The next chess move is Putin’s. One very likely course of action by Russia is a series of debilitating cyber attacks on critical infrastructure here in the United States and the West in general. This could include water, electrical transmission, power generation, fuel pipelines, and individual corporate attacks. We categorically cannot say we are “ready” for such attacks — it is highly unlikely that we can prevent them.
The Russians have probed our digital systems for years and have certainly planted pathways or triggers that will shut them down.
There are no Geneva Conventions for cyber war. We need them, but they don’t exist. We are skating on thin ice right now. The future is very unclear. I sense it is a bit like 1939 when nations were at the precipice of war and it took only a single action, Germany invading Poland, to trigger a calamity.
Don’t be thinking that all 21st century combat is going to be confined to Ukraine.
