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by sametmax 3282 days ago
It's like saying peace is trendy and we should not try to go weaponless.

That makes no sense.

We all want peace. We all know that peace is not there yet and that without weapons the other countries would take advantage of it.

Yet we all know that the weapon oriented society the US has become is a major issue.

It's not contradictory, just being honest with yourself.
2 comments
dom0 3281 days ago
> We all want peace.

I don't think that's true, there are clearly many people bent on fueling conflicts and wars, both in- and outside the US.

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sametmax 3281 days ago
*In HN.

I don't think many people on this forum are war lords.

Anyway "we all" is always false, and is just another form of "most people". You must be really lacking of ideas to nitpick on that.

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mowenz 3281 days ago
I don't think he is nitpicking at all. The US has too many conflicts, incl wars. 26,000 bombs dropped last year. Extremist fighters funded by the US Gov't (Syria, Iran Contra, and who knows what else has yet to be proven). We have 7 cities with higher murder rates than any country in Africa or the Middle East, including Afghanistan. Largest prison population, a publicly known torture camp... I could go on. But I think a lot on HN are obviously absorbed in their comfortable occupations--they're challenging, interesting and demanding, and also rewarding. It's easy to get lost in this and forget what less fortunate are dealing with.
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JumpCrisscross 3281 days ago
> It's like saying peace is trendy and we should not try to go weaponless

In physical warfare, the only way to increase your defensive (i.e. deterring) military advantage, relative to an adversary, is to add better materiel. (The other option is to reduce the adversary's material, i.e go to war, which itself requires a military advantage to make sense.)

In "cyber," that's not the case. A hoarded vulnerability may end up being used against your own country. Adding vulnerabilities to your stockpile increases your offensive capability while simultaneously forcing you to leave an opening in your defenses unrepaired. We don't have a good analogy for this in meatspace, which is why it's hard to debate at the political level.

I don't think all vulnerabilities should be automatically extinguished. At the other end of the spectrum, the NSA hoarding bugs in the software that runs disproportionately American infrastructure systems is patently silly.

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