THE WASHINGTON UNION PAPERS: NO. 35

CYBERSECURITY & NATIONAL DEFENSE: THE NEW BATTLEFIELD

To the People of the United States,

The battlefield has changed. No longer do the enemies of the Republic march in formation upon fields of war, nor do they declare their intent with fleets upon our shores. They do not require legions of soldiers nor battalions of tanks, for the most devastating blows to our nation are now delivered not by force of arms but by keystrokes in the dead of night. This is the reality of modern warfare: a battlefield without borders, an enemy without a uniform, a war that does not wait for the clash of steel but is waged in the quiet spaces of cyberspace. Our economy, our infrastructure, our very democracy stand vulnerable to those who seek to exploit our digital weaknesses. This is no future threat—it is happening now. And the nation that fails to secure its digital frontiers will find itself conquered without a single shot being fired.

For decades, the United States has prided itself on military supremacy. We have built fleets that dominate the oceans, aircraft that rule the skies, and weapons that can strike with precision from continents away. But while we have spent trillions ensuring our ability to fight conventional wars, we have allowed our most critical vulnerabilities to remain exposed. The enemies of America do not need missiles when they can paralyze entire cities with a virus unleashed into a power grid. They do not need to invade when they can dismantle our banking system with a coordinated cyber assault. They do not need propaganda when they can manipulate the very information that defines reality, infiltrating our digital landscapes to distort, divide, and deceive. If the 20th century was defined by battles over land, the 21st will be defined by the struggle for control over the digital realm.

The Chinese Communist Party understands this. The Russian Federation understands this. North Korea, Iran, rogue actors and criminal syndicates understand this. They have studied our weaknesses, infiltrated our networks, and exploited our complacency. The attack on the Colonial Pipeline in 2021 was not an anomaly—it was a warning shot. The breaches of our financial institutions, the theft of government secrets, the infiltration of social media platforms to manipulate and divide our people—these are acts of war waged in silence. Our enemies have recognized that they do not need to defeat our military. They only need to disrupt our systems, dismantle our trust in institutions, and sow enough chaos that America turns against itself.

Let it be said plainly: America is not prepared for the scale of this war. We have allowed private corporations to dictate the terms of our cybersecurity. We have outsourced the defense of our most critical networks to companies that prioritize profits over national security. We have failed to invest in the infrastructure necessary to defend against large-scale cyber incursions. And worst of all, we have permitted foreign adversaries to embed themselves within our digital ecosystems, allowing them to control supply chains, steal intellectual property, and influence the very flow of information upon which our democracy relies.

This must end. The time for half-measures has passed. America must reclaim its digital sovereignty, and it must do so with the full force of its national will. Cybersecurity is not merely a concern for corporations or intelligence agencies—it is the defining national security issue of our time. If we are to survive this era of digital warfare, we must respond with an unrelenting strategy that ensures the United States remains unassailable in cyberspace.

First, America must establish a Cyber Defense Command, an independent branch of our armed forces dedicated solely to the protection of national cybersecurity. For too long, we have treated digital security as an auxiliary concern, a matter to be handled in the shadows of intelligence agencies or relegated to private corporations that answer to shareholders rather than the American people. This is no longer tenable. Cyber warfare is no longer the future—it is the present. And in this new age of conflict, our failure to create a dedicated, sovereign cyber force is not merely negligence; it is an act of national self-sabotage.

History has taught us that technological revolutions demand new military strategies. When the airplane became a tool of war, we did not rely on the Army and Navy to retrofit their operations—we created the United States Air Force, an independent command designed to master the skies. When nuclear weapons changed the nature of deterrence, we did not leave their oversight to conventional forces—we built Strategic Command, ensuring that America’s deadliest arsenal was safeguarded under a unified doctrine. And yet, despite cyber warfare proving itself to be just as transformative—if not more so—we still treat it as an afterthought, divided among fragmented agencies, overwhelmed bureaucracies, and private sector mercenaries.

This cannot continue. The enemies of the United States already recognize the primacy of cyber warfare. Russia has spent decades perfecting the art of cyber disinformation and critical infrastructure sabotage, from the 2007 cyberattack that paralyzed Estonia to the penetration of American electoral systems in 2016. China has built an entire cyber army within its military, the Strategic Support Force, tasked with hacking into American defense contractors, stealing intellectual property, and preparing for a future where it can cripple our power grids before a single shot is fired. Iran and North Korea have turned asymmetric cyber warfare into an economic weapon, launching relentless attacks against financial institutions and infrastructure, knowing full well that the U.S. has no single unified force capable of striking back with decisive power.

Let us make one thing clear: A government that cannot protect its networks is a government that cannot govern. A nation that cannot control its cyber borders is no nation at all. It is indefensible that our power grids, our financial systems, our water supplies, and our military command structures remain vulnerable to foreign adversaries, rogue states, and organized cyber-criminal syndicates. We must not wait for the digital equivalent of Pearl Harbor to awaken from this slumber. The time for action is now.

The Washington Union Party will lead the charge in establishing an American Cyber Defense Command—not an inter-agency task force, not a sub-department within the Pentagon, but a full-fledged branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, standing equal to the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, and Coast Guard. This will not be a reactive force that scrambles to contain breaches after the fact. It will be an active, offensive cyber military that operates with the same doctrine of deterrence that has safeguarded American supremacy for decades. If a nation-state launches a cyberattack against our infrastructure, the response will be immediate and overwhelming. If a foreign adversary manipulates our elections or infiltrates our digital supply chains, the architects of that attack will face dire consequences.

This new branch must be built with a multi-faceted mandate. First, it must consolidate America’s fragmented cybersecurity defenses, uniting the efforts of Cyber Command, NSA, FBI Cyber Division, CISA, and private-sector contractors under a singular, streamlined command structure. Second, it must act as the shield and the sword, defending American systems while deploying cyber weapons that can disable enemy infrastructure at a moment’s notice. Third, it must act as an enforcement arm against domestic cyber threats, bringing swift justice to those who engage in cyberterrorism, ransomware attacks, and corporate espionage. Finally, it must engage in global cyber supremacy, ensuring that America is not merely reacting to digital threats but leading the world in cyber deterrence, encryption technology, and AI-driven security innovation.

We must also recognize that a true Cyber Defense Command cannot be built on antiquated hiring structures and bureaucratic red tape. The brightest minds in cybersecurity, cryptography, artificial intelligence, and cyber warfare must be recruited and retained with the same urgency that the Manhattan Project recruited nuclear physicists. This is not an arena where outdated security clearances and rigid bureaucracies can afford to slow down progress. America must unleash its full intellectual and technological might, offering elite training programs, competitive pay structures, and a pipeline that transforms the most gifted cyber talent into warriors of the digital age.

There will be resistance. The entrenched bureaucracies of the intelligence community will fight to maintain their fragmented fiefdoms. Politicians who fail to grasp the magnitude of this crisis will dismiss it as alarmism. The tech oligarchs of Silicon Valley will demand that cybersecurity remain privatized so that they alone can dictate the terms of national security. But the Republic must not yield to inertia or corporate interests. The Washington Union Party will make clear: This is not a negotiation. This is not a recommendation. This is an imperative.

Let the enemies of America hear this warning. The days of unchecked cyberwarfare, of unpunished infiltration, of silent sabotage will soon come to an end. The Republic is awakening. The digital battlefield belongs to those who have the will to dominate it. And in this war, as in every war before it, America shall not be conquered.

Second, America must immediately sever its reliance on foreign technology for critical infrastructure. It is an act of unforgivable negligence that we have allowed Chinese companies to supply the hardware that powers our telecommunications, our electrical grids, our military networks. The continued presence of foreign-manufactured microchips, routers, and software within our most sensitive systems is nothing short of national suicide. We must break this dependence now. A full-scale mobilization of American industry is necessary to ensure that our technological backbone is built by American hands, secured by American oversight, and insulated from foreign interference. Just as we once marshaled our economic might to build the arsenal of democracy, we must now build the digital shield that protects it.

Third, America must adopt an offensive cyber doctrine that makes it unmistakably clear: any digital attack on the United States will be met with overwhelming retaliation. For too long, we have been passive in the face of cyber aggression. We have treated these incursions as mere criminal acts rather than what they are—acts of war. This hesitation has emboldened our enemies. No longer. Any nation, organization, or entity that launches a cyber attack against the United States must know that the response will be swift, devastating, and unrelenting. Whether through economic sanctions, direct cyber counterstrikes, or even military retaliation, the United States must make clear that its digital borders are as sacred as its physical ones. There can be no sanctuary for those who seek to attack us in the dark.

Finally, we must invest in the education and mobilization of a new generation of cyber warriors. The fate of the Republic does not rest in the hands of infantry alone, nor is it secured by fleets or air squadrons alone. The battlefield has evolved, and so too must those who defend it. The next great battles will not be fought by soldiers on distant shores, but by engineers, programmers, and analysts who can counteract digital threats in real-time. The United States must launch a national initiative to train the best and brightest in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and digital forensics. This is not a matter of convenience; it is a matter of survival.

Alexander Hamilton once wrote, "A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one." If he were alive today, he would see in our negligence the seeds of our own subjugation. He would recognize in our lack of cyber preparedness a Republic dangling on the precipice of ruin, paralyzed by bureaucratic inertia while its enemies move with precision. He would demand that we take action before the enemies of liberty take action for us.

America cannot afford to outsource its digital defense. We cannot rely on a patchwork of defense contractors, foreign tech companies, and corporate interests to safeguard the digital future of this nation. A republic that depends on the whims of private industry to defend its cyber borders is not a republic—it is a hostage. We must take control of our destiny by building the greatest force of cyber warriors the world has ever seen, a national initiative that mirrors the Manhattan Project in urgency, the Apollo Program in ambition, and the Cold War space race in scale.

This must be a mobilization of minds, a full-scale commitment to training the elite in cyber warfare, encryption, and artificial intelligence. America must establish cyber academies modeled after West Point and Annapolis, institutions where the most brilliant minds in coding, cybersecurity, and digital strategy are molded into warriors of the digital battlefield. These academies must recruit the best from high schools, universities, and technology firms, offering them the same prestige, the same incentives, and the same honor that we afford to those who wear the uniform of the United States Armed Forces.

We must overhaul our education system to meet this challenge. STEM fields must not merely be encouraged—they must be prioritized as national security imperatives. Scholarships, fellowships, and military-backed training programs must be extended to those willing to serve in the fight for cyber dominance. If our adversaries have entire divisions dedicated to hacking into our networks, then we must have legions trained to repel them, to outthink them, to infiltrate and dismantle their own operations before they ever reach our shores.

This will require the full power of the federal government, but it will also require the engagement of the private sector and academia. Just as industry worked hand in hand with government during World War II to produce the arsenal of democracy, so too must Silicon Valley, research universities, and national laboratories be brought into the fold to create the impenetrable digital shield of the 21st century. This will not be an easy task, nor will it be accomplished overnight. But as Hamilton also warned, "Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct." If we refuse to act, if we delay, if we allow this crisis to fester, then we will not have to wait for invasion to see America brought to its knees.

The world’s superpowers are already waging a silent cyber arms race. China is training legions of cyber warriors in state-run institutions. Russia has refined digital warfare into an art of subversion. Rogue states like North Korea have weaponized cyberattacks to fund their regimes. They are not waiting. They are moving. And we must move faster.

Let no one say that this task is too great. Let no one say that this war is unwinnable. America has met every challenge that history has thrown its way—not by shrinking from duty, but by embracing the trials of its time with resolve and force. This is our moment to reclaim the high ground. This is our time to dominate the digital battlefield as we have dominated every battlefield before. This is the era in which America must not only defend its networks but lead the world in cyber innovation, setting the standard for security, encryption, and resilience.

This is the fight before us. It is a fight we did not choose, but one that has come to define our time. And as in every great struggle of the past, America must rise to meet it with the full measure of its strength. The enemies of this Republic believe they can dismantle it from within, that they can weaken it without ever stepping foot upon its soil. They believe that America is too divided, too complacent, too unwilling to recognize the threat at its doorstep. Let them believe it. Let them underestimate the resolve of a free people. But when the hour comes, when the nation awakens to the scale of this war, when we finally stand as one to reclaim our digital destiny, let them also know this: the Republic does not surrender. Not in the physical world. Not in the digital world. Not now. Not ever.

A nation that forgets how to fight for its own survival will not remain a nation for long. This Republic was not built by those who waited for permission to act, nor was it defended by those who sought comfort over duty. The Founders did not break the chains of British rule by requesting better treatment; they shattered them with revolution. Lincoln did not preserve the Union by pleading for peace with those who sought its destruction; he waged total war to ensure its survival. Roosevelt did not sit idle as fascism engulfed the world; he mobilized an industrial colossus and unleashed the full might of the American war machine. And so too must we rise, in our own time, to meet the existential challenge before us. This war is not waged with rifles or bayonets, but with code and algorithms, with digital sabotage and economic subversion. It is no less real, no less grave, and no less imperative that we win it.

America is no stranger to those who believe they can bring it to its knees. Our enemies have always mistaken our internal struggles for weakness, our democratic debates for division, our freedoms for fragility. They have believed, time and again, that America is too consumed by its own discord to resist an external force. They were wrong every time. They were wrong in 1812 when they thought they could burn our capital and break our spirit. They were wrong in 1861 when they believed the Union would dissolve into permanent fracture. They were wrong in 1941 when they thought we would never respond with the fire and fury of a world power awakened. And they are wrong today if they think that we will allow this new battlefield to be ceded without a fight.

Let them come. Let them launch their cyberattacks, let them steal what they can from our networks, let them unleash every bit of digital subterfuge they have. They will learn what others have learned before them: America does not sit idly by while its enemies prepare for war. We do not wait to be conquered. We do not flinch in the face of threats. We do not allow those who wish us harm to operate without consequence. We take action. We innovate, we adapt, we fight back with overwhelming force. The Republic will not be dismantled from within, nor will it be broken from beyond. Our digital frontiers will be secured. Our networks will be fortified. Our enemies will know that America is not prey, but predator—that the cost of waging cyber war against the United States is one they cannot afford to pay.

And to those within our own borders who believe that America is incapable of leading this fight, who suggest that we must resign ourselves to the inevitability of decline, who counsel surrender in the face of global aggression—know this: You are not the heirs of Washington, of Lincoln, of Roosevelt. You are the echoes of those who said America should stay out of the fight, who said liberty could be negotiated rather than defended, who said that tyranny could be reasoned with rather than eradicated. The Republic is not built for you. It is built for those who refuse to accept the chains of submission, who know that freedom is never granted, only won. And it is built for those who, when history calls, do not hesitate to rise.

This is the hour of decision. We will not be the generation that allowed America to be overtaken in the digital age. We will not be the ones who watched as our enemies subjugated us through cyber warfare and economic sabotage. We will be the ones who stood, who fought, who secured the future of this Republic as others have done before us. We will be the ones who broke our enemies, not the ones who bowed before them.

The world will know: America does not wait to be attacked. America does not cower in fear. America builds, America innovates, and when the enemies of liberty rise, America stands ready to strike them down. This is our charge. This is our mission. This is our war to win. And by God, we will win it.