The latest example of China's cyberwar against the USA, hacking into Gmail accounts of senior US officials, is a warning sign of much worse to come. Make no mistake, China wants to dethrone the United States from its dominant position in the world, and sees our dependence on the internet as a major vulnerability.  Investor's Business Daily is a lonely voice warning about our complacency about the "blue army" of cyber-warriors China is deploying:

China has made two other known attacks on Google since 2009, one so serious the company pulled its search engine out of China. It's gotten particularly aggressive against Google's Gmail service in the wake of Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution that triggered turmoil in the Arab world. (snip)

Remember the great Northeast Blackout of 2003, which originated in Cleveland? The second-biggest power outage in history, which affected 50 million people in the U.S. and Canada, was originally blamed on trees over power lines.

But it wasn't the trees. A little-noted investigative report by the National Journal in 2008 found that U.S. officials believe the attack originated in China.

In an attack roughly parallel to the Stuxnet destruction of Iran's nuclear capabilities, the Chinese attack sent false information to authorities about a fixable problem. That's the power of information warfare.

A similar attack occurred in Florida in 2008.

Americans need to understand that we could be devastated by a coordinated attack on our electric power supply and other key infrastructure. Imagine railways unable to operate their switching and train control systems, airliners unable to fly, refineries unable to produce gasoline, water supply systems unable to function.

Prior to 9-11, no one thought the tallest buildings in America could be destroyed. The scale of cyber-warfare makes 9-11 look like a day at the beach. Literally millions could die.

China understands that Americans have no stomach for yet another war front. We are asleep when it comes to our vulnerability. The war has already begun, and it may take a catastrophe to wake us up.