Communications of the ACM

Considering the basic ethical questions that must be resolved in the new realm of cyberwarfare.

Yaw Agyepong

These questions only seem to apply to wars between nations. But what about guerrilla/asymmetrical warfare? What about attacks from the cyberequivalent of the Taliban?

R. Marquart

There are so many errors of concept and anaysis in this article, it's hard to know where to start. So, just one;

The authors refer to the "just war", and that's fine. But they then seem to equate that to a "fair war", arguing in favor or "proportionality". That idea is inherently ludicrous.

Any military commander worth his rank knows that wars are best settled quickly, with the response to an attack being overwhelming, thereby accomplishing two goals: Ending that war, and deterring the next.

In brief: The just war -- a war of response to threat or attack -- is best dealt with by a totally unproportional response.

It is particularly concerning that one of the authors is a professor at a military school. I suggest he be relieved of his post ASAP, so as to not corrupt other potential military leaders who will have to deal with actual combat -- not just luxuriate in academia. I'll bet money he has never seen combat, let alone sent others into harm's way.

Gary Marquart