Actually, this is an excellent analogy. Nobody would believe that mining the Interstate highway system in case enemies used it to invade would be a good idea. But put the word "computer" next to anything else and most people's brains just switch off.
I think that the main reason they are trying to do this is that so many government networks and even utilities are hooking up to the Internet, so they want to be able to shut out 'invaders' if there is a bad attack happening.
The problem with this is that maybe those networks/utilities SHOULDN'T BE ON THE PUBLIC INTERNET. If the military or other government agencies can't defend themselves appropriately, then maybe they should invest in rolling out a completely separate network just for US government purposes. Hell, they did it once (i.e APRANet).
Good point! These morons always say, "But a hacker could destroy our electrical power grid!" and I always wonder why is the power grid accessible on the Internet? What idiot thought that was a good idea, and can't we fire him or her and take the grid back off the Internet? Like, today?
