With so much to lose, the U.S. policy interest in cyberwar issues becomes more difficult to discern. So, perhaps it's time to ask a question. A good argument can be made that no such public promise should be made, since the likes of Muammar Qaddafi and Saddam ought to have as many worries as possible. But even if the Defense Department makes no public promise to forego such action, it seems a suitable topic for a National Security Decision Directive. Safety of our own IT assets, including those of the government, is a far more critical need than our society is willing to recognize.
Homefront hackers can disable key systems.
Think what would happen if a skilled foreign government put serious resources into planning and carrying out such an attack. Cyberfreedom fighters Part of the U.S. Cold War doctrine was to use our soldiers to infiltrate enemy lines and cripple power plants, pipelines and other infrastructure elements. Soon we may face the prospect of attacking infrastructure from a distance, through computers. Jean Luc Picard's morally based refusal to inject the Borg collective with a virus. Perhaps Picard's fictional call is one worth considering in the real world of cyberwar.