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US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

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351–360 of 578 posts

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#351
post #334
post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bush knew what he was doing - Hamas has the influence it has because the US wants it to have it. When Trump decided he wants them to release Israeli hostages he forced them to do it rather quickly, all things considered, showing who really controls Hamas. Restraining American "allies" is key to how America understands its interests and Hamas is an excellent lever to pressure Israel, or Hamas-controlled Gaza wouldn't…

> Hamas has the influence it has because the US wants it to have it I doubt this is backed by US intentions and actions historically > Similarly, Obama supported the Muslim Brotherhood because he did That seems like a tautology to me, care to expand? I vividly remember Obama throwing his autocrat ally under the bus > in Ukraine for instance the same admin supported a coup The protests in Ukraine hardly seem like a US…

>The protests in Ukraine hardly seem like a US coup and were organic according to my understanding, but maybe you can point exactly to the US involvement

Most coups are organic. The US involvement in the Iran coup of 1953 was not very much, but the signal of support was meaningful. Ditto Chile in 1973. Ukraine's overthrow was not like those coups. It relied on popular support from the region near the capital. However, this support was not uniform across the country, and support for the protests hovered around 50% and never reached 60%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan#Public_opinion_abou...

>According to a January poll, 45% of Ukrainians supported the protests, and 48% of Ukrainians disapproved of Euromaidan.

>In a March poll, 57% of Ukrainians said they supported the Euromaidan protests.

The polling variation was large. The government was overthrown in February. But the western regions were massively in favor, and surrounded the capital, while the southeast was mostly opposed. Well-functioning states rely on political processes instead of simply overturning the government whenever a majority of citizens opposes it.

Given the polling data and the division of public opinion, I don't support what happened in February 2014. But that doesn't make it a coup -- a coup is a transfer of power that originates specifically within the government, and Ukraine's protests weren't like that. Nor does it justify Russia's invasion. What happened was more like a feudal power struggle. It doesn't help that before new elections could be held, the interim government banned several political parties. Maybe they were "pro-Russian", but democracy means voters deserve a say in a country's geopolitical alignment, so that doesn't seem like a valid reason to ban a political party to me.

>but maybe you can point exactly to the US involvement

Now this sounds like a joke. US politicians, including Vice President Joe Biden and several senators, attended the protests. This makes American support pretty obvious. US media at the time also tended to minimize domestic opposition to the protests, even though this was a significant position within Ukraine.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#352
post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Canada an adversary of America? Or Greenland? What position should Canadians or the people of Greenland take with regards to the people in the US military who are currently working to annex and invade their countries? What position should the US military take with regards to the people in those countries who are currently working to resist those efforts to annex and invade their countries their homelands? Do you c…

I think you meant to write Greenland.

Indeed I did, my brain was a bit foggy when I wrote after a night of partying.

Thanks for catching that.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Is there somewhere I can read more about what you are claiming in these comments? How did you learn about these housecleaning activities?

Of course there is, but what difficulties can you possibly have finding it?

Part of the problem with events like these is people's "incredulity", which is fundamentally rooted in them not being force-fed with the topic by the media despite the importance.

The other way around, while people baselessly believe to be told everything of importance by their news-feed, in reality they are entirely being left in the dark about truly important matters simply by not "pushing" them in headlines.

The stories exist, you simply don't get them effortlessly.

That attitude of passive complacency has to change.

Look in this thread, the good links are usually those far down.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire US powergrid is so vulnerable right now, if there really was a cyber cold war the entire thing could be shut off overnight probably. Given that it's not happening, then it's probably just not a thing.

It’s definitely happening. https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories?f%... Don’t mistake prepositioning for “not happening.” As you said: “cyber cold war” means there are a lot of incentives not to reveal capabilities or trigger escalation from your adversaries. https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa... Although, that is changing as we continue to escalate. https://www.cisa.gov/n…

Where?

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#356
post #332
post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a weird way to phrase collateral damage?

Collateral murder.

Civilians die in wars, and that's with the best intentions of all parties to the conflict. If one or both has got radicalised, then a lot of civilians die in war.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#357
post #351
post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hamas has the influence it has because the US wants it to have it I doubt this is backed by US intentions and actions historically > Similarly, Obama supported the Muslim Brotherhood because he did That seems like a tautology to me, care to expand? I vividly remember Obama throwing his autocrat ally under the bus > in Ukraine for instance the same admin supported a coup The protests in Ukraine hardly seem like a US…

>The protests in Ukraine hardly seem like a US coup and were organic according to my understanding, but maybe you can point exactly to the US involvement Most coups are organic. The US involvement in the Iran coup of 1953 was not very much, but the signal of support was meaningful. Ditto Chile in 1973. Ukraine's overthrow was not like those coups. It relied on popular support from the region near the capital. However…

> Now this sounds like a joke.

OP alluded to the Euromaiden protests being an orchestrated Obama-led coup. I still don't see how this is the case. There's some difference between diplomatic reactions to proactive overthrow

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#358
post #304
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the implication here that we should take the moral high ground and let our adversaries murder us first?

Is Canada an adversary of America? Or Greenland? What position should Canadians or the people of Greenland take with regards to the people in the US military who are currently working to annex and invade their countries? What position should the US military take with regards to the people in those countries who are currently working to resist those efforts to annex and invade their countries their homelands? Do you c…

Should the whole of the military quit because the American people were x enough to elect Trump?

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

News just in: talking about your mental health, especially for men, does not improve your mental health. For the majority of men, most of the time. If it did, shouldn’t we see mental health improving by now?

Wait, it doesn't? Genuine question. Where can I read about this theory more?

At the He-Man club of course. We all face our challenges with stoicism like Odysseus when his sailors got eaten.

Re: US Military's cyber command unit grapples with cluster of deaths by suicide

#360

"Between early June and early July, as many as five individuals who worked in or closely with US Cyber Command died by suicide, based on internal communications, public records and sources. The deaths have raised concern among lawmakers and military leaders within the highly secretive command, which is responsible for defending US networks and conducting offensive cyber operations." According to https://www.gao.gov/a…

Assuming a predominantly male population, the suicide rate should be around 20 per 100000 per year. 5 people in a month gives 18x higher rate. Too short period to draw any statistical conclusions but it’s a large blip.

From a life spent on count statistics, one thing I think is interesting is how definitively you can reject perfect randomness from a very small sample like this.

The expected event count from 17,000 people exposed to a month of constant uniform event risk with an annual hazard rate of 20 per 100,000 per year is 0.28. The p-value for observing a count of 5 from a (Poissonian) mean of 0.28 is 1 in 100,000. So it's pretty unlikely by perfect random chance.

The other thing you see in a life spent in count statistics is a lot of statistically extreme events that turn out to have no deep or predictive significance.

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