Wars and Rumors of Wars - What are the implications for Domestic Critical Infrastructure?

Karl Holmqvist and Beau Woods open a session under I Am The Cavalry that treats the line between war and peace as blurry. They draw on a 1999 Chinese military text on unrestricted warfare and on examples of economic, legal and psychological pressure to argue that a state adversary may already be operating in a conflict-like posture against domestic infrastructure.

The core of the talk is a tabletop scenario set on a late December night in 2026, when pre-positioned malware in IT networks activates across water, power, telecommunications, healthcare and transportation. The audience works through the timeline hour by hour. They discuss how utilities without central coordination would see pressure surges and outages as isolated faults, how telecom and emergency dispatch degrade, how hospitals lose function without water, and how fabricated media and public pressure could slow decisions. The presenters add a possible Taiwan invasion running alongside to delay a US military response.

The closing discussion turns to preparation. Participants suggested local drills, getting to know neighbors and emergency managers, sharing intelligence through sector groups, making disclosure easier for researchers, funding defenders and reducing dependence on connected systems. The session stresses that psychological harm can outlast physical damage, and that practical readiness for disruption matters more than waiting for new regulation.