Idea of "total war" redefined the conduct of armies against foreign populations in the mid-20th century.

The Internet now offers people the opportunity to communicate with others around the world almost as if they were neighbors. Through the Internet, people can gain access to local papers in the native language or dialect, browse personal Web sites, listen to local radio stations talking about local concerns and even watch everyday life unfold via thousands of Web cams pointing at everything from street corners to gold fish bowls. The Internet, after all, was designed by the U.S. military for war, as a way to maintain communication networks even in the case of a massive attack. The distributed nature of the Internet makes this possible. This distribution of nodes and centers of control may in fact redefine some of our most basic notions of war in much the same way that the idea of "total war" redefined the conduct of armies against foreign populations in the mid-20th century. The idea of cyberwar does offer considerable appeal to any military capable of establishing such a program. After all, wars are messy and people, especially when confronted with the visual images of war, tend to have a negative disposition toward these activities. Cyberwar, on the other hand, offers the possibility of "cleaning" war up a bit with no bombs (or perhaps much fewer bombs), no direct "collateral damage" and really no center of attention to videotape. Ironically, while cyberwar has the potential of being everywhere all at once it also offers the ability to defocus the conduct of war to the point where it may almost appear invisible. The effectiveness of cyberwar depends on two factors. The first is the degree to which a nation's life-support system is connected electronically. And second, it depends on the ability of the aggressor to collect, process and ultimately redirect massive amounts of information.