Cyber Warfare

[Yenn]

the Aussie government has announced that it will be using different methods to conduct war. That is to stop the enemy from dropping bombs or being able to fight. They are going to disable the enemys communications and intelligence systems.

 

I wonder how far we are behind all the other nations in this and also what prompted the government to announce it. It looks more like an advertising campaign for internal consumption only.

 

If we go to war against anyone we will at the moment only be able to do so with the approval of the USA. We buy all our arms from the US and no doubt all the ammunition and spare parts needed. In fact we only buy so that we can go and fight for the Yanks.

 

Britain tried to go to war a couple of times and had the USA just about controlling what they could do. first time was the Suez Crisis, which was stopped by the Yanks. Second was the Falklands war, which was very nearly stopped by the Yanks.

 

 

[Bruce]

Wow.. what if the enemy is the yanks?

 

Seriously, how can you even begin to have any strategy unless you have a particular enemy in mind? For example, going to war against the yanks would be a different problem to going to war against Tonga.

 

AND I'm still waiting for any possible useful purpose for the 50 billion submarines. So far the winner is the guy who said that in the event of a war with Indonesia, we could clandestinely rescue stranded tourists from Bali.

 

 

[facthunter]

That's a lot of submarines. Nev

 

 

[Bruce]

Well Nev, the prize is still up for grabs. I don't like the Bali rescue thing either, but so far it is the winning suggestion on account of being the only one so far. Surely somebody out there is a military genius to enlighten the rest of us.

 

 

[Bruce]

There was some stuff in the paper a while back where the phrase "keeping our sea-lanes open" was used, but this is too vague by far. Keeping what lanes open against what?

 

 

[storchy neil]

got a tiny bruce you could hire to the navy cause the navy sure aint got a boat there in dry dock garden island cause sol for got to put in the right oil oils aint oils sol neil

 

 

[Bruce]

Sorry Storchy. I've only got a Jabiru. Mind you, I reckon it could carry a small nuke instead of a passenger. But would it lose its RAAus registration if changed to a nuclear bomber? And who am I going to drop it on I wonder.

 

I did get a comment about sorties for the submarines, the guy said he couldn't tell me cos it was top secret. How can he get a prize for that answer?

 

 

[Marty_d]

They'll use the $50 billion subs to protect us from Indonesian fishing boats carrying refugees. Because we all know that it's worth any price to keep desperate people out.

 

 

[Bruce]

Small patrol boats are already in use for that job Marty. And they make for better TV.

 

I disagree with your use of the word desperate.. if they really were desperate, they would be prepared to leave behind the culture/religion that made them desperate. I see them bringing the seeds of this awful culture/religion with them and wonder if they are not just desperate for our wonderful centerlink benefits.

 

 

[Bruce]

AND Storchy's little boat could carry a bazooka thingy and be even cheaper.

 

 

[storchy neil]

gee bruce now you cant say that oh sheeeet you have some ones going to refer you to racial discrimination for telling the truth neil

 

 

[Yenn]

Funny that the refugees coming from Indonesia are all from other than Indonesia and they don't want to stay in Indonesia, which is the biggest Muslim country in the world.

 

Does that say anything about the muslim religion?

 

 

[Marty_d]

Maybe it says that a good standard of living is more important to them than living in a place where their religion is common, which says to me we don't have to worry about them being religious fanatics.

 

 

[Bruce]

Marty, you have a kind heart but you are not understanding how populations work.

 

Sure, 99.9% are like you say . When you are dealing with say 5000, you will be importing 5 dangerous ones. And if you send the kids of the 99.9% to islamic schools, a small percentage of the boys will take the stuff seriously.

 

It was second-generation boys in Sydney who were taught at school that girls who didn't dress and act like demure moslem girls were sluts who were asking for it, so they felt pack-raping was a good idea.

 

In my opinion those lebanese boys were victims too, of multicultural idiocy ( or sabotage ).

 

I still say that a price for allowing them refuge should be to abandon their old culture/religion. Asking them to do this in writing would help sort out the true refugees from the colonizers.

 

 

[Marty_d]

I still say that a price for allowing them refuge should be to abandon their old culture/religion. Asking them to do this in writing would help sort out the true refugees from the colonizers.

The trouble with that idea is that other, shall we say, fairly anti-islamic voices on here have pointed out that the koran allows a jihadi to lie, deny his faith, pretty much pretend his ass off if it helps him to attain his goal.

 

So your 5 dodgy ones will happily sign on the dotted line saying they'll be good little christians / buddhists / atheists from now on, and know that it's not worth a pinch of warm spit.

 

In effect, all it'd do is p*ss off the rest of the population (rightly enough - if I was to travel to Saudi Arabia and was told that in order to enter, I'd have to renounce my atheism and profess belief in islam, I'd be p*ssed off too) - leading to more of an "us and them" mentality and increasing the chance of radicalisation.

 

 

[Bruce]

Darn it , i didn't know that was allowed in the koran... here was me thinking that denying your faith meant execution at the hands of the godly.

 

The idea worked in Japan... they got rid of pesky christian missionaries by hanging them from their ankles over cess-pools and dunking them in until they denounced their god.

 

 

[nomadpete]

So, Marty. What IS the answer?

 

 

[Marty_d]

So, Marty. What IS the answer?

What am I, the font of all knowledge??

 

I suspect the answer is extremely complicated, expensive, boring and possibly generational. Here's one idea though... beat the Saudis at their own game. If the G20 nations banded together and set up thousands of free SECULAR schools giving a thorough education - and possibly meals - in all the poor corners of majority muslim nations, then hopefully over time an educated middle class will evolve in those countries who dismiss all the more outlandish parts of the koran as BS. (Kind of like what's happened in most "christian" Western countries).

 

Then there's disengaged and isolated youth. Don't know how you fix that, but as well as radicalisation you have problems like petrol sniffing, petty crime, excess drug taking etc. Maybe it's down to better educational policies followed by smart work / small business programs. The government has a range of levers to encourage societal change for the better, IF it can get the economic blinkers off and the hand of big business off the tiller.

 

Thirdly, possibly most importantly and probably the hardest to deal with, there's the fact that all this sh*t happens world-wide because of social media. If they can figure out a way of disrupting terrorist propaganda and communications, WITHOUT backdooring encryption (without secure encryption the whole online banking/marketplace thing isn't possible, and governments aren't famous for keeping secrets), I reckon that'd be the biggest nail in the coffin of radicalisation.

 

So there you go. World-wide cooperation & innovation, broad societal change and well-spent massive foreign aid. Not much to ask, is it?

 

Notice that knee-jerk reactions like closing borders or starting another war don't even rate a mention in my book.

 

 

[storchy neil]

no close the borders those that complain ship em out those that want open borders send then to tasie neil

 

 

[Marty_d]

Tell me something Neil, how does closing the borders work when those getting radicalised are usually citizens of the country?

 

 

[storchy neil]

well if they cant get in to practice that you come here you leave your old ways behind neil

 

 

[Yenn]

Could those that are radicalised be the ones who feel left out of society. They don't fit in because they look different or have family who are different. Once they find they don't fit in they are looking for somewhere they do fit, easy pickings for the mad mullahs. Our regional centre has just approved the building of a mosque. I only hope that non muslims visit the mosque and listen to what is preached. Better still all preaching should be recorded and checked for radicalism, but that won't happen will it?

 

 

[spacesailor]

Red.

 

I still don't understand "Latin" (Catholic), it's all Greek to me.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Yenn]

In Australia the language would probably be English. What proportion of the muslim congregation speak any one language?

 

 

[Bruce]

I find it hard to believe that they hand out citizenship to people who can't speak the language... why do they do that?