WSJ: "Sprint Excludes Chinese Companies…"

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal carried a story about Sprint excluding two Chinese companies (Huawei and ZTE) from bidding on a multi-billion-dollar contract "largely because of security concerns." I commented on my experience, having just analyzed a month of error logs on my Linux server, and stated that I figured we were already in a cyber war with China. Lots of other people commented on the story, too (as of this writing, comments number 127). One poor guy with a Chinese surname was taking on everybody, sometimes quite emotionally. And in return, the crowd literally dog piled on him (sorry, it's the Year of the Tiger, not the Year of the Dog).

He attacked me as well, and I withheld the urge to reply in kind, choosing instead to stay civil and make my case. To his remarkable credit, he apologized for lumping me in with "the wrong camp."

Given the polarization of comments attacking (and in support) of China, you might want to go the WSJ story and click on the comments tab, just so you can see the strong emotions on both sides of the question. The discussion was far from civil in too many cases. Taken in their aggregate, the comments ironically build a case for legalization of my cyber privateer doctrine. Rather than pointing fingers as to who is doing what to whom (and working everybody into a state of war), legitimate cyber privateers with well-defined rules of engagement could do what governments cannot possibly achieve: bring order to this new world order.

I've previously quoted sci-fi author John Ringo who in turn quoted Ronald Reagan that there will never be a unified world government without an alien invasion. I now formally postulate that Reagan was wrong. We do have a unified world government: the Internet. Unfortunately, that government is teetering on anarchy and self destruction. "The Law" must be articulated, and a Monroe Doctrine-like line in the sand must be drawn, along with clearly stated rules for "hot pursuit", backed up with Letters of Marque and Reprisal granted to licensed and bonded cyber privateers. This could save us all the inconvenience of having to shut down the complete Internet infrastructure until it can be properly rebuilt. We just need one government somewhere to legalize this approach. Australia? Switzerland? In my opinion, they will become the de facto capital of this new unified world government of the Internet. Bigger than China. Even bigger than the good old U S of A.

I make my living in cyberspace. Appropriately, this is the Chinese "Year of the Tiger," and we're all riding one. Further, we can't get off. At least I can't. Were the plug to get pulled, I'd have to go knock over liquor stores every Saturday night. Speaking of which, tonight is Saturday night.