problem-with-internet-explorer/2012/09/18/da280c6e-0161-11e2-bbf0-e33b4ee2f0e8_story.html
By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, September 18, 2:24 PM AP
BERLIN — The German government agency overseeing IT safety is warning of a security breach in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and recommending people use other browsers until the problem is fixed.
The browser’s “weak point is already being used for targeted attacks,” the Federal Office for Information Security warned, adding that the code behind the attack is freely available online and might therefore spread rapidly.
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As common users of the Net, we have got little means to find out, what the big players are doing behind the scene.
edward
samaa tv