The conservative estimate is $1.4 trillion, and the liberal estimate is $3.1 trillion for the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  That doesn’t include the nearly 7,000 dead and tens of thousands of wounded.  An economist would also have to add to those totals the taxes the dead will never pay and the cost of caring for the wounded during their actuarial lifetimes.  I don’t know if we are winning or losing those wars, but that is not the point.

I’m very concerned we are not waging another war, one that has greater economic consequence i.e., Operation Shady RAT.  (RAT means remote access tool, which is a type of software hackers use to attack computer systems from afar.)  It began in mid-2006 and has attacked many governmental organizations and corporations, such as the U.S., Taiwan, India, South Korea, Canada, Lockheed Martin, Citigroup, and Sony.  According to the computer security firm, McAfee, there is a “state actor” behind it.  Hackers attending their annual conference in Las Vegas are convinced it is China.

One executive at McAfee said “this is the biggest transfer of wealth in terms of intellectual property in history.”  Isn’t that worth defending?  More importantly, computer control of practically every government and corporate function is vulnerable to foreign control.  Isn’t that worth defending?