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CDMA vs. GSM in Post-war Iraq
An anonymous reader submits: "Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is pressing congress to favor CDMA over GSM for mobile phone service in U.S.-funded reconstruction plans. One reason for pushing this is that a CDMA system would benefit American companies, such as California-based Qualcomm, while GSM would favor European companies. Currently, GSM is the most widely used mobile standard in surrounding countries."
I think for the benefit of the Iraq people it would be best to either, us the existing standard and what the surrounding countries use. But if they want some of the benefits of the CSMA as they say in the article, they should at lest do a dual implantation of it. Why? Well so the Iraq people can chose what standard they want, the one they don't go for will by default die away, I am sure they probably will not go for CDMA since it would not be useful outside for the boarders of Iraq. Can CDMA and GSM phones exist in the same area? That is the big question that could stand in the way of my idea. But this is all thinking and we should be consternating more on the war that is going on now then rebuilding, yes we also have to look at humanitarian aid now, but that is still different from rebuilding.
Before they're hatched. Can I be on the occupied Iraq new currency designing committee? More importantly, will occupied Iraq choose Direct TV or Dish Network as its standard?
I can tell this esteemed Rep. has his priorities straight.
If this is going to be US funded I thinks it's okay to favor US companies even though I personally like/use GSM. If the money will be loaned to Iraq and later recouped via oil sales, etc. then GSM should be used. It's not like Sony-Ericsson is a French company!
They could forfiet their patent royalities on that technology which was originally developed for the military at taxpayers expense.
I really hope this lays to rest any argument about the US going there to "save the civilians from Saddam's evil."
Come on people, war hasn't even finished, and all they can think about is US cellphone company's benefits? what about FOOD, WATER, MEDICINE?
sheesh...
My life in the land of the rising sun.
Seriously folks, in percentage of population, the US Military has already killed more Iraqi civilians than 9/11 killed Americans. Let's not worry about what cell phones the Iraqis will use after we win, and worry instead about whether or not it's possible for us to win.
Peace. As salaam alaikum.
I'd just like to remind you that the U.S is NOT the boss of the world, for lack of a better phrase.
Any country should be able to FREELY make their decision on participating in a conflict, and not be expected to march to Start Spangled Banner.
You may label the Frech as, 'Surrender monkeys', but maybe the U.S could be labelled as a, 'Government Sanctioned Terrorist Unit'
As an Australian, I support our troops, but that does not mean I support the actions of our Government.
There's already that sort of aid on the way, and Bush wants another 8 billion or so to be spent on that in the first 6 months. That's not counting other private group charities. They have to look at all these different issues as part of rebuilding. It's like saying we shouldn't bother fighting the common cold until we've got cancer taken care of.
I've had a CDMA phone for over two years now, and love it to death! There are a number of benefits, including longer range, lower amounts of microwaves hitting your skull, and so on.
:-)
GSM phones can exist in the same area as CDMA, I know this for a fact because all my friends have GSM...
What will probably happen is that the standard competitive environment will emerge anyway -- company A puts up GSM towers, company B puts up CDMA towers, and both try to convince the public that their system is better. Some people buy one system, some buy the other, based on what's important to that individual. This is, in my opinion, a much better system than relying on one technology -- and it's a system that will emerge without any form of legislation. Why can't political leaders just keep their noses out of it?
I am artificially intelligent.
There is an old and VERY familar saying. "Don't count your chickens before they hatch." We don't even have Baghdad yet and we are already arguing for what CELL phone STANDARD to use?!?!?! Come ON... I would be more worried about how to take Baghdad and what is needed to keep Baghdad before we start worrying about CDMA vs. GSM.
This is one of the worst things I have ever heard. Any doubts I had about the motivation of this war being financial have just dissapeared.
Generally speaking, it would probably make the most sense to allow something resembling competition. Barring that, I would vote for GSM. It has nothing to do with which is a better standard. The point is, the middle east is a relatively small region. Cell-phone interoperability would be a huge boon -- so it would be great if the whole region used one standard. Iraq is about the size of a mid-sized state. Imagine if you couldn't use your New York cell phone in Connecticut because of standards problems.
Statistically speaking, there's a 99.998% chance that my IQ is higher than yours. Get over it.
Cryptome is hosting more information on the whole rebuilding effort in Iraq. One such article is this one which is the text of a new york times article and two pdf's from USAID. Should be of interest to anyone who's following the whole Iraq war and is interested in the aftermath.
I THINK NOT.
This is just another example of politics being influenced by corporate desires and lobbying.
-davidu
# Hack the planet, it's important.
It's nice to see that in a country where citizens debate principles on both sides of an issue with global ramifications ... that congress reps first thoughts are still, "Mmmm ... pork ... " *drool*
Maybe we should get our rebuilding plans for oil production, water treatment, and transportation infrastructure taken care of first? Hey, maybe we can get DRM established there -- we can shape the future of the Middle East, and then the world!
Go live in North Korea or something....
if the US wants to make Iraq democratic why not let them vote on it once they need to implement it? ... or am I missing the whole, supposed, point of the war?
GSM is a digital voice protocol with data services built on top of it. CDMA is a digital data protocol over which voice is one of the things you can send.
CDMA has a lot of things going over GSM, technically-wise, which I'm not going to bother to get into, because I haven't had several years of education in data encoding and communications so I can't speak with any great deal of force, but I do know that CDMA offers high-bandwidth, very reliable service (assuming the network is built properly), it's a newer protocol that builds upon the faults in GSM, TDMA, etc., and the method they use for encoding the data is just plain cool.
In the end, I vote CDMA, because other countries should consider upgrading (when GSM was the latest greatest thing, Europe locked themselves into it), and if I ever (read: when) go to Baghdad, I'd like to be able to use the phone I have now and just get subscription or roaming. It sucks that I can't do that anywhere else because the US and Canada are, amazingly, ahead of the cellular game for once.
--Dan
American companies and American forces will be there.
I'm sure the forces currently based in Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will rebase to Iraq, so why not use the same standards as used in the US?
Of course, it would make more sense though.
Corporate Terrorists you are
I'd just like to remind you that, all arguments to the contrary aside, the U.S. is very much the boss of the world. Fortunately for all, the world has never had a more benevolent boss.
I would feel much better if the US made the commitment to not have any economic interest in Iraq. There should be no US based company getting contracts for oil. Same goes for cell phone standards. KEEP YOUR GREEDY LITTLE HANDS OFF OF IRAQ! We are going to war with Iraq for the freedom of the people, not the plunder. Right?
Whatever is deployed - it will be done by Americans using American equipment.
Think of all the wire-taping opertunities if we use our equipment.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
The more damage US military does to Iraq's infrastructure, the more money will US corporations make on rebuilding. US government is planning to use Iraqi oil to pay for this enterprise.
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
When it comes to rebuilding, the US tend to be big on words and small on deeds. See Afghanistan, see Gulf War I. Methinks for the moment there is a lot of posturing going on about what all we'll be doing in Iraq since "we'll be paying anyway", but eventually, after suitable redirection of the public attention to other things ("look, a shiny object!"), the US is going to work out things with the Europeans by "allowing" them to contribute to rebuilding to get "friendly" with them again, and the Europeans are going to oblige to get on the good side of the US again. Then the US will be enjoying the great PR of rebuilding Iraq, while someone else is footing the bill. Given the state of the budget, I really don't see us pouring billions into Iraq.
Is that some foreign knock-off the American made Yoda?
"We are at a very serious moment dealing with very serious issues and we are not focusing on the name you give to potatoes."
--Nathalie Loisau, French embassy spokeswoman.
Please help metamoderate.
i'm british. 2 british troops were executed today. I have fiends in the army out there now and i support them fully. But many people here believe they deaths sadly only served the cause of texan oil companies --- in week four of the war i shall go out to iraq, join up and take shots at some american troops i shit ye not ALL YOUR DESKTOPS ARE BELONG TO ME NOW
Um, I think that it's obvious the French chose a side in the war, as Bush has said oftentimes in the past, "If you ain't with us, yore against us" (note cheesy imitation of texan accent here) So the french and the germans and the chinese and the russians and the canadians and the .... almost every other major nation the world are all TERRORISTS!!! KILL THEM ALLLLL!!!!!
*ahem* Sorry that was the caeser streak coming through.
Sad to say it, but you are right. Kinda goes to show where the minds of these politicians are. They spit so much self-righteous nonsense, but their minds are always focused on one thing - The Almighty Buck.
That's why we don't mind going to war. It's for our benefit, so why not. We pay the costs of the war in the beginning, but since we did it to "liberate" the Iraqi people, when the oil wells are taken over, we give them the bill.
Don't believe me? Ask yourself who footed the bill in the first Gulf War. Ask yourself also which nation's companies got the majority of the contracts for reconstruction.
The victor *always* gets the spoils. Take the patriotic drivel you see on TeeVee with a grain of salt. Look at the testament of history. The masses will suffer, but the rich get richer whenever there is war.
Wait til next year. Then another dictatorship will be re-building from powdered rubble. And then the year after that, another one, etc.
George Bush has decreed that countries ruled by decree will be erased, and I have no problem with that.
Let the other countries change if they want
to be in line with the new democratic Iraq!
not only do they want to keep the dollar as the oil monitary standard but now they also want american standard technology as well. pretty hard to explain how this war is not profiting American now isn't it...
VoiceStream Wireless had a nation-wide GSM network in the US. When T-Mobile, a German based GSM provider, purchased VoiceStream Wireless and Powertel, they became a Global GSM provider. AT&T is also building out a GSM network. Japan, Europe, Israel, and even Kuwait has a GSM network - in total, something like 40 or 50 countries uses GSM. My point is, GSM is the defacto world-wide standard, and it is in the interest of Iraq to use GSM so that interoperability with the international community is more easily achieved.
Australia has CDMA in all country areas. It has much better range then GSM. I'd say that's quite important.
Why do these people need cell phones? So they can order pizza?
These beaurocrats are jumping the gun... There are a lot of starving people in that country, and the war is only going to make it worse.
The Iraqis people need food, shelter, clothing, and above all... peace. Not cell phones.
This whole fucking article is a troll
arguing about cellphones when iraqis dont even have fresh clean water
cunts , fuck off you make me sick
Second of all, this would be like trying to put Arkansas on a GMS system while the rest of the country was on CDMA. It just makes no sense. We picked a shitty standard, and most of the rest of the world gets to enjoy some nice features and utility we lack. No reason Iraq should suffer for that choice. Understand that Iraq isn't the size of the U.S., they need to be able to interact with other European states, and so they need GMS. If we force CDMA on them, we'll just be stealing that money for a couple of U.S. companies and then giving them something they will trash for it as soon as they get us out of there.
The CDMA receivers have GPS argument is pretty lame too. It wasn't part of the CDMA design, it was added in later because big brother here wanted to be able to better track us. It could be added into GNS phones too, but hasn't been mandated by the E.U. yet.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
I say we all go back to analog AMPS, it's the only way I can listen in to conversations with my spectrum analyzer.
I remember reading that before WWII Japan had adopted the metric system, but when the US forces moved in after the war, they forced Japan to change from selling petrol in litres, to gallons.
They also forced people on the island of Okinawa to drive on the right, when the practice of driving on the left had been previously established.
Of course, once the Americans left, petrol was being sold in litres again, and Okinawa was once more driving on the left. No doubt, it cost lots of money to revert.
If Iraq is forced to adopt CDMA over what seems to be a well-established standard (in the region) then the people of Iraq will be paying for it in the long run - either through inconvenience or financially by having to change standards.
You can see a similar phenomenon when it comes to tv signals and power supply standards.
Frankly, when it comes to matters like these, commonsense should prevail over self-interest and what are essentially hallmarks of imperialism.
Imagine if you have a surgeon doing surgery on you. During the operation, he is discussing excitedly with the nurse how he is going to take some crazy vacation from the money he's gonna get from the operation.
Now, would you say that he is concentrating on saving your life, or that's just a means to help himself, and he doesn't really care about you as long as there are no mal-practice suits?
In fact, if he actually recommended this operation to you while you were "on the fence," would you not start to doubt if this operation was really meant to benefit YOU?
grow up man... if they really was doing this for the people, they should not have the energy to worry about such trivial things. And yes, Qualcomm's stock prices is trivial compared to the human lives lost there.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
This article is why USA is hated
slashdot editors should be ashamed of themselves
If you leave the last big town, to go bush
in Australia, you might as well leave your
GSM handset behind, in favor of a CDMA unit.
Cheaper than sta.phones, the CDMA had greater
range (over flat terrain) & about the same
air-time costs as GSM, here...
So, that's the terrain of Iraq like, then?
Kurdish territory already has some cell phone service. I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and guess that it's the same that's being used everywhere else.
I used to think the imperialistic aspects of this war were secondary to the ideological ones. Lately my opinion has been headed in the other direction, not that either one is good.
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
It may not upset some you but it upsets me that division of Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) named Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to work in Iraq. The size of the contract was not disclosed, but estimates put it near $1 billion. Vice president Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton and he still receives about $1 million a year in compensation from the company.
Odd.
Now they are doing the same with cell phones.
Strage but I always thought that the strength of the US economy over the EU economy was no government control over the market.
In my opinion GSM is a better standard and the EU is years ahead in the cell phone technology. In any case I think the market (we buyers) should decide what is best and not the US government. Not in Iraq, not in US, not anywhere.
This 50 years old economic policy.
In the case of Iraq are we bringing freedom or slavery to US companies and standards?
If this isn't enough to make one sick, discussing of who's tech to use after you finish dropping bombs on people... just... wow. Capitalism has some really nasty looking sides when you step back a little bit.
SecondPageMedia - Wha
RelliK is a dumbass
I had a Sprint PCS phone for 2 years and service is absolutely crappy. Dropped calls, phone not ringing even though I have a strong signal.
In short, crap.
It's nice to see that spoils are being divided carefully before the war has reached its conclusion. While we're at it, why not send in a few Fraternity Jockos there to rape all their young daughters. Any future conflict with the US would then be a civil action...
Then again, I was told we were not in this war for profit. So, I guess these Congressmen salivating at the oportunities for a triumph are not really excited about their pocketbooks... It just appears that way, right?
Well obviously you can't have your new state running a different phone system from the others? I mean image the harried oil executive stepping of the plane in Bushdad and finding out his phone can't be used. He'd be swearing "I might as well be in some damn foreign country!".
The good Congressman is just thinking ahead.
First of all, whatever your beliefs regarding this war, I think it's disgusting that while people are dying on both sides - combatants and civilians - that someone can calmly try and make a fast buck on what happens to Iraq after the war.
Sure, you can say that the Congressman is just looking after the interests of his constituents, but I'm sure that he's received (or at least he will in the future) some hefty financial support from Qualcomm to finance his election campaigns. Morally, I find his haste to divide up what will be a war-torn country repugnant.
And why should the American government be deciding how Iraq should be rebuilt? Why should American companies profit from the devastation caused by America? Because America bore the brunt of the cost of a war that only it and only a few of its very closest allies wanted? Doesn't such unilateral carving up of post-war Iraq smack of colonialism?
Shouldn't a free market economy decide what kind of phone network Iraq eventually is left with? Isn't an arbitrarily imposed system a bit imperialistic? Is Nokia (of Finland) or Ericsson (of Sweden) any less entitled to compete for new business than Qualcomm (of the US of A)? Why?
It's not like America's track record on rebuilding nations scarred by it's "War on Terrorism" is anything to shout about. It's not like Afghanistan is undergoing radical change with roads, hospitals, power plants and other infrastructure being rebuilt is it? Mind you, Iraq does have the world's second largest oil reserves so at least they can pay for the lovely American-built goods that Dubya and Co. hope will soon be flooding the markets of Baghdad.
Most of the world believes that American foreign policy is about using other countries as much as possible one day and then throwing them out with the garbage the next morning. It's a shame and a tragedy (and it should be a national disgrace) that George W. Bush is making that belief a reality.
(I'll say this now. This is Slashdot, where anything the questions American actions, and especially Republican actions, can only be flamebait and/or trolling. Moderators, do yourselves and others a favour: don't moderate down other people's opinions just because you don't agree with them. Instead, respond logically and rationally with your own opinions. This is called debate. It's democracy in action.)
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
RelliK is wrong. This is not Insightfull.
We're not nearly done killing people, and we're already planning ways to fuck them by pushing inferior wireless standards on them. Are we even sure we've properly bombed all the existing cell sites? Lets remember, structures left standing are money we're not making rebuilding....
sick fucks americans are, yes
A benevolent boss? You gotta be kidding me. Maybe it was, but it certainly isn't anymore. What was the mantra about being a boss and a leader? Wasn't one of them, to be a leader you have to have respect? Your Dubya made the US lose all the respect most of the world had for it, vote for a real leader next time.
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
Since the US is an occupational force, whether CDMA or GSM is picked should be determined based on what's best for the Iraqis.
Most likely, that means GSM, since that will allow them to use their phones in surrounding countries, whereas CDMA will be useless for them as they travel.
No, we're not getting food into Iraq because the priority for this war is the Oil. Humanitarian aid is far down the list of priorities. The US is really fucking up this time. In 20 years, we'll have plenty of terrorists trying to bomb the fuck out of us because their poor mother died of starvation during the '03 invasion, or their sister died from an infection received from American shrapnel.
We can drop thousands of precision bombs on hundreds of different targets all over the country the side of California, we can parachute 1,000 troops into the heart of enemy territory without loosing a single American life, but somehow, we can't get around some mines in the harbor.
Why didn't the Coalition PLAN for the mines? Iraq has mined the harbor several times before.
Second, Kuwait is right next door. Why can't we just land in Kuwait and deliver the food that way.
Here in New Zealand we have both networks. I do development of communications products using both systems. As I see it, for the end users, CDMA really only has an advantage if you need faster data. The other 99% of the users would be better off with GSM. CDMA proponents will give plenty of sound technical reasons why CDMA is better and they are right but from a practical point of view GSM wins almost every time. Some of the reasons for GSM are:
1. Don't have pay the Qualcomm fees so the pones are cheaper.
2. Sim cards allow the user to choose where and when to get their phone from instead of having to get permission to change from their telco.
3. There is generally a larger range of phones (see 2.), although some GSM telcos control network access, ours doesn't. The local CDMA phones are just plain ugly !
4. Roaming is better, my phone works in almost any country including the US, and you can count the number of countries a CDMA user can roam to with one hand.
On a political note I have to say this isn't a good look for country claiming to be there to help the local, not themself...
No one ever died from a cold, but a cure for the common cold would be far more lucrative than a cure for cancer by the sheer fact that people get colds more often than they get cancer. But if you're actually interested in saving people's lives, we really should pursue the cure for cancer instead of the cure for the common cold. In the same vein, I think making sure people get food and water is a hell of a lot more important than determining what their cel phone standard is going to be.
In summary, I don't think dead people or people dying of starvation and thirst really need cel phones. And I don't think people with terminal cancer will feel all that much better even if you manage to stop their nose from running.
Well Iraq's next door neighbour, Afghanistan has been conquered by the US, so it'll be CDMA instead of GSM.
And we all know Iran is next because it is part of the axis of evil (weren't they Iraq's enemies, and therefore our friends in the last war?). So it'll adopt switch US CDMA standard instead of GSM when it is flattened and rebuilt too.
In a couple years when the middle east becomes a little "USAsville" it is pretty clear the using the GSM standard because it is the international standard is pointless. Just pick whichever the American companies are using because they're the ones allowed to rebuild the conquered countries.
Even though it was us that destroyed them... Fortunatly for them they have oil to pay us for this rebuilding they'll need!
Anyone else notice that Halliburton (formerly helmed by Dick Cheney) got a nice contract to put out the oil wells that have been set on fire? Another coincidence?
Yes, bombs are going off all over Iraq now. BUT that is where the similarity to 9/11 ends.
On 9/11, there were no bombs, just commercial jets used as missiles. The invasion of Iraq and the attacks on 9/11 are not similar at all, even from the civilian perspective.
9/11 was a secret attack inflicted by a rogue group mainly to cause maximum deaths of civilians. (I'm not including the Pentagon attack because that was a valid military target)
Our invasion of Iraq is a pre-planned, well-announced attack on the regime running Iraq (and its figurehead, Saddam) by national military forces against military targets. The coalition forces are not purposely targetting civilians, however, as war is ugly, collateral deaths are inevitable. I truly believe the coalition forces are doing everything possible to avoid killing civilians. The Iraqi regime has gone out of their way to put its own citizens in harms way by embedding SAMs (surface-to-air missiles) in residential neighborhoods, even hiding a tank inside a hospital (which is against the internationally accepted rules of warfare; the Geneva Convention, which Iraq is a signatory to).
The Iraqi are also launching a moderately successful political game based on complete lies. Seems thats the regular mode of business for them. How about those chemical weapons they said they don't have but have warned us they will use if we try to take over Baghdad? Or the Iraqi POWs telling debriefers that their superiors told them to fight hard because the Americans would inject poison in their veins if they were caught.
So simply comparing numbers based on population size has no merit unless you also look at the overall situational factors, including history.
- mobster1975!
No, Clinton did that, and I did vote for a real leader, and he almost didn't get voted in because of a sore loser named Lieberman and a bigger sore loser name Gore. Both of these sore losers used the preconception that old people are feeble and don't vote correctly, and used the state of Florida (which is full of old people). Swallow that Mr. Moore. Respect is something European countries never got the concept of anyway (Zeig Heil anyone?). I sure hope Europe will get a grasp on the value of morality, rather than the pseudo-morality that has been bred into them since the dark ages.
Support Israeli punk bands. Man Alive.
Well, of course a US congressman would choose something other than GSM...to benefit US companies and their regime that contols them...or is it vice-versa? Why do you think the we invaded Iraq to begin with? It was not to liberate anything, but to serve a select few in the US hierarchy. Go murder a bunch of folks we have no business telling what and how to live their lives, do this based on fear and misinformation, lie to the US public, and then have the regime here in the US sell stuff to the new regime in Iraq that is not like anything used in surrounding countries, geesh...it makes total sense huh? Of course...all for the benfit of the Bushies and their crew, and those ignorant US citizens that buy into it all. What fools...and what crap. I just figure that by the time the US gets through there will not be any civilians left to use phones anyway.
If you were to look through previous post on CDMA vs TDMA (which is used by GSM) you will actually find that CDMA is indeed a better technology.
The 3G network is all based on CDMA since it is better at utilising bandwidth than TDMA. In fact most of Europe is slowly switching to CDMA though it will be an expensive process.
Qualcomm were right all along in the CDMA vs TDMA wars and now they should reap the benefits.
I think Iraq would do well to avoid all these problems and just move to 3G since they wouldn't have to support older phone/existing customer base.
BTW: I use a GSM phone
Oz
French President Chirac facilitated France's multibillion-dollar sale of the Osirak nuclear reactor to Iraq while the Mayor of Paris. Thank god Isreal bombed it.
that they'd choose CDMA (favour's US) over GSM (favour's EU). I mean, why would anyone want to choose what's best for the Iraqis?
... and then there were none
The worst terrorist attack in recorded history occurred in September 2001, followed by a WAR against Islam in Afghanistan and now we're involved in ANOTHER war against Islam in Iraq, and you people have the gall to be discussing what CELL PHONE NUMBER to use in Iraq???? My *god*, people, GET SOME PRIORITIES!
The bodies of the thousands of innocent civilians who died (and will die) in these unprecedented events could give a good god damn about obscure science fiction, your childish Lego models, your nerf toy guns and whining about the lack of a "fun" workplace, your Everquest/Diablo/D&D fixation, the latest Cowboy Bebop rerun, or any of the other ways you are "getting on with your life" (here's a hint: watching Cowboy Bebop in your jammies and eating a bowl of Shreddies is *not* "getting on with your life"). The souls of the victims are watching in horror as you people squander your finite, precious time on this earth playing video games!
You people disgust me!
The king called up his jet fighters
He said you better earn your pay
Drop your bombs between the minarets
Down the Casbah way
Of course the US should be paying for reconstruction because the US is doing the damage. If I break a window in a neighbour's house, I pay to replace the window; it doesn't matter if they're a millionaire.
CDMA and WCDMA are more advanced technologies over GSM - the next generation. CDMA One is to used mainly in US and WCDMA elsewhere, especially Europe. I am not an expert on US CDMA, but European WCDMA is probably more flexible and more expensive, better solution. Only that WCDMA it has been hyped, delayed and overpoliticised a lot, as everyone wanted to standartize their patents and nobody had the money to replace the GSM infrastructure.
Petrus.
As an Australian myself, as a pre-emptive strike
against a future Australian gov't decision to
send Australians to a similarly unjust war,
as I see this one in Iraq as being...
Let me be the first to say that I do -not-
support our troops presence in Iraq or nearby.
If you wish to support Australian troops,
get them the hell out of there, and save
them and their consciences for defending
Australia (remember what a military is for?)
Oh, the title comes from something I heard
on Radio National (in Australia), namely
that - after the Aust. gov't asked its
people to send eMails to the troops in Iray -
it CENSORED any that it deemed not sufficiently
supportive of their being in Iraq.
Not only that, but the Australian ABC has
reportedly -cropped- the gore from a photo
of a young girl, whose feet were blown away
by an explosion.
So, the troops don't get to hear that they
are not supported by Australians at home...
And the rest of Australia is (at least by
the ABC [TV]) not able to see -real- gore
that the war in Iraq is creating for civilians.
How can -either- group decide how much they
'want' this war?
Swedes, by contrast - with an enviable history
of STAYING -ALL- OUT of wars for well over
220 years (except when they send peace-
keeping forces, under a UN flag) - are the
benchmark that I embrace.
How does the Australian people & gov't
compare to this benchmark?
Well, by sending in the Aussie troops early,
PM John Howard robbed Australians of the
choice as to whether "we" should be there.
It only took the PM & his cabinet to decide
whether or not to send troops to Iraq, and
that's hardly democratic, by any standard!
So, NO, the Aussie troops do -not- have my
support... I'm sure that they are -banned-
from reading SlashDot.com, so this message
can't possibly hurt their morale.
War solves nothing... unless, of course,
you sell to Defense, of course...
Oh, I'm a Republican
I got a small schling
I like to bomb niggahs
and make a lot o' bling
I got a bunch o' friends
in high up places
They helps me get dem
government graces.
You think I'm smart
I just know who's who
I couldn't run a fruit stand
without the red white & blue
I'll drop some crap
about Jesus the Christ
You'll buy it all
and vote for me twice
'Fact, Jesus is comin'!
Real soon, now!
So we gotta prop up Israel
That ol' sacred cow
Don't need no history
Don't need no schoolin'
I got my ideology
To keep me a shootin'
Liberals! Faggots!
Commies and queers!
Socialist hippies
Full o' pussy tears
Propaganda's m'friend
But I calls it "fact"
Even though I don't read
'Cept for Chick tracts
Facts? No! Don't need em here!
We're conservatives! We work on FEAR!
Don't like what we say?
Well FUCK YOU, bud!
We'll shove it down yer throat
and tell ya it's good!
They should have thought of this before they started importing all the crap from Mexico and China.
Don't put a bowtie on a turd and call it well dressed.
And what about letting them (Iraq people) choose the system that will better fill their own needs?
By the way... if you americans are planning to keep interfeering in other countries affairs (like bombing foreign countries and stuff) then everybody in the whole globe should be permited to vote for the US president.
I mean... I thought this was a democracy... It seems to be one whithin the US borders... but, how about outside?
cam
Does Qualcomm really want to sell to only the United States and Iraq? Why not give them GSM, then Qualcomm loses the burden of dual development and gains a wider market for the single product line. Simple economics.
Also, Motorola is an American company, they do GSM as well...
You're insane. Nuff said.
Some of you people are plainly ignorant.
DO SOME RESEARCH!!!
France and Russia have big ARMS & OIL contracts with IRAQ but cannot do business until the sanctions are lifted. Why do you think they opposed the war so much? It's true and I'm not going to point it out to you. Get off your own arse and check for yourself.
And hell Germany I'm ashamed of I'd figure they'd be on our side as usual dont they know if all these moderate muslim nations become theoracy's that they'll become a threat to europe with Jihadists trying to convert the world at the point of a sword.
Of course you guys that protest this war if some city somewhere gets gassed you'll just scream at Bush and America about us doing nothing if we didnt attack.
60 inspectors that are wiretapped, followe, and harried cannot do anything to find what Iraq has. I think as Saddam gets more desperate we'll see his true colors since it's obvious he has no reguard for treaties.
Also everyone go kick this senator in the arse too. Like we have a big enough pr problem with the world without some capitalistic jackarse trying to make his friends a few bucks.
..yes that is right. No iraqis view you as liberators, only invaders and occupyers. You will be defeated like you were in vietnam, you will be disgraced and exposed as the true imperialist fascists that you are. And this time the terrorists will follow you home, and fuck you over good and proper. You will get everything you deserve you war pigs.
I am sure Hiroshima and Nagasaki were excellent military targets...
Anyway - Terrorism is what you call them on this side of the fence. Most of the time, they are just desperate people who has been fucked over too many times who wants to end this conflict too.
they do their thing because they believe they are doing it for the greater good (or revenge, which is close enough if you have been fucked over enough times). People usually don't blow themselves up just because it's a rainy tuesday, ya know.
You guys are way too cynical! This isn't about American corporations exploiting war for market-share - this congressional action just demonstrates how deeply American companies and their Congressional Representatives care about the Iraqi people, partially their cell-phone reception.
If you could accuse them of anything, it would be caring *too much*, too deeply, being too committed to making sure very Iraqi can get downloadable ring-tones and caller-ID. We should be proud of these corporate leaders, these *American* leaders, for caring on our behalf!
Christ, I should write this stuff for a living. Or I could just cut to the chase and start stealing cars
Arkansas is home to the fastest growing metro area in the united states (greater NW Ark area), as well as the largest retailer in the world (Walmart), the largest Poultry company in the world (Tyson), and some of the largest trucking companies in the world.
Now, if you were looking for a bumpkin state, try Mississippi on for size.
James
So because Germany had a bad tyrant ruler, and did some bad things, which they've been trying to atone for since (and the people that actually did these things are mostly dead as well), the whole of Europe is doesn't deserve respect?
Does that include your hero Dubya's pal Blair?
That's it america... keep alienating your allies. You don't need anyone. The universe revolves around you.
--
"The Greatest Nation in the World" can't even feed it's poor.
If I can't smoke and swear I'm fucked.
GSM is an aging standard. Code division multiplexing is the way of the future, and the engineers know this. It offers better reception, better capacity, and makes for a much better 3G infrastructure with mixed high-speed data/voice traffic.
China is rolling out a WCDMA network, folks. Qualcomm isn't necessarily the flagbearer for the technology or the platform; it's no longer a US-only phenomenon.
GSM will be phased out over the next decade, cohabitating with WCDMA, as peoples' handsets are replaced by shiny new models with ridiculous multimedia features they won't use for years. Check the market for dual-band WCDMA/GSM mobile phones and notice how many of the major manufacturers are producing them.
Regretably, none of that matters to our friend, Mr. Issa. He and his backers are interested solely in making a quick buck. It's obvious to me that Iraq would be better served by allowing a privatized Iraq Telecom corporation to arise from the ashes of the old state-run telecom. Iraq Telecom should make its own decision about what kind of cellular technology to deploy, perhaps with the help of a US bank loan. That would be a minor boon for the US and a blissful telecommunications future for Iraq.
But, honestly...what'd you expect, from a politician?
Zeig heil??? Fucking moron.
If the French hadn't helpt out your puny revolution, US would still be a British colony. Which, thinking of it, would have been just as well, anyway.
A nation of misfits, rejected from the civilized countries now trying to rule the world.
But never mind, your society is going straight to hell anyway.
Reasons?
Segregation.
Ignorance.
Megalomania.
Crime rates.
Social security.
Inability to handle international affairs.
I could add a few more, but that ends the lesson for today.
Ceterum censeo Microsoftem esse delendam
Imperialism. Many years ago I wrote my thesis on European industrial policies in the setting of international telecommunications standards. The European Union susbsidised the process of setting such standards, which is why Europe has only one, GSM, and the US has all kinds of different mobile telecom standards.
Now the US, obviously incapable and unwilling of going the European way of international cooperation, "inefficient" and "bueraucratic" as that may be, goes the other way and starts a war against a ficticious enemy, barely hiding the fact that it's the economy, stupid!
As long as NASDAQ went up, there was no need for a war, but now the bubble burst. Iraq recently started denominating their oil in Euros instead of dollars, and this US government thinks it can rule the world all by itself, no need for international treaties (Kyoto, International Court, the list goes on), just raw military force and then eat the cake all by yourself.
Of course, France and Germany and Russia are being hypocritical, because had the US promised them to share the cake with them, that UN vote would have been made unanimously. This war, it becomes increasingly less veiled, is the first war of the US against Europe. It's called post-Soviet times. Only one imperialist left standing, for now. Europe will come back, and then there is Russia and China.
Lenin had it right all along. But no worries, eventually, this imperialist will choke on it's own power, like every other empire in history.
Another report said he still gets about $1M a year in compensation.
Besides which, you know damned well he will go right back to them after he loses the next election. Or family will.
Anyone who thinks politicians are honest and ethical simply hasn't been paying attention.
Infuriate left and right
The fact that people are such twits to actually think a damn blow job is a big deal while the patriot act is just swell demonstrates the perverse sense of morality my fellow Americans have. I take that back. They're scared little blood thirsty fascist sheep.
Go ahead, call me a traitor. From traitors, that is a complement. Good thing the constitution transcends the toilet paper this administration thinks it is. There's going to be hell to pay when the brainwashing wears off. I think that shall be soon since there are already cries for Blair's head. When American death toll in this very *avoidable* war exceeds 1000, Bush may join blair at the Hague trial.
Obviously this guys is being influenced in a huge way by corporate entities or he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. As a Canadian who is constantly travelling overseas, the CDMA standard that North America has adopted is a major pain in the ass. The premium phones that are being manufactured right now always come out in GSM form first, most of them only supporting the two standard frequencies, and those that support the third you can't even use in North America most of the time because of a lack of carriers that will support the phone (some carriers won't allow phones that they don't sell to be connected to their networks).
Why are slashdot readers so interested in mobile phones? It's not like you have anyone to call anyway!
What was the mantra about being a boss and a leader? Wasn't one of them, to be a leader you have to have respect?
Did I say anything about being a leader? Fuck being a leader. I said that the US is the world's boss, and the recent farce at the UN proves it. When the world is taking care of itself, for the most part, the US is willing to sit back and watch the fireworks. But when the world drops the ball, the US is right here to take it and run. When the US says frog, the world damn well says "how high?"
That's what being the boss means.
An American congressman pushing business that would benefit America? I'm shocked! I'm appalled! The extreme left's claim that this war is partly motivated by business/financial considerations may have some truth to it, like the truth that Europe's opposition is also partly motivated by financial/contractual business interests. The business interests of both sides are not in question. The difference is that one approach ends a brutual, repressive dictatorship, and the other preserves it.
Talk about it after you actually win the war, Americans. You people are quite confident with your government. Will other countries allow you to take control of Iraq that easy?
The fact that people are such twits to actually think a damn blow job is a big deal while the patriot act is just swell demonstrates the perverse sense of morality my fellow Americans have.
Have you ever read the USA-PATRIOT act? Be honest, now. Have you ever read it, or have you just read a couple of op-eds about it and formed an opinion based on them?
Go ahead, call me a traitor.
You're not a traitor. You're an American citizen. The framers of our government recognized the necessity of keeping the actual decision making power out of your hands, and from here it's easy to see why.
When American death toll in this very *avoidable* war exceeds 1000, Bush may join blair at the Hague trial.
For what? We don't try people for war crimes just because we don't like them, you know. (Well, the people who wrote the Rome Treaty would disagree with this statement, but that's neither here nor there.)
I write in my journal
GSM? WHICH GSM? Africa, US or European frequency?
GSM not as universal as most think.
CDMA is head and shoulders above - look at where the highspeed wireless is going - CDMA, not GSM. Plus CDMA is more efficient in its bandwidth usage than GSM. Remember GSM is still TDMA at its roots. So CDMA has better spectral efficiency.
Example: GSM provides 8 slots in a channel 200 kHz wide, while IS-136 provides 3 slots in a channel only 30 kHz wide. GSM therefore consumes 25 kHz per user, while IS-136 consumes only 10 kHz per user.
Plus you should take into account the terrain and desnity - Iraq probably is not all that population dense outside of Baghdad and Basra. CDMA really comes into its element when you are out in the countryside with few sites covering large expanses of land. Under these conditions CDMA provides extremely stable audio with few frame errors to mess things up. This is because Channel Pollution is almost non-existent in these situations. Under similar conditions TDMA suffers too readily from interference and it will often blank the audio. Many people who use CDMA systems in sparsely populated areas have given this technology extremely high marks.
Nex you should look at GPRS versus CDMA2000/1xRTT, and the costs to upgrade from these technologies to genuine 3G communications. Without going into the specifics, CDMA holds a slight advantage here as well.
So despite the obvious political motivations behind this decision, technologically speaking, it s actually a good decision to favor CDMA.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo! http://goo.gl/J9bkO
pls fix sig sig not true any more no jornel writings pls fix thx
It's plain and simple, all surronding countries use GSM, why impose an inferior standard?
I once called my friend who lives in Kuwait, only to find out that he's at a hotel in France, GSM is a wonderful standard across the whole region.
In countries like Kuwait, at least 95% of the population uses GSM-based cell phones.
When the US says frog, the world damn well says "how high?"
And there we were thinking that much of the tension between US and the rest of the world stemmed from their not saying "how high", when US said jump.
Either you are an idiot or we were wrong.
I am pretty sure we weren't wrong.
Ceterum censeo Microsoftem esse delendam
I agree; CDMA is not only better than GSM in populated areas (because of its more efficient use of bandwidth), it is also far superior to GSM in sparsely populated areas where users may be a long way away from the base station. Because GSM is based on TDMA, long time delays (i.e. long enough to make a message miss its slot time) make GSM useless over the kind of distances experienced outside of major population centers. CDMA does not suffer from this problem, provided sufficient transmission power.
Yet again I see the arrogance of SOME american people. Is it really for the Iraqi people or your own self interest? And when you went into THEIR country did you do it for them or your own self interest?
As the newsweek article said, imperialists, never consider themselves as imperialists. http://www.msnbc.com/news/885222.asp.
Sorry, but this simply does not dispell the notion that American's yet again are only in it for themselves...
First the war, then we introduce cell phones.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
This means my current Sprint PCS / Qualcomm CDMA phone will be able to get a digital roaming signal in the great state of Ira^H^H^H New Texas in a few years.
Blow them to kingdom come then provide aid in the form of contracts to US companies to rebuild their country at the cost of their oil.
One hell of an economic stimulus package.
As someone who supports our troops and the war effort, I'm disgusted that this crap is going on. It should be about what is best for Iraq, not US companies!
This is the same reason that we are still using the inferior imperial system of measurements instead of the metric system.
GSM would be the obvious choice in Iraq, because it is compatible with GSM that is being used in the surrounding countries. It would be extremely short sighted and irresponsible to push CMDA in the region for no other reason than US convenience.
Grr.
— darco
Mirlip of the Tits:
Have there ever been a post on Slashdot that say anything negative of the US that hasn't set you off into another raving rant in less than five minutes after it was posted? Be honest, now.
Ceterum censeo Microsoftem esse delendam
"march to Start Spangled Banner"
I didn't know that Microsoft had bought advertising space on the US flag. WOW, I've really been out of the loop!
________
Entranced by anime since late summer 2001 and loving it ^_^
Yes, I agree we (the U.S./U.K./Spain coalition) should show some resistance towards Europe for their stance on Iraq. However, bickering over GSM vs CDMA gets us nowhere.
Even though GSM is a "European" standard, it is becoming much more pervasive throughout the civilized world. (Even Albania has GSM access!)
As we all know, boycotting products/services always ends up hurting the little people. To boycott a protocol that is loosely associated with a union of countries is an asinine method of forcing a country's will upon others.
$DEITY bless $NATION
In the outback (or deseret) CDMA is much better than GSM. GSM does not work over as long of distance. CDMA can work over long distances. CDMA signal strenth is supreme to that of GSM over long distances. With CDMA phones i think the wave length is much longer and there for travells better. It also works better in vallys and in mounternous regions. CDMA phones can also access more than one tower at a single time to boost there signal. I have heard someone say that the CDMA tower can also alter its signal strenght to certain phones if they are far away. (heard this don't flame me if I am mistaken) In a post war Iraq it would be a much better investment to go with CDMA.
"You win again Gravity!" -Futurama (Zapp)
Have there ever been a post on Slashdot that say anything negative of the US that hasn't set you off into another raving rant in less than five minutes after it was posted?
;-)
I'm not perfect. I've probably let one or two slip through.
I write in my journal
"Asia and Latin America have gotten a blitz of CDMA technology courtesy QUALCOMM, but neither country has established a de facto standard."
Anyone else wondering how many soverign nations have amalgamated while we were distracted by the invasion of Iraq?
Spending our money? I haven't seen the appropriations for "fixing" Iraq yet (judging by the pitiful quantities being spent on Afghanistan I won't hold my breath), and as I recall we are taking control of their fields to pay for rebuilding. It would seem to me that if we are spending their oil to rebuild it should be in the interest of those living on top of it.
Spending it in OUR interests basically says that the left was totally right about our intentions.
God, what a perfect representation of what is important to the bush administration. I thought Slashdot may actually avoid this type of propaganda called "reporting."
Women and children are being killed. Our friends, neighbors, brothers and sisters are killing them/being killed, and what is the US media reporting? What do we hear about?
Who makes the bucks from war.
Never mind that has already taken a heavy toll on any US legitimacy (the founding principles of the nation itself are threatened to be as illegitimate as its current "president"). Never mind that it's at a cost of billions in tax dollars (that our children, and their children will be paying for). Never mind that it will cost thousands of lives before it is finished (and possibly hundreds of thousands of lives as the ranks of Al Qaeda grow). Never mind that it's barely even begun!
Have you no decency? If you want to report on Iraq, report on something legitimate. Report on what's happening rather than the propaganda puff-pieces.
Report on the 28 year old plumber who drowned after being ordered to cross a canal in full battle dress. Or the 20 year old lifeguard who drowned trying to save him.
Report on the seven year old girl lying in a pool of her own blood, her intestines laying beside her.
Report on the fact that the people of Iraq don't want to be "liberated." And that our friends and families will be the ones to pay the highest price of all because of the dreadful mismanagement and miscalculation of the bush administration.
Fuck rebuilding. Fuck Saddam. There's an unjust war being wrought upon the innocent civilians of Iraq, as well as the innocent soldiers of the United States. This is not their war, this is the war of a few greedy people who don't even legitimately hold the positions they currently abuse.
The bush administration has shown time and again that it has no care for legitimacy, or truth. From the moment the first Florida recount started, they have shown that they care only for protecting their own interests. They have never had the interests of the US in mind. They have never cared about those men and women who are suffering and dying right now.
With a smug smile they say, "We will liberate you from your God, your money, and your dignity."
Notes From Under *nix: blas.phemo.us
... Senator Strom Thurmond is backing a motion to ensure post-war Iraq is properly converted to US measurements.
Softening from his earlier hard line of pressing both the US and Iraq adopt to British measurements, the Senator is quoted as saying that there is "no way in hell we're gonna let the French get anything out of Iraq, and the metric system is as French as Napolean's testicles."
Thurmond's supporters went on to point out that nearly all of the countries unwilling to attack Iraq have adopted the metric system, and the 'coalition of the willing' have not. A senior aide said, "The brits use miles and gallons like us 'mericans. Coincidence they are with us in the war? I think not. Even though the miles and gallons they use are different than ours, I think I made my point."
An unnamed staffer summed the plan up this way: "It's gonna get reeeal hot in Baghdad this summer. Mostly because the thermometers will be in Fahrenheit instead of that pinko metric crap. I mean jeez, 45 degrees is nothing in 'American'. We'll set the bastards straight."
Anybody want a peanut?
Yhis way America will not only became victorious from this war, but also renovated at the hardware level.
If the French hadn't helpt out your puny revolution, US would still be a British colony.
Dude, that was two hundred years ago. Get over it. Besides, it's obvious that the colonists would have won their war of revolution anyway, sooner or later.
A nation of misfits, rejected from the civilized countries now trying to rule the world.
With the highest immigration rates of any country, past or present. Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to get really rich and live lives of unimagined luxury.
But never mind, your society is going straight to hell anyway.
Compared to what? The cultural pinnacle that is Gaul?
I could add a few more, but that ends the lesson for today.
Oh, no, please! More! The more you say, the better I feel about being an American!
Really. It's the same question. How about winning that little war thingy first?
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
"If we weren't thinking about what's best for Iraq, we wouldn't be bothering to plan for a postwar reconstruction at all. We'd just pack out our troops and leave the country in ruins."
Not quite. Rebuilding Iraq instead of leaving it in ruins, IS in the best interest of the US (think about it), which also happens to be in theirs as well. Besides WE made a mess of the place, we're obligated to clean it up. Anything less is irresponsable.
France gets GSM royalties. Boycott France and buy a CDMA phone.
And there we were thinking that much of the tension between US and the rest of the world stemmed from their not saying "how high", when US said jump.
America: We're going to war.
France: No, no, you must not! We forbid it!
America: We're at war. And by the way, we've renamed all our foods that were formerly named after your country.
France: We will oppose this illegal act of aggression by acting snooty and pretending that we're still relevant.
America: That's fine. If you need us, we'll be laying siege to Baghdad.
France: Quelle domage!
Good to see America isolating itself at every opportunity.
However, your view of infrastructure is twaddle. This isn't "Field of Dreams" - just because you build it, doesn't mean shit. That's the idea of infrastructure - a foundation supporting the functioning of society. Wait, I have an idea - let's pave all the roads in Afghanistan and make them 8-lane highways! Yeah - those Afghani citizens would love to have good roads to tool around on in their BMWs and Maseratis. Let's build powerstations all over the country so they can use all those wonderful consumer products they're so keen on. Dammit - it's been almost a year and a half! Why haven't we done this already?
As to the pros and cons of empire, read this. Perhaps it'll inspire some deeper thought on the whole topic.
Oh, piss off and stop whining. Modding down other's opinions is a form of democracy. Majority rules and all that. (Cue Monty Python - "Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!")Seriously.
Consult with the Britts and the Aussies. The three of us can decide what benefits us most and we go from there.
No consideration need be made for Europe.
A McDonalds on every corner and beef at every dinner plate. That is my postwar plan for Iraq.
"The coalition forces are not purposely targetting civilians, however, as war is ugly, collateral deaths are inevitable. I truly believe the coalition forces are doing everything possible to avoid killing civilians. "
That's not exactly right. We are using massive airpower and large bombs and cruise missles knowing full well that a few of them will stray and kill civilians. To us that's an acceptable risk because the alternative would be to send in ground troops and fight house to house.
We would rather risk their civilians lives then our soldiers lives and that's a cold hard fact. The lives of our soldiers are worth much more then the lives Iraqis.
Also of course most of the iraqi soldiers are draftees who are soldiers because the alternative is death. TO me they are pretty much civilians.
War is necrophilia.
I haven't seen the appropriations for "fixing" Iraq yet
It's called a supplemental: $74.9 billion, and it went to Congress yesterday. While most of that is for the war effort itself, something on the order of $6 billion is for humanitarian aid and reconstruction.
judging by the pitiful quantities being spent on Afghanistan I won't hold my breath
Nearly a billion dollars is "pitiful quantities?"
and as I recall we are taking control of their fields to pay for rebuilding.
You recall incorrectly. No such plan has even been floated, must less approved. There's been talk of paying for the reconstruction out of unguaranteed loans against future Iraqi oil revenues, but that's just in the idea stages right now. At present, the plan is for the reconstruction to come out of the American taxpayer's pocket.
I write in my journal
Not sure I agree with that. I did a trip from Adelaide to Brisbane with both a GSM phone and a CDMA phone. There was only 1 occasion that the CDMA had signal and the GSM didn't. Most of the time the GSM phone had signal and the CDMA *didn't*.
Dude, that was two hundred years ago.
Vietnam: "Help! Help! the commies are shooting at us! Run away!"
Somalia: "Help! Help! The niggers are shooting at us! Run away!"
Korea: "Help Help! The commies might shoot at us! Run away!"
Also, Motororal and Nortel do manufacture GSM
equipment....
Given that the US is quickly becoming a pathetic imitation of the old USSR -- run by an illegitimately "elected" elite, secret agencies reviewing library and other records of individual behavior for acceptability to the government, imprisonment of citizens without trial, secret charges, etc -- you should hardly be surprised that only the very brave or stupid are willing to paint a target on themselves by providing their names. The anonymous forums on the Internet are increasingly the only places ordinary people can speak without fear of reprisal -- local papers require excessively invasive personal information for letters to the editorial pages, assuming they will print it at all. It is disgusting that US companies will be taking advantage of this illegal war to force arguably inferior technology on another country that it does not want and is less useful than what they would chose otherwise. But as the new US motto seems to be Profits Uber Alles, it figures.
The correct website is http://www.iraqbodycount.net or http://www.iraqbodycount.org. When I was linked from iraqbodycount.com to the current count page, I was greeted with a notice (probably checking referrer tags) that said "WARNING: You may have been sent to this page by iraqbodycount.com, a website that is illegally masquerading as the Iraq Body Count Project for commercial gain. To visit the true Iraq Body Count site, please Follow this link to iraqbodycount.org (and .net). (And then close this window and the one that sent you here!)" .net and .org versions do not suffer this same problem.
Their claim appears to be supported by fact: iraqbodycount.com brings up two pop-up windows on visit (which my hosts file blocks: both are from media.popuptraffic.com); and all of the "news" links are on www.interestalert.com, a web site which hosts free (and questionably reliable/plagiarized "news"--most of it copyright United Press International) and has banner ads. Nasty.
The
We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
have we decided what toilet paper they should use?
before we concern ourselves with cell phones, shouldn't we decide whether they will get starbucks or caribou?
"Have you ever read the USA-PATRIOT act? Be honest, now. Have you ever read it, or have you just read a couple of op-eds about it and formed an opinion based on them?"
4 19 8,00.html
As a matter of fact, I've had a good look at the patriot act. Couldn't make heads nor tails of it. But I trust the Electonic Frontier Foundation's analysis of it.
"For what? We don't try people for war crimes just because we don't like them, you know. (Well, the people who wrote the Rome Treaty would disagree with this statement, but that's neither here nor there.)"
For violating international law. Nothing in UN resolution 1441 specifies that a massive attack and invasion is authorized. Speaking of reading things. Why don't you read the UN charter? Now that's something I am able to understand. US is a member of the United Nations. When the world said NO to war, Bush should have listened. Now he's going to take the fall like Blair. For getting the US into Vietnam II, hell yes Bush will be fessed up for a Hague trial. And if you weren't suckled onto the teet of mainstream news outlets, you'd realize the world is overwhelmingly against this war. Even Britain's people. I'm not joking when I say they're thinking about trying Blair like a war criminal. Here's the link:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,463
Heh, we haven't even won the war yet... and our boys are risking their lives over there. So what do you think that the American political elite should be doing? That is right, they need to spend their energy and our money deciding which cell phone standard should Iraq get!
Here is a radical thought: Since we are pretending that we care sooo much about the poor opressed Iraqui people, and we're are about to "liberate" them. Why don't we let them choose? Of course this war is not about oil, is not about economic kickbacks, it is not about anything but the interest of the Iraqui people... right? So there you go, now Iraquis can employ their new found freedom and democracy, and they can start by debating and deciding what cell phone standard they want to implement, to replace their old cell phone infraestructure graciously destroyed by the Americans...
Oh, and just a little advice: Before planning the reconstruction of a country after a war. You must make first sure that you have won the war. I am pretty sure that the Iraquis are thrilled to be "liberated" by us, afterall they are literally "dying" to get on the bandwagon of prosperous
This is rediculous. This issue is similar to the fact that Iraqi oil contracts already have been delegated to Halliburton corp; vice president Dick Cheney was CEO before assuming his current position. Why can't we allow the Iraqi's to decide their own future? I mean, it is their country, isn't it? If they prefer CDMA or GSM, it's their choice.
There already is a GSM network in Iraq - KurdTel. CDMA would be utterly insane; GSM is the world standard; in use on every contient and nearly every country. CDMA is only in a handful of countries, and you cannot travel with a CDMA phone.
This puts the whole CDMA vs. GSM thing in perspective. I think Osama's just got the material for his next hundred recruiting videos...
I'm no experts on cell phone technology, so I go by what I've read. It is entirely possible I've missunderstood something along the way. With that disclaimer out of the way...
GSM is a simplier system and is probably cheaper to implement the infrustructer. It's also the standard used in that part of the world.
CDMA is a more advanced system, the infrustructer is more complex, thus more expensive. The new features popping up in cell phones require the CDMA system (or massive changes to GSM??).
Tough call, I'd say. Personally, I prefer investing for the long term, but there's a lot to be said for local standards (globally speaking).
Would a dual standard infrustructure be too expensive to implement?
Who pays for it? If the Iraqi's pay for it (and they should), then let them decide. Hell, they're sitting on 300 trillion dollars worth of oil, so they can afford it. They SHOULD pay for it. However, if American taxpayer's are going to pay for it, then it better be a CDMA system so we can get some of our investment back.
And before anyone jumps on me, I don't care if we don't make a dime from Iraq. Getting rid of that butcher Saddam and his evil offspring is simply the right thing to do.
Next stop, Zimbabwe. Let's get rid of that evil fuck Mugabe.
-- Will program for bandwidth
The largest fraction of that money goes to salaries and corporate profits. So, in effect, the money turns right around and gets spent on US companies and US workers. And that means that it is really just a gigantic subsidy of US industry and US workers. There is nothing wrong with that, Europe subsidizes as well, but let's not kid ourselves about what it means.
Money that we could spend on ourselves,
No, we couldn't. The US government is perpetually unwilling to increase spending substantially on domestic issues, like health care or education. If anybody had proposed adding $100bn for such programs, they would have been booed out of Congress as a "tax-and-spend" politician.
but that we're spending on Iraq instead for no other reason than because it's the right thing to do.
It may or may not be "a" right thing to do, but it is without a doubt one of the least useful things to spend $100bn on. With $100bn, the we could have saved millions of people overseas. Instead, we are bombing some third rate, irrelevant country back into the stone age.
This has nothing to do with "helping" anybody, it's simply a convenient gimmick for domestic political purposes: it feeds on US paranoia and xenophobia, it lets Bush funnel money to corporate donors, and it lets Bush distract folks from his abysmal record.
The name WE give to potatoes? HA!
Ahem.
Potato == Pomme de terre == Apple of the earth
French Fries == Pommes frites == Fried Apples?
I admire your courage to post with so many spelling and grammar errors. My hat is off to you, sir!
Iraq = Vietnam II. The problem with the arrogant ignorant twits running our US is that GW and Rummy didn't go to Vietnam. If they had, they wouldn't be so friggin confident and we wouldn't be fighting this bloody war. Well they can enjoy their Stalingrad and hope they can escape the country before the blood thirsty mob comes after them.
Personally, I'd rather see them go through a Hague trial.
What's best for Iraq? or What's best for Bush's friends?
USA is not the only ones "paying" for this and yet there are no open tenders, even within the USA economy, stuff is going directly to the republican cronies of GW Bush.
Eg Cheney's company Halliburton has the oil well capping project already, nobody else got a look in.
Surely if the USA people are paying for this (which I dispute that they are the only contributors), then shouldn't they be getting the best value for money available - which usually means some form of tender process, even if evaluation is fast tracked. This stuff shouldn't be automatically awarded to Bush's mates.
So what the hell happened to the "best interests of Afghanistan" after they were "liberated"?
USA global domination manifesto These people want to stop anyone anywhere from acting against their interest. So the only interests allowed will be their own. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Presently the rest of us who are not "against the USA" will be paying tribute taxes just to be left alone.
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
There comes a time to recognize that our war is morally superior to France's desire for no war. There is no reason to allow the regime of Saddam Hussein to exist. None.
That the bulk of the Europeans prefer to deal with Saddam is the biggest justification for excluding their business interests.
(Call me a troll or flamebaiter all you want. I don't care for responses--I'm just disgusted at those siding against the US/UK)
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
The truth is that CDMA itself is not patented by Qualcomm. Yes, it was originally developed by the military. Qualcomm simply patents the way it is used by cell phones. The idea is that there's a right way and wrong way to use CDMA. The wrong way is to not have it be efficient and have it waste lots of power on the device. The right way is a patented process that Qualcomm owns.
Here's a much better explanation of the whole thing. Great reading if you're interested in cdma, gsm, wcdma, cdma2000, evdo, gprs, etc.
Also, there are more posts floating around on this article saying that the Qualcomm is evil because it's monopolistic. That is complete BS. If there is to be any finger pointing to be done it should be directed towards Europe and their protectionist laws. Several countries in Europe made laws years back that made cell technologies except for GSM illegal to operate. Wow, I wonder why. Qualcomm is from the U.S., and the other GSM companies were from Europe. Did the U.S. do the same thing? Obviously not. Hence the [healthy] competition between CDMA and GSM carriers. The link I gave above explains a lot of this.
It's called a supplemental: $74.9 billion, and it went to Congress yesterday.
WHich is funny, because you'd think they'd plan these things ahead of time.
If it wasn't for the immense international pressure, and protests here at home, Bush would probably spend some paltry sum in the hundreds of millions to rebuild Iraq.
Thank god for the political pressure. Keep it up folks!
According to this article Britain realises that the best people to be running Umm Qasr are, oddly enough, the people who have been running the port up till now.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Yes, nearly 1B is pitiful, thats about 1/10th what Israel is getting this year (give or take, I don't have the numbers with me), and we didn't even promise to rebuild them. We spend nearly 1B a day on defense. Warlords are running most of Afghanistan from what I have been reading, and it still costs the US about 1.5B a month to occupy Afghanistan.
You are refering to the bill that congress had to remind the president failed to even include money promised to Afghanistan? I recall that budget submission yes. I don't expect to see much of that make it to rebuilding Iraq judging by our record with Afghanistan so far. Bush has been intentionally vague about post-war Iraq, just like we were about Afghanistan.
It has been floated:here
here
I'm heading to bed, so further google searching isn't in my plan for the evening, but I'm sure there are many on capitol hill calling for it. I do recall rumsfeld saying something along the lines of Iraqi oil paying for rebuilding as well. If anyone else has some links for this please feel free to share. Bush though hasn't said anything about it, in fact he has avoided the subject of post-war Iraq as much as possible.
uh, well, if the US want to control everything, everywhere as a boss of the world, I think that we, people outside US, should be able to vote for the next US President/Administration. Else, in no way they should be considered as the boss of the world.
Congratulations, you're a Fuckin' Moron(tm). Here's a quarter; go buy yourself an argument.
I don't agree fully with the actions of my government (as an American) but that doesn't mean I resort to making silly, baseless accusations.
Yes, the congressman here is a self-serving loon. Yes, he's an example of what's wrong with America. But does that give you a right to puke up a stream of senseless, hateful gibberish? I think no.
If you're not going to contribute anything useful, then just keep to yourself.
Only on slashdot can a posting be rated "Score -1, Insightful".
Now I can get a phone that will work both in the States AND in Iraq! I just can't wait!
No thanks, I'll just stick to my world-wide GSM phone.
Kevin
"It's not the cough that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you off in" O. Nash
Obviously you are not getting what he says and you mod him down to 1. Repeta after me: THE MONEY FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF IRAQ WILL COME FROM THE SALE OF IRAQI OIL.
i cs/nation/stor y/6259612p-7213718c.html
Now, since you may want documentation, here is the first relevant item google came up with:
"And Pentagon officials revealed Tuesday that they expect to use Iraq's oil income and frozen assets to pay Iraqi soldiers and government workers to rebuild the nation and establish a democratic government."
http://www.sacbee.com/content/polit
You may be for or against war, but at least be pro truth!
Wow!
Good Job. Sounds like you're a white rapper with some street knowledge.
So I'm a little confused. Is this what you mean by tolerance?
Let's replace the destroyed water pumps with Coca-Cola machines at every street corner. Why not give a push for American companies rather than resort to this old-style water thing. For the service of most diverse Iraqians we would add a few Pepsi machines here and there.
-- Imperial units must die --
Not talking about "abstract" justice, or international legallity, which are after all "subjective" concepts, it seems reasonable for a given country to grab as many resources as it can to assure survival and power about other countries.
Huh! After all natural selection operates at country level too!
So, if this Iraq war thing were an intelligent move by George W. Bush to further empower his country, I'm sure a lot of other countries would be looking at the USA with envy about not having been able to so themselves first.
But, please, American people, don't piss off the rest of the world's intelligence. This whole war is about money for American companies. Stop telling us that this war has the idealistic goal of freeing Iraqi people and giving away a full new free country for them.
Unless... of course...
You actually think that the former claim is true, which, IMHO, would tell us mostly about intelligence in only one country.
Yes, that's the voice of Darrell Issa, who made his money in car alarms before running for office. as if you didn't already think he was evil.
sulli
RTFJ.
Honestly read about laboratory seizures in the first gulf war, the british and french troops were amazed to find lots of american hardware in laboratories. Remember before the Iran-Iraq war Saddam's Baath party was seen as a somewhat socialist organization with ties to Castro and the Soviet Union. This in mind the US still became a big supported,riddle me this VX gas, how did he get it. Remember this agent is one we traded the atomic bomb for with the UK in 1952. So yes the US and GB were working together funding Saddam and supplying him with weapons. The US did not want to give up valuable weapons but rather those slated for destruction under new treaties banning chemical weapons. Why did he attack Kuwait, simple he thought his allies the americans would not care and after messing the country up during the Iran-Iraq War he needed Kuwaiti money.
Saddam is god damn benevolent compared to other installed American dictators. Not to defend this asshole but Bush dropped the ball, I understand problems with this situation. But they should have met first and discussed this like leaders. Bush handled this situation like teasing a smaller classmate. Nothing like saying the guy has to be gone, he is small and weak, and wonder why he is defiant. Really Saddam is a simple man it is clear how he thinks. At one time he did great things for Iraq but that time has past and he has become greedy for power. We should have played the game his natural life maybe has 10yrs left seeing as he is 70. After his death the country is prime for rebellion.
Yanks worried about the mobile phone system.
In other news: Iraqis get the shite bombed out of them.
Hello! - what part of "I've got other things to worry about" don't you understand?
The fact that the heart is removed from the patient so efficiently and so clinically is the thing that really makes me wonder WTF the world is coming to.
The ruthlessly efficient way that this cultural terrorism is executed makes me shudder.
Like the average iraqi has effing money for a effing mobile phone?
The phone system is not for the iraqis. It's for the people that invaded their land!
Read my lips. V-e-r-y W-r-o-n-g.
But I trust the Electonic Frontier Foundation's analysis of it.
;-)
;-)
You shouldn't. Their analysis got several points seriously wrong. Don't depend on their interpretation; educate yourself more thoroughly before forming an opinion.
Nothing in UN resolution 1441 specifies that a massive attack and invasion is authorized.
Resolution 678 authorized "all necessary means" to enforce relevant UN resolutions (which includes the subsequent ones such as 1441) and restore peace and security to the area. This war is many things, but a violation of international law is not one of them. Why? Because the people who make these decisions are not idiots. They know how to read and interpret the various applicable treaties and resolutions, too.
Why don't you read the UN charter?
Oh, believe me. I have.
When the world said NO to war, Bush should have listened.
The world did not say no to war. The world was never asked, because neither the endorsement nor the permission of the world was required.
Now he's going to take the fall like Blair.
Seeing as how the latest polls show Mr. Blair's support skyrocketing since last week, I certainly hope President Bush takes the fall in just that same way.
And if you weren't suckled onto the teet of mainstream news outlets, you'd realize the world is overwhelmingly against this war. Even Britain's people.
Fortunately the world is not a democracy.
I'm not joking when I say they're thinking about trying Blair like a war criminal. Here's the link:
I hope you'll understand if I don't rely on an op-ed in the Guardian for insightful political commentary. That's right up there with going to RJR for hard science on the health consequences of smoking.
I write in my journal
I own a GSM phone I love the service, I think sound quality is better but CDMA is a better system than TDMA. The beauty of GSM is not the transmission protocol but rather the packaging that makes up the GSM standard. As someon with some education in signals processing, it is apparent that CDMA phone technology is more efficiant than TDMA in spectrum usage, 3 times more over. Why install GSM when it is obsolete, if you are building from the ground up might as well use superior stuff. I suggest CDMA but not CDMA2000, rather WCDMA the next generation European standard not encumbered by expensives licenses and even more efficiant yet. Unfortunately because the US controls this will not be choosen as there is a patent dispute with Qualcomm. Why do sprint and Verizon offer cell service that is more expensive per minute than T-Mobile, it is simple even though the network per cell handles more data the cost of each cell due to a greedy Qualcomm is very high. Almost every country uses GSM but it will change with in 10 years.
Will the US force Iraq to switch to the imperial system? Because, ya know, the metric system was invented by the French.
Batlock...
Shocking. Invade a country and then try to sell them mobiles :O :D Blimey.
I suppose the moral high ground would be to back a system that benefits the Coalitition nations least.
A blog I run for the wealth
"The congressman claims European GSM cell phones do not have integrated GPS"
t mh tm
;-)
These do:
http://www.benefon.fi/products/track/index.h
and
http://www.benefon.fi/products/esc/index.
And the manufacturer not from France
One of the big perks of empire is extracting wealth from subjugated states. For those of you who thought that your history classes were useless, this is why the US broke away from the British empire. In those days wealth was extracted by taxation but in modern times we do it a new way. Iraq has oil, and after the oil comes out of the ground it is going to be spent on projects that benefit America. Yes, some part of the value will end up in Iraq, but the real bucks will come here. And make no mistake, these bucks will almost exclusively go to the economic and political cronies of Bush. It is no shock to me that Cheney's old company Halliburton was granted the first contract in a non-competitive process.
Also, the boundaries of empire don't stop at the border. If you are not a member of the ruling elite you are going to get the same deal that people in the colonies get. You had better be grateful for the crumbs you get, or you will end up sleeping in a cardboard box. Or in jail. Or dead. If this continues, we are at the end of democratic America and are at the start of imperial America. If you have any doubts, just look at the last presidential election. Just remember, if the Patriot-II act passes the attorney general strip you of your citizenship and as a non citizen you have no right to ANY legal recourse. They ship you to a place like Camp X-ray in Cuba and you fall off the face of the earth. I just hope you are as scarred as I am, because maybe you will start thinking for yourself, and stop accepting the predigested crap that passes for news.
... people are dying in Iraq. Soldiers and Civilians. The latter die of hunger, precision bombs lack of water, stray bullets and other such things.
So here comes a US senator whose only concern is what mobile phone system one should install when it's all over. Quite frankly, this is so cynical. Not only against the iraq people but also against US soldiers. As a soldier, I'd really like to get the message: 'Go soldier, risk your life, so we can open up some market for mobile phones.'
If some European politician made any such proposal or in fact any attempt to "secure a market" at this point in time he'd be thrown out of office.
That is what makes people turn away from the US. The lack of tactfullness. Double standards (Yes, we respect the Geneva Convention - whenever it is useful to us). Turning one or two blind eyes (Who gave Saddam weapons of mass destruction when he was the bulwark against Iran?). The will to break international law whenever it serves the purpose.
The rest of the world may be afraid of the US. But there is no respect.
"Terrorism is the war of the poor and war is the terrorism of the rich. I can't see any difference between them."
Sir Peter Ustinov, UNICEF
DI Robert Lichtenberger effad@gmx.at
All this talk about electronical gadgets... millions of people in Iraq suffer every damn day because there is no water or too less water or only dirty water and not enough food.
And the US of A can only talk about cellphones. I don't know but then you really are out of touch with reality. Give the iraqi people food and water and let them rebuild basic infrastructure first. This will cost a few years. After that the debates about the unnecessary gadgets can begin.
Never underestimate the relief of true separation of Religion and State.
CDMA-the-signaling-scheme rocks, yes. In fact, it rocks so hard that *all* 3G systems use it in one form or another.
;) [I'll readily agree that the consumer gets screwed in the current US situation. A lot could be remedied simply by making phones legally transferrable; as it is, if I buy your old Cingular phone and you buy my Sprint one, we both face hell in trying to get them reactivated.] ...But getting back on track, a *different* aspect of regulation is that, in the US, we've mandated that the cellular providers must strive to provide GPS-accurate location info from callers requesting emergency services (and hopefully, not under other circumstances, barring a warrant at least). The first Google hit referencing the system. In practical terms, this means that pretty much every CDMA-network phone being built has the GPS chipset integrated (being destined mostly for the American market, with some penetration in Korea and Japan, IIRC), but a lot of GSM phones are being built for a market without the requirement. (Yes, GSM phones/hardware sold in the US are required to meet the same standard; at this point, it's a question of 'but if it's easy for the Evil Baddies to order a bunch of locator-free phones from France, we're back to triangulation...')*
That includes 3G GSM systems- which result in royalty payments to Qualcomm- and China's new standard, which attempts to avoid paying same.
Confused? "GSM" is a standard for creating cellphone networks (think the top layers of the OSI stack). Old GSM networks used a link-layer/physical-layer scheme called TDMA, which kinda sucks compared to CDMA, in the sense that CDMA can cram many more bits into the same volume of aether. (Whether you use those bits for more voice calls- dig up oldschool GSM's max-callers-per-cell sometime, and you'll see it's ludicrously small for urban areas- or for high speed data is up to you.)
Now, Qualcomm, being the original CDMA pimps, have their own proprietary network standards, which, when implemented, generally leave out the features people do like about GSM- "features" being SIM cards, a useful aspect of telecoms regulation in Europe. They call these standards things like "CDMA2000" and "CDMA1X," hence the confusion.
So, I just ask that everyone realize how many independent variables exist:
0. Spectrum allocation - How many 'slots' will be reserved for competing telecom providers, if any?
1. Modulation (physical/link-layer techniques) - as noted, these mostly boil down to flavors of CDMA, if current-model hardware is used. An old TDMA network could probably be built entirely out of cheap surplus hardware, of course.
2. Network standard - How your cells coordinate with eachother; how your phones authenticate to your cells; etc etc etc. Basically, "stuff that goes in software." This is where the "CDMA vs. GSM" debate lies... but then we have:
3. Regulation/deregulation - GSM was raised in an environment regulating competition, meaning that a lot of thought has been given to allowing a choice of provider. In America, we never mandated a physical/link-layer standard, thus allowing Omnipoint to show up with GSM, Sprint with CDMA, and Verizon with their tri?-mode analog/TDMA/CDMA? network. As such, it's now technologically "impossible" (read: difficult; you'd need tri-mode multiband phones, *and* a shared billing/authentication standard) to allow the European ease of provider-switching, but we do get the benefit of being able to argue CDMA vs. GSM while holding A's Sprint phone up against B's Cingular.
So, those are the issues at hand, and they're mostly independent of eachother- you could mandate GPS-enabled GSM, you could build a 3G network on TDMA links (but that'd be an exercise in futility), you could demand Qualcomm add SIM-card equivalents to allow consumer choice among providers (who would, then, all still be Qualcomm customers, of course) if Qualcomm tech was decl
Hey, don't beat yourself up. Europeaens are equally a bunch of morons, they just do a better job of hiding it, or in some cases, label it culture.
-oO In the beginning there was nothing...which exploded 0o-
Tell me, were you born retarded, or did your mother beat you hard enough to cause brain damage?
Less than one tenth the amount of money devoted to fighting the war in the first place. If it takes $85 billion to reduce a county to shambles in 30 days, what do you think the real price tag for reconstruction will be?
So long, and thanks for all the Phish
...much of the equipment used to build the cell phone system would be manufactured in France, Germany, and elsewhere in western and northern Europe
The biggest manufacturers are Nokia (from Finland) and Ericsson (from Sweden), both of which employ loads of people in the UK (remember us, we're your "allies").
Strikes me that what the US is doing is extreamly dangerous for World Trade, especially between the them and Europe, which, contrary to popular belief, includes the UK, the only country left that seems to believe that what the US is doing in Iraq isn't purely selfish trade protectionism. Sadly this kind of propoganda just undermines the UK's position.
Furthermore, given that the US and UK invaded a sovereign country, they should foot the bill for the reconstruction, but (here's the kicker) they should be forced to use Iraqi contractors! Why should contractors in the foreign invaders' economy get to benefit?
Ultimately, this looks like it's going to be another "liberated on our terms" deal where the only people who really benefit are first world countries...
It should be obvious by now that all this talk of 'post-war' is crap. America is going to loose the war.
Because this is Vietnam II. Just like Vietnam when the USA went in the majority of the iraqi people probably supported the USA, and just like Vietnam the number of people 'fighting for iraq' increases every day as the USA bombs civilians.
It may have been 30 years ago, but little has really changed. In Vietnam the USA had overwhelming technological superiority. Tanks, Helicopter gunships, fighters, weapons. They lost because the Vietcong were more determined and resourceful and fighting for their own country.
In Iraq the USA also has overwhelming military superiority, but so what - like Vietnam it's just more of the same ineffectual weaponry.
As the USA throws troops in the Iraqi resistance will grow in sophistication and size. The USA will be forced to 'control' areas by street fighting and heavy police tactics. Arabs across the middle east will join the fighers and the americans will be forced to impose more severe restrictions on civilians, hence just adding to the number of fighters. Most likely at some point a 'fundemantalist' iraqi liberation movement will arise too, and Iran and Syria will play the roles of Laos and Cambodia.
And in 10 years time the Americans will realize that France was right. Iraq could have been contained by an agressive inspection regime. Eventually it would have collapsed from within just like Serbia and the Soviets. Instead intervention will have by that time costs 1,000s of american soldier's lives, created a fundementalist iraq that will last for a generation, and radicalized the whole of the arab youth into a perpetual state of war with the USA.
Using a standard that's different from what all the surrounding countries use is just silly. It'll annoy people when they make the 2 hour trek to a neighbouring country to visit a friend and their phone doesn't work there. Also, I'm sure some of the Iraqis that will be living there will still have mobile phones that use their current standard. Why force them all to buy new phones? That's not being very friendly.
Follow me
Lets wait for US to win the war, then decide about the other stuff!
I think, for a "Green Field" install, CDMA is an automatic winner over GSM (and the Chinese agree).
1: CDMA is a superior technology for a number of reasons:
(a) It makes better use of spectrum = more bandwidth
(b) It takes less power = longer battery life
(c) It doesn't totally screw with hearing aids or anything else that picks up its dumb-ass pulses. After the pounding Iraq is taking, not messing with hearing aids will probably be a big issue. Nothing like a MOAB within a few clicks of you to make Mettalica seem GOOD for your hearing!
2: Since we are the ones who will be rebuilding Iraq, we should get to decide what we donate.
3: fsck the French (or En Francais: Allez vous faire foutre chez les Grecs, bande de Laches, faineants!), so we should choose a technology that they DON'T make, so they NEVER get a DIME from the country.
BTW: Issa is a Lebanese American. I've actually sat next to him on a plane. Bright guy. EE who started a car alarm company, which is how he got the $ to run for congress. Apparently he thought the perspective of people who actually understood the value of the freedom in this country and worked to build a company was needed in DC. Go figure!
God, you're an idiot. Really. You're so utterly retarded that I find it difficult to comprehend how you manage to stay alive, and am forced to conclude that it is because those around you refrain from euthanizing you in the belief that you will suffer more as you are.
simply disgusting... anybody remember vietnam and the bodycounts back then?
I cannot believe that someone actually thought about this. First you're going to attack a country without the support of any international union, only with a loosely-knit "coalition of the willing". Only to immediately start contemplating about which mobile communication technology you're going to implement that will benefit US companies the most. And likely choose the worst technology, and have it paid for by the UN, since Bush is obviously not asking for any budget to build up Iraq after he bombed it back to the stone age. I am so disgusted by the debauched Bush administration.
The only thing I can say is that I find this very distasteful lobbying on the part of Qualcomm. It is disappointing to see that a Qualcomm is attempting to use the current conflict in Iraq for its own end. This is not a time to have a sort of VHS vs. Betamax discussion. The reconstruction of Iraq must be for the betterment of its people. We should not allow opportunistic behaviour to besmirch efforts in Iraq. Moreover, why tie oneself to a decision now? Surely the operators who win the right to construct and run the new networks should determine the optimal technology. The proposed Qualcomm line appears to be directly opposed to the US Government's line in 1999 on 3G in Europe. Citing WTO obligations, they were successful in arguing that Europe should not mandate W-CDMA but permit any IMT-2000 standard. Qualcomm seems to want the US to mandate a particular 2G standard in Iraq.
1. Invade a country without a real reason
2. Destroy EVERYTHING and 'liberate' the 'savages'
3. Let only US companies be involved in reconstruction
4. PROFIT!
Way to go, US!
A friend at "3" (the first 3G network to roll out in UK) showed me a working 3G phone, it was made by NEC and on the back in small print "Qualcomm CDMA"
Extremely neat phone system by the way, 384kb/s mobile data via USB port *drool*
"Don't belong. Never join. Think for yourself. Peace." V.Stone, Microsoft Corporation
restore peace and security to the area
Restore peace and security? By starting a war that all other nations in the area bar one condemn? How is that restoring peace and security? You have an amazing interpretation of U.N resolutions, it seems.
The world was never asked
Then what the hell were Bush and Blair doing at the U.N trying to get a second resolution? Handing out AOL CD's? Good God.
Seeing as how the latest polls show Mr. Blair's support skyrocketing
Care to point out these polls? I havn't seen any.
Fortunately the world is not a democracy.
Oh but it is, and thats what the U.N is supposed to achieve. If Bush and Blair want to ignore the U.N when it suits them though, we don't have democracy. When they claim the war is to bring Democracy to the Iraqi people, they're hypocrites of the worst kind.
an op-ed in the Guardian for insightful political commentary
Why don't you actually read it? "Tam Dalyell is Labour MP for Linlithgow and Father of the House of Commons. A longer version of this article appears in Red Pepper magazine." I don't know about you, but a Member of Parliment is pretty well placed to talk about politics. Better placed than you or I, thats for damn certain.
Don't you love half-truths when you see 'em? GSM is not only the most widely used standard "in surrounding countries", it's the most widely used standard, period.
GSM: 330 million world wide users
CDMA: 67 million world wide users
But, it seems more important to purchase national patriotic technology than good technology. (That must be why Americans still use Windows. After all, Linux originates in Europe and must so be inferior, by definition. ;)
Let's buy steel from US companies, even if it's more expensive because they neglected to modernize their factories (in Europe, just about everything was rebuilt after WW2 - and the debts for foreign help, also from the US, have long since been paid. It was a very painful process, but it paid off). And because foreign steel is now cheaper and better, phone George to introduce some nice import taxes.
Forget that the white "paint" which is used for most national buildings (eg. white house) is made in Germany. Forget that most of the cars that run the US are produced in Germany or by German companies. (BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, anyone?). Forget that under the hood of most cars made in the US you see European labels like Bosch, Siemens, Philips, etc.
While you're at it, ban not only french fries, french toast, and french kissing, but also french red wine (which might be considered a merciful fate for the wine, considering that Americans mix it with Coke!). And all that just for the fact that - understandably - most of Europe has a problem with war, for any reason whatsoever. It's even in the German constitution: Germany is not allowed to participate in non-defensive warfare. The constitution which was written by the US after WW2.
I'm waiting for the USA to ban Hamburgers, which originate from Hamburg (the 'ham' story is a myth!), Franfurters, Schnitzel, Mortadella, etc.
I remember a quote from a demonstrant in the US: "If we had invested the money now spent in war in proper education soon enough, the war wouldn't even have started."
Right.
Home Page
Wouldn't another option be to ask the postwar Iraqi regime what system they want? I mean, this war is about giving the Iraqis real freedom, not replacing one dictatorship with another, right?
Virtually serving coffee
But really, what does Iraq use now? Do they really have no mobile network in place. If that is the case, W-CDMA seems to be the way networks are moving in Europe and Asia.
I would also like to say that everyone on the North American continent are stupid because someone from USA wrote something I don't agree with. Thank you.
I vote GSM. On a worldwide scale, it's more prevailant and that means there's more hardware floating about that could be donated to Iraq. I'm sure millions of people must have a spare GSM phone/charger lying around that they wouldn't mind being shipped to Iraq (or similar causes). I expect US/UK will probably set up an organisation to run some kind of phones-for-oil relationship with Iraq (that's a good thing BTW).
Nick...
... country in the entire region with an incompatible system. If you ever want to attract any business (besides .US ones), you'll need to have a compatible communicationsystem. Someone doing business in the region will have 2 options: buy 2 phones and 2 contracts, or skip Bagdad....
It should be noted that Motorola also are in the GSM business. However forgetting the modulation (CDMA is better), the GSM system of caller-pays and roaming is much more effective. GSM Phase 3 is CDMA type modulation anyway.
See my journal, I write things there
Open http://www.gsmcoverage.co.uk/coverage.html and click on Iraq
Core points:
1. There already is a limited GSM network in Iraq, KurdTel 900
2. The Iraqi government has ordered a GSM network to be installed, but UN sanctions have delayed it
3. gsmcoverage.co.uk has this article on the subject:
Plans to deploy a CDMA network in Iraq (28-Mar-03)
The California, USA, Congressman Darrell Issa has initiated a campaign to promote CDMA as the technology of choice for any future mobile phone network in Iraq. He has written to U.S. Agency for International Development demanding that the American CDMA system be used in preference to a system that he considers inherently European, and specifically French.
His letter harks back to the older, and long abandoned name for GSM - Groupe Speciale Mobile, presumably for its French language overtones, as opposed to Global System for Mobile Communications, its anglophile name today. He says that if "European" GSM technology is deployed in Iraq, much of the equipment used to build the cell phone system would be manufactured in France, Germany, and elsewhere in western and northern Europe. Furthermore, royalties paid on the technology would flow to French and European sources, not U.S. patent holders.
He seems to be under the impression therefore that Motorola has no interest in bidding for a GSM infrastructure contract - nor would Lucent, or Canada's Nortel Networks. This may well concern the shareholders of those companies who would be expecting them to bid for any available contracts.
He also says that CDMA phones incorporate GPS location technology, which may be a surprise to the vast majority of cell phone owners who will be hunting through their handset manuals looking for this function. His legitimate concern is that relief workers could be kidnapped or attacked, and a location aware handset would then enable them to be found. However, inserting GPS into a cell phone is nothing to do with whether it is GSM or CDMA - but down to the handset manufacturer simply implementing a location based solution. Also, GPS is not the only solution for locating a cell phone, network based solutions exist that can be deployed on both technology platforms. The fact that a GPS handset will be able to give its location anywhere in Iraq is pointless if the phone is out of cellular coverage though.
Of course, the greatest irony could be that a CDMA network is deployed - and Nokia wins the bulk of the handset sales contracts. Ironic, as Nokia, one of the "northern Europe" companies that Issa wants to block from working in Iraq makes CDMA handsets, but uses its own proprietary chipsets and doesn't pay royalties to Qualcomm.
It may be worth noting that Congressman Issa represents San Diego, hometown of Qualcomm who owns the CDMA technology used in cell phones. Also, in January, the US government's, National Communications System (NCS) awarded a priority connection contract, ensuring phone service would be unaffected by network congestion to T-Mobile, a GSM network.
I'm sorry if I haven't offended anyone
GSM is the better, more modern system. Its also the most widely accepted globally.
"XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, use more." - Anonymous Coward
I'm not in US. May I ask?
GSM, 3G are mobile phone standards. The CDMA services provide by US providers are proprietary standards. Is it true?
That is all true, but still we use VHS instead of
Betamax or Video2000, and we use Windows instead of Unix.
Morale: the better technology doesn't necessarily win. In fact, it often loses because the company rolling out the inferior technology somehow makes it good on better marketing or better cooperation with other companies and governments.
Does that include your hero Dubya's pal Blair?
As A Brit, I can inform you that Mr Blair has lost a lot of respect and credibility for following GWBs lead in this. Now that they are there, people support our armed forces and hope for a succesful and fast resolution to this conflict.
That said, there are a lot of people who think that the whole war is illegal. I'm sure someone else will correct me but doesn't it say in Areicle 2 of the UN charter something like "all other possibilities must be exhausted before turning to armed action" to do these things?Your president and his friends may have no time for the UN. That is his problem. We do.
As for the sub-intelligent insults of the French, I don't know their real reasons for them trying to delay war. Whyever they were doing it, they were trying to delay an illegal war. That is beyond reproach! Anyone who criticises them for saying that weapons inspectors should be given more time is either a warmonger themselve or has not considered the matter properly.
Back to the real topic...
There are basically 2 mobile phone systems in the world. One is in use in Korea and North America. The other is used on earth. It is not limited to France. It is used in the UK and the rest of Europe. Apparently, it is in use in a number of developing countries. As has been said, GSM is quite popular in the surrounding countries.
So this idiots plan is that:-
1. You bomb **** out of the Iraqis
2. You send in your construction companies to start repairing years worth of damage.
3. You send in your Oil companies to 'run' their oil
4. You send in your civilian aministrators rather than legitimate UN ones.
5. You give them an inferior phone system that stops them communicating with their neighbours
Ok those may not all be his immediate idea but that seems to be the plan...
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
Isn't this the Mafia MO?
Bust up a business, then take a share in it during the rebuilding.
I'm distrubed by the comments that the US is somehow entitled to make these kind of deals. It is a conflict of interest. When the United States seeks to profit from the conflict, it invites doubt in the motivation that has presented to date - that being disarmament and regime change.
If you belive these are truely the primary goals of the United States, then you cannot condone this kind of deal being made by the government.
No, I did not read the f***ing article!
This once again shows how rude the US behaves in the World. Bombing a country into stone age to push the local economy.
There is more threat to other countries from the US than from Iraq. The US have more deadly weapons, refuse to destroy them and fight more wars (and kill more people) than Iraq.
"Freeing the Iraqi people" - How naive can a nation be.
Flo
Don't you know already who will be the winners in this war? Certainly not the "freed" Iraqis. It's Haliburton, Qualcomm, and other US corporations.
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
GSM may be an an abbreviation for French words, but GSM is a global standard originally designed by a group of European companies and organisations. Loads of countries were involved, not just France.
This argument that French products shouldn't be used is racist. I know Americans like their country, but this is racism and xenephobia on a huge scale. Shame on you all.
Finally, who gave the USA permission to build this stuff? Privatising the services in Iraq doesn't benefit them, and definately isn't democracy - it's THEFT. The services and infrastructure belongs to Iraq and after they have a democratic elected government the choice of how to run public services belongs to them.
Please note that I am not against Americans in any way, but your government really pisses me off.
A latent existence
That is so weird. I never post anonymously, and I've never been persecuted by my government for it. I must be an agent.... BEWARE ALL!
It is odd that while the US Administration insists they went to Iraq to restore Democracy and so on, Democracy seems less and less present in the US -- and the vicious cycle of lobbies/contributions/political kickbacks spreads its arms everywhere. Few examples -- MS continuing to its monopolistic unfair predatory practices with US Gov complacence; the lobby-led protectionist practices (the USA was condemn this week by the World Trade Org for its steel trade protectionist measures), the patent system that really threats to hostage all human knowledge and science. It's really scarring.
Oh, and this alarmist "Look at what's happening!" yelp that I hear so often is getting really old. You haven't seen anything that is actually new. The "Profits Uber Alles" is not a new US motto. To be honest, I have a hard time finding a point of view on this topic from ANY country that doesn't have likely subverted intentions. Frech, German, Soviet, Korean... all have noble and ignoble reasons to object. The U.S. also has noble and ignoble reasons to commit. I was with the age old paranoia movement up through, and including Palladium... but someone has to take a stand somewhere to remind people how it is.
That the US is invading Irak to steal oil and impose their economic dependency model.
"France: We will oppose this illegal act of aggression by acting snooty and pretending that we're still relevant."
I don't know what to say,this was the funniest shit I've heard in some time (I'm still laughing).
so much for the security clearance excuse
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this day forward, you will service us.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I say yes to this because, well, wait a minute, I say no to both technologies.
Iraqis, at the moment, don't exactly look like they really need cellphones. And that's coming from the rose colour glasses that would be IraqTV. They can't even get a signal over from their only international TV station here better than an EP VHS tape and we think they need CELL PHONES? Heck, their TV station only has ONE microphone for everything! Their music videos look like they came out of 1960! Yikes!
Holy screwed up priorities people! Maybe they would like... radios first? That's if they need gadgets. I think most Iraqis would rather, right now, have their homes rebuilt after the US bombs the hell out of them. You know, rebuilt with running water, and toilets inside! Wow!
CDMA vs. GSM vs. Surviving in Iraq. What's your choice?
Because I'm sure the first thing on the Iraqis mind, when they're liberated, is exactly how they're going to rebuild their cell phone network. It'd be the first thing on my mind too!
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
If the French hadn't helpt out your puny revolution, US would still be a British colony.
Dude, that was two hundred years ago. Get over it.
The liberation of Old Europe was two generations ago and we *are* currently getting over it thanks to the current US administration.
He saw some dirty arabs and fired. Too bad it was just some friendly kurds, BBC reporters and his fellow cowboys.
okay... it's boring but let me repeat it:
This war is all about money. blood for oil. US breaks laws and invades Iraq, kills civilians, kills a dictator previously supported for decades, destabilize near east, makes money from Iraq's oil resources, decides Iraq's future alone...
somewhere I lost the meaning of this "bombing for democracy" reason.
You never used GSM phone, right?
"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, and Germany doesn't want to go to war."
Resolution 678 authorized "all necessary means" to enforce relevant UN resolutions (which includes the subsequent ones such as 1441) and restore peace and security to the area.
Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity.Randy Newman - Political Science. *=_.*
From the album "Sail Away"
=_.*=_.*=_.*=_.*=_.*=_.*=_.*=_.*=_.*=_.*=_
No one likes us
I don't know why.
We may not be perfect
But heaven knows we try.
But all around even our old friends put us down.
Let's drop the big one and see what happens.
We give them money
But are they grateful?
No they're spiteful
And they're hateful.
They don't respect us so let's surprise them;
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them.
Now Asia's crowded
And Europe's too old.
Africa's far too hot,
And Canada's too cold.
And South America stole our name.
Let's drop the big one; there'll be no one left to blame us.
Bridge:
We'll save Australia;
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo.
We'll build an all-American amusement park there;
They've got surfing, too.
Well, boom goes London,
And boom Paris.
More room for you
And more room for me.
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town.
Oh, how peaceful it'll be;
We'll set everybody free;
You'll have Japanese kimonos, baby,
There'll be Italian shoes for me.
They all hate us anyhow,
So let's drop the big one now.
Let's drop the big one now.
Personally I wasn't sure of the difference between CDMA and GSM, in the UK and the entire EU I think GSM is the de facto standard and always has been.
I found this to be of interest, you may too
Snippet:
When Reliance India Mobile released its first ads, the deal looked like a steal. STD at 40 paise a minute, free handset, just Rs 500 a month, et al. Now that other mobile services companies are into price-cutting themselves, it's time for a rethink.
If you are among those who still cannot decide whether to go in for Reliance's Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)-based 'limited mobility' phones or the 'full-fledged' cellular phone services provided by GSM (Global System for Mobile) operators, welcome to the club.
Which one is cheaper, which one better? While a number of issues still need clarity from the regulatory angle, let us take a close look at what Reliance is offering compared to a GSM phone.
First, the service: one of the limitations of a WLL (limited mobility) phone is that the user cannot go beyond a short distance charging area (SDCA) - which is roughly a radius of 25 km.
While Reliance has attempted to overcome the problem by offering multiple registrations, this still is not the equivalent of the roaming services offered by cellular operators.
For instance, if a subscriber in Delhi travels frequently to Mumbai, Reliance will register the subscriber in both the cities at an additional cost of Rs 20 to Rs 30.
So when the subscriber is in Mumbai, all calls landing on the user's Delhi phone number will be forwarded to a pre-allocated number in Mumbai. The user does not have to change the handset or put in a new SIM card for availing this facility.
However, when the user is in transit between the two cities, the phone does not work, unlike a GSM phone which offers roaming anywhere in the world.
Reliance is also offering text messaging services to cash in on the popularity of SMS. However, for the moment, any text message sent by a Reliance phone user can only be received by another Reliance user as GSM operators do not recognise this as a legal service. Even Tata Teleservices, another WLL operator, is awaiting clarity on this issue.
When it comes to data services, there is not much difference between GSM cellular operators and Reliance in terms of offerings.
Subscribers on either network will be able to send and receive e-mail, surf the Net, watch video clippings, send multimedia messages, and download games and ringtones.
The difference here is that while Reliance offers these services to all its subscribers, cellular operators offer such services only to those subscribers who have taken a General Packet Radio System (GPRS) connection - which requires a GPRS-enabled handset. The difference is also in the way the services are priced.
Full article available here.
This sig has been deprecated.
You shouldn't. Their analysis got several points seriously wrong. Wrong. Their analysis sums upp the patriot act very good. But since you don't agree, can you please point out which points their analysis got wrong, according to you.
Ceterum censeo Microsoftem esse delendam
Your phone wasn't ringing because no one was calling you. Don't you know you have to switch to verizon, and you'll get girls coming to your house in the rain crying, or if not that, at least chicks who are cute even though they can't put one foot in front of the other? *DON'T TRIP* *OH* btw, I"ve had a cdma phone for more than 2 years, and I'll never ever go back to cingular, they were, and according to my friend who has them, still are, total crap. I won't even get started on T-mobile.
What should also be looked at is the incredible world-wide coverage given by GSM. I think it it would be very short-sighted to be using CDMA when there is already a well established global standard. When rebuilding any country you should be helping the inhabitants, NOT the paying ransom money to the country that 'liberated', the country in question.
It is true that GSM was put together by European cell phone companies, but they did not want to repeat the mistake of the old incompatible analogue systems.
Most CDMA phones manufactured these days are in fact feature reduced GSM phones, and old models. While Qualcomm seems to insist on sticking to CDMA. Most cell phone manufacturers put their effort into the GSM range, which has a world-wide market: Motorola, Handspring, Alcatel, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Sagem, Sendo, Siemens, NEC and Sony Ericsson.
If Qualcomm finds it too expensive to switch to GSM, then it should fork out the cost for building the wireless system in Iraq, NOT the US tax payer. Since in the long run in a GLOBAL market GSM provides a level playing field for everyone to make better products upon. Infrastructure is best without fragmentation, so that the real competition can exist above it!
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Funny how things don't change.
They don't HAVE a cell-phone infrastructure. You can return your right hand to your lap now. Geeze...
Blar.
What about other standards... NTSC vs. PAL,
110 volts vs. 220 volts, etc.
And while weren't at it might as well impose
the same stuff on Afganistan.
Oh and lets replace the language with English too.
(Hey the Brits did that in Hong Kong and India)
Personally, I don't give a rats ass either way, it's fucking phones for Christ's sake. I say build whatever would be best for the Iraqi people, screw everything else, because it's the right thing to do. But assholes from both sides of the pond will lobby for what they personally want.
Furthermore, unilateral my ass! America + Great Britain + 40 other countries != unilateral. I could go on and criticize you Europeans as a whole, but I won't stoop down to your level.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
My phone is old and cheap and works on all GSM networks (900-1800-1900). Try again.
Oh and ALL phones currently on sale in Europe work on both 900 Mhz and 1800 Mhz. This is only a problem if you go to the US, but who would want to go there, with all that terror they get?
...to bomb the beejezzus out of Iraq, by God, American companies, especially those closely connected to the administration and other politicians, should benefit from the rebuilding contracts.
It's the patriotic thing to do. I suggest we rename cellular phones to freedom phones. But only Qualcomm ones.
You are joking, right ?
Hurray for the down-to-earth British Tommie!
Or more appropriately, a variant of CDMA that no one has been able to build a handset for that had good battery life/didn't overheat. (Look at what happened to DoCoMo's name in Japan after they rolled out UMTS...)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
BAGDAD. - (source El Mundo newspaper, Spain 03/28/2003)
When the weeping of its children became unbearable, Fahd Alawi did not find another solution that to provide a little of Valium to them. After an intense night of bombings, most violent from the beginning of war the past 20 of March, the inhabitants of Bagdad waited the first lights of the dawn to be able to close the eyes and to forget the distressing hours last under the fire storm.
For the first time after several nights, the missiles and the pumps of the Anglo-American coalition have struck objectives in the same heart of Bagdad, among them three communications centers located in the two main arteries of the capital. The presidential complex to borders of Tigris also has been attacked.
"Nobody has been able to sleep", explained Fahd Alawi, a manufacturer of furniture of 38 years. On the tired face and great bags under the eyes, told that it was forced to give Valium to his children so that they were possible to be slept and who they let cry ".
"a pump fell on a car in our street, and began to burn. It was not more than the principle ", explains.
During all the night the explosions have shaken the city while the sky was illuminated with the brightness of the detonations.
The airplanes of the coalition have used pumps of great penetration that have made shake until the most solid buildings.
A nightmare
"For the children has been a terrible nightmare", assures Louaï Husein, of 42 years, proprietor of a cosmetic store in a district of the south of Bagdad, absolutely desert this morning.
The family of Louaï Husein took refuge in a room of her house of two plants, stay that constructed recently to serve as shelter, as it forced the Government during the war between Iran and Iraq from 1980 to 1988.
"it was convinced that the house was going away to collapse on my head", explains. "we have not been able to close the eyes. One by one went vanishing us by the fatigue to the dawn ".
There is no room which resists to the pumps
Doctor Ali Hacen, that lives near one on the affected points of communication, the center of Al-Ulwiyya, was prepared for any eventuality. Before the beginning of the war, it armored a room of its house with plates and plastic to protect itself of a possible chemical attack. Nevertheless, it has served as little. "My house totally is destroyed", explained with the cheeks ignited and eaten by the beard. "It was like an earthquake".
The doctor has been able to confirm that the pharmacies are giving every time in greater amounts ansiolitics drugs to desperate parents before the impossibility to obtain that their children fall asleep. Nevertheless, it seems that these measures are not sufficient to tranquilize the children, nor either to the parents.
"My small Zina is six years old and piss in the bed has become", explained Jassem Ahmad, a storekeeper. "It has been crying all the night. And it did not stop to repeat 'I want to kill América, I want to kill América', as if America was a person ".
And now, continue discussing on CDMA vs. GSM.
Sorry for my (and Google Translator) bad english, and sleep well (if you can...)
When I want to know more about the war i go to www.cnn.com and watch their 3D models. So, please stop these bullshit war reports. They're no news for nerds.. and they don't matter since nerds don't care about war.
/. and celebrating the life of a nerd.
Really, I dont care about this war. Such things happen because they're direct or in-direct necessary for keeping the money unharmed. And money allowes me to browser
Almost everything in the statement was incorrect. Those posts which aren't pro-war jingoism tend to miss this.
I could point to all the errors individually - GSM is the world standard; America is the only significant nation to use CDMA; GSM works in America and is the fastest-growing standard there; it isn't French; lots of American companies make and sell GSM kit; and so on and so on.
But it's been done already, by noted industry commentator Guy Kewney. Go read and learn. He has responded in an open letter directly to congressman Issa.
Liam P. ~ "Intelligence is a lethal mutation." (me)
There's an implicit belief behind most of the anti-American, anti-war comments here that only pure motives are good - that if you have more than one motivation for an action, and some of those motivations are of economic benefit to you, then the entire action is tainted.
... and each year after that he had stayed in power. He has worked to acquire vicious weapons in the past, and has the wealth to buy nukes from elsewhere (impoverished North Korea, for example). If he were to plant a few of those nukes in US cities, then set off one as an example while, say, invading Saudi Arabia, would we be willing to sacrifice more cities to stop him? Or do you think he's too nice a guy to enter into such a scenario?
But consider what's at play here: 9/11 demonstrated that American cities are vulnerable to catastrophic attack by terrorists. At that point it was prudent to ask what nations are in the position of being (1) run by sociopaths with a record of mass killings which (2) have or can afford to acquire catastrophic weapons and (3) are in ideological or religious proximity to those with demonstrated terrorist abilities. The whole claim of the Bush administration is that it is legitimate self-defense to remove such threats to our cities.
Saddam is a sociopath who has killed many hundreds of thousands. It is extremely unlikely this war will kill more Iraqis than Saddam's own forces would have killed this year anyway
Given the overwhelming historical logic that requires that we act against him now - not in a couple of years after he's got things set up to his best advantage - is there something evil about our being concerned that in return for the vast cost of this action to us in lives and treasure that we receive some small economic opportunities afterwards? If the US finances a new phone system after the war, should we do it to French specs? This level of "purity" would be absurd, IMHO.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
Just wondering.
How about getting yourselfs (US/UK) out of this mess first??? And then maybe let the Iraqi people decide what they want... Americans get killed, they call it terrorism Americans kill, they call it 'colateral damage' Go figure...
By the way....have you heard....that bomb that went off in a civilian section of Bagdad was not ours! Also, the Iraqi militia is firing on the same civilians they are supposed to defend. The Iraqi's are the only people that I see targetting their own people! Collateral Damage is going to happen. Not might happen....GOING to happen. It's unfortunate that is does happen. This whole thing could have been solved before a single bomb was dropped if Saddam and his regime would have left the country.
Gorkman
First time I've ever used a swear word on Slashdot and I apologise for it in advance.
Here goes-
Fuck you. The US is not my boss, I live in a western liberal democracy and I choose my own government - not some fat tosser in middle America who wants to go to war so that he can drive his barge sized (and crap) American SUV for a dollar a gallon, feel good about getting revenge on those damn muslim terrorists and wants to kick off the second coming of Christ.
As for benevolent, this is the same country who responded to my country's support after 9/11 and in Afghanistan by imposing steel tariffs.
And we could follow france's lead on foreign relations - start selling weapons to Iraq and invite a butcher like Mugabe to our country. You know, the Mugabe who is banned by the EU but France still had him visit. I'm sure they don't sell him any weapons. Brilliant!!!
Maybe not. Maybe you're a typical hypocritical pussy who didn't say jack shit about those events, and who never gave a damn about the tens of thousands of Iraqis that Saddam kills every year (that number per Amnesty international).
Fuck you and your international court - the UN didn't do shit when 200,000 died in Rwanda, they didn't do shit as France, Germany, China and Russia have illegally traded with Iraq in violation of your precious UN resolutions. And they didn't do shit when Saddam gassed the Kurds, and neither did we. We sat on our ass like European pussies and let him use chemical weapons because it was in our interest. We were wrong to do that, but that doesn't mean that since we did something wrong in the past we now have no right to fix it.
You know why the US doesn't bother with the ICC? Because of pussy shit like that. I notice you don't seem to care about 100 other dictators killing and starving people around the world. But damn the US, they are the terrorists.
) The whole "democracy for everyone!" idea is bunk. What makes you think that a system of government that works well for a rich, industrialized nation will work equally well for a decentralized nomad country (Afghanistan) and a very conservative religious society (Iran).
It worked fine for the US in the late eighteenth century, when it was an agrarian economy. It worked fine in post war Japan which had a ruined economy. Take postwar Germany or Korea today; these are as close to laboratory experiments on the relative effectiveness of democracy and authoritarianism in promoting progress as you'll ever get. The problem isn't that democracy doesn't work in backward countries -- it's that authoritarianism keeps countries backwards.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out why. In any system other than democracy the only criteria for success is the vanity and personal power of some ruler or clique. Provided that you keep the people in enough fear so that they would rather endure in sullen silence than risk speaking out, the consequences to an authoritarian regime its failure to promote social progress are nil. Only complete social collapse, or arrogance so severe it evokes suicidal anger can touch them.
Take Iran as a test case. The current government was put into place by a revolution of the people. That's the government they chose. If given the option, right now, they'd choose it again. Is it "right" to remake their country in our own image?
OK let's take Iran as an example. They are arguably the most democratic regime in the entire region. They have elected executive and legislative branches. The problem is that they don't have a judiciary that is ultimately selected by them and which is commited to enforcing laws created by the people. So, the people are electing reformers, but the courts are busy putting them away on trumped up charges. It's become a regular public ritual. It sounds to me like their problem is constitutional not sociological.
The idea that some societies somehow intrinsically can't handle democracy is pseudo-intellectual claptrap, like the racial hygeine theories of the nineteenth century eugenicists.
Democracy can succeed in the Middle East, and in the long term our interests are aligned with it.
Democracies don't go to war unless they genuinely feel threatened -- because the people have no way of shielding themselves from the costs of war the way the elites do. However, once in war, democracies field the most motivated and formidable armies. This is an ideal recipe for stability, and political and military stability would lead to stable energy supplies.
Right now, we are one palace coup away from economic disaster (Saudi Arabia).
Unfortunately we are not starting from square one. If the countries of the middle east were all suddenly democratic, there is little doubt we'd be cut off from much of our energy supplies due to the reservoir of resentment we've built up. It was short term thinking during the geopolitical struggles of the cold war that lead us to where we are today, working towards the maintenance of a situation that is against our long term interests. It is the short term thinking today in our need to maintain stable short term energy supplies that keeps us maintaining a system which threatens stability in the long term.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Give them the newest and greatest!
Code division multiple access (CDMA) theoretically can handle about 20 simultaneous calls on the same frequency channel. GSM because it's time division multiple access (TDMA) based (and not to be confused with the TDMA standard), can handle about 8. CDMA is better because it utilizes spectrum space more efficiently than GSM. The two major competing 3G standards are both based on CDMA rather than TDMA.
Want to know why US is at war now?
Two words: Wolfowitz Doctrine
Interestingly, that topic has been discussed more in non-US media. Our beloved CNN, Fox, and MSNBC seem intent to entertain us more than educate us.
This war is not just about oil or "liberating" the Iraqi people. This war is about maintaining the US's political, economic and military dominance in the world.
If we are succesful, the conflict won't end. There is a group who would see the US taking a first strike policy to keep our dominance, whether the rest of the world agrees or not.
--
hecubas
Hecubas
Is there a site where we can look for expat positions in Iraq? The tech job here in US is so bad that I would consider flying to Iraq and work on the reconstruction. Are these jobs opportunities already popping up on the web?
Do you have ANY idea what you're talking about? "cingular" and "T-Mobile"???
Go educate yourself about CDMA, then about GSM, UMTS and then post.
Can you not respond to any points with anything except "The US is the world's boss"?
And Americans wonder why even most Europeans are becomming anti-American. If America were to tell me what to do my first response would be to give them the finger, as would most people. If, like Rumsfeld has, their government tells mine what to do then I would expect my government to give them the finger as Chirac has done.
Dude, this is something one individual congressman is doing. He is not running the US, so his actions say nothing about US war motives.
I live in America and I switched to GSM about a year ago -- and I'm never going back to anything else! Why do we insist on forcing our incompatible, lame standards on everyone else? Can you say the Imperial system of measurement? Farenheit? CDMA? The list goes on and on.....
Choose the standard that sucks the least. Go with GSM! Fuck Qualcomm. The decision should be up to the Iraqi people.... not the US Gov't.
Yeah, then they can throw away the metric system and start using american weights and measures while they're at it....
It is important that this is clarfied, especially over 40% of American sheeple think that the WTC attack hijackers were Iraqi!
CDMA is not inferior, it is just not as widely adopted. In my cell phone experience I have had less trouble with DCMA than with GSM. I can actually talk on the subway with my Motorola CDMA phone when my roommate's GSM phone cannot get any reception. This is of course just annecdotal(sp?) evidence. I did see the dear colleague letter yesterday (Im interning in a congressman's office; I know I won't become a Clintern because my congressman is ethical), and the letter was rather convincing.
Viral software licensing is not freedom, it is in fact GNU/Socialism.
In the UK (GSM, Vodafone, Nokia 3310)...
In the US (CDMA, Sprint, Kyocera 2345 by Qualcomm)...
What I'm trying to say is that although CDMA may be technically better than GSM, the way the networks in the US don't interoperate for SMS,MMS,etc means that those services will never take off in the way that they deserve to. SMS is HUGELY popular in the UK and Europe.
Of course I could just be pissed off that I can't have my servers SMS me when there's a problem on the network, but hey
--- Commission free trading & free stock up to $500 - use http://share.robinhood.com/kelvinp6
Here in the UK the metric system is widely used, the Imperial system as well, mainly to keep happy the oldies while they remaing active amongst us younger folk ;-).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I suspect, that after the War is over in Iraq, and the Iraqi people awaken from a long political sleep after being opressed by this dictatorship, they will not only choose a new government for themselves, but also new friends as well.
The last thing on a Iraqi persons mind right now is cell phones. Our troops are encountering thousands of people living in poverty for decades. I suspect all they want is food and water for thier families.
I think the chasm between France and the USA is not going to be repairable as long as Chirac is in power in France. Germany is probably fixable, but Russia as well as France actively supported this regime economically, and also under minded the final UN resolution for some sort of political resolution to this problem without war.
I think it would have been VERY probable, that if the UN security council was unaminous with a ultimatum, Sadaam probably would have either fled the country or complied immediately. Instead France would not hear of it, and threatened to veto such a move.
The whole situation is very sad, and the UN has lost its relevance to the American people to resolve/coordinate any sort of problem, except perhaps simple Humanitarian issues.
The anti France sentiment over here is unbelievable, at least in my state, even when I am playing games online. (People who don't fight immediately or Rush in Warcraft III are called "Frenchies" for example.)
I think when the military conflict is all over a serious reconsideration, both militarily, and economically is going to happen minimally over France's part in undermining UN support/fragmenting the security council and Russia's appearent selling of Missiles to the Iraqi guard troops that can (and have) taken out the American M1 Abrams tanks.
In my humble opinion, being against war, generally is a good idea. But, defending a war politically, AT ANY COST, such as what France, Germany and Russia has done is morally wrong, in this case.
The political impact this going to have throughout Europe is going to change not only the face of NATO, but may very well, bode unwell for France Germany or Russia if terrorists realize the US will not assist these countries if they come under a 911 type attack.
And for what?
A petty dictator that gases his own people, buildes enourmous palaces while his people eat dirt on the streets and have no political say in what happens in thier own lives.
I don't this it is worth the fracturing of NATO and trade which will be the fallout from this.
-Hack
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
and yes i am dyslexic. CDMA not DCMA
Viral software licensing is not freedom, it is in fact GNU/Socialism.
At least France and Russia have at least an equal economic interest in Iraq as the U.S. has in it's oil. Why do you think they stopped supporting the Weapons inspectors in '93?
France and Russia have dealt heavily with Iraq. Russia is owed billions from selling Iraq military equipment.
"National Interests"? I would think Iraq isn't a 'threat to their national interests' because France and Russia would like to get PAID for what they've sold. It's not often you sell equipment to a country, and have them turn around and use it against you.
The reason Fance and Russia are against the war, is they want to get their money out of the sale.
Now I'm not blaming them for selling to Iraq, but you seem to be pushing your point of view without including some very important pieces of information. People seem to ignore the fact that BOTH sides have a great economic interest in this war.
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
This is News for Nerds, and in spite of some disgusted people, it is stuff that matters.
/.!
We need to ask the kind of questions everybody is asking here to people like this politician.
Infuse the life back in
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
If you think that is crony capitalism, check out Donald Rumsfeld and Aspartime (Nutrasweet). He was CEO and chairman of G.D. Searle & Co during 1977 to 1985 to add some political pressure on the FDA to approve Nutrasweet after Searl got caught falsifying the data about a bunch of monkeys and rats dying.
e nutrasweet controversy (if you believe them):
h ttp://www.rense.com/general33/legal.htmr esidiotex.com/nutrapoison/
His Bio: http://www.defenselink.mil/bios/rumsfeld.html
Th
http://www.swankin-turner.com/hist.html
http://p
etc...just Google Donald Rumsfeld and Aspartime.
-- Making computers see, hear, and think... http://www.componica.com/
" But CDMA is a waste of fucking money in that region because ALL their neighbours use GSM. Eventually the GSM people (i.e. Vodaphone et al.) will move in and people will change to GSM anyway just so they can use their phones when away from their own country. Even in the States you can use a GSM phone. Whilst CDMA is a better, newer technology than GSM it's losing out to GSM in the world, and GSM has an upgrade path to next genereation stuff."
Who cares if the neighbors use GSM? 99% of the Iraqi population won't care because most of them won't ever need to use their phones in the country next door.
Iran? Fat chance, even after regime change there's too much bad blood between Iran and Iraq.
Turkey? Good luck getting through that border. Because of the situation with the Kurds, the Turkey/Iran border is going to be VERY tight.
Oh, GSM doesn't have a true upgrade path to 3G. UMTS requires new frequency bands, new handsets, and new antennas. CDMA2000 requires none of the above. (Well, you need a new handset if you want the additional 3G features, but a cdmaOne phone will happily talk to a CDMA2000 tower, it's just restricted to the old circuit-switched 14.4 data. An old GSM phone, on the other hand, CANNOT communicate with a UMTS tower.)
"So fine, install a hugely expensive CDMA network. The GSM people will move in anyway, people will buy GSM phones and your precious US network will go bust. That's the price for FORCING a choice on someone."
Oh, like Voicestream/T-Mobile? Or Cingular?
Yes, I'm sure the Iraqis will enjoy seeing their "Service Unavailable" messages. In every country where CDMA has been allowed to take on GSM in an open market, CDMA has won. The smallest CDMA provider in the US (Sprint) still has better coverage than Voicestream/T-Mobile or Cingular, the largest GSM providers in the US. AT&T may eventually become larger, but their GSM network can't compare in any way to their old TDMA network in coverage.
Or look at Japan. DoCoMo rolled out UMTS (3G GSM) while KDDI rolled out CDMA2000 1xEV-DO or EV-DV. Guess who has more subscribers for their 3G services? (Hint: Not DoCoMo).
If GSM is so much better than why can Verizon get away with charging so much more for their CDMA service? (Hint: You get what you pay for in terms of service quality.)
The only countries where GSM is dominant are ones where GSM was *forced on the customer by the government* - Exactly what you're arguing against.
If the Europeans want to build a GSM network in Iraq - Fine. Let them do so on their dime. But if it's on the USA's dime, it's going to be with the technology that won in the open market. GSM and CDMA can coexist in the same area, so I see no problem in the US installing CDMA and Europe installing GSM and seeing which one wins. If Europe wants to see GSM in Iraq - Pay up or shut up.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I know everybody loves to blame everything on the US, but this whole argument of "US sactions killing billions of innocent children" is just a steaming pile.
And, lest we try the "but the US forced the UN to do it" argument, let's not forget that the UN told the US 'no' about this war. So if America has such enormous influence in the UN, then why didn't they get what they wanted? Obviously the UN is capable of making it's own decisions, so these sactions imposed on Iraq can't simply be blamed on the US...every country in the United Nations is also resposible.
This is absoloutely sick! Who are these people in government who claim that we are not "occupying" Iraq, that we just want to "liberate" its people? This idea seems far from it, it seems that a lot of rich, sinful, criminal, white men, mostly Republican, have decided that what Iraq really needs is for the US to come in, set up shop and create a puppet government to provide as much economic benefit to US companies as possible.
How would you feel if you lived under a brutal dictatorship only to find out that a so-called liberating force has already made all the decisions relating to your new form of geovernment, the makeup of that governement, services provided, and the providers of those services.
Sorry Iraq, but really, it is much better that Haliburton run your oil wells because it is much better for us, but remember, you are "liberated" now.
Of course probably 75% of Iraqis will still probably live in poverty while some small percentage gets rich off of the oil that will be pillaged by Bush and his cronies.
What ever happened to freedom of choice and government? Should not the Iraqis decide what is best?
It's good to know that the Iraqi people will get to decide on what cellular system THEY want. They are not ALL blitherin fanatical idiots - some of them might have something to say about it..
;)
But it's always good to see the American Government looking out for Number #1 - The American Corporation.
Now, How do I get me a chunk of that 75 Billion !? I have some toilet seats we can sent to the Iraqi people at a decent price
Time travel is possible. We are quickly heading for 1984.
Just another way to get Iraqi oil profits into American hands...
There we go, thanks for the link, didn't have the patience or desire to look up the obvious last night. I wish people would remain more open to conflicting data, rather than turning into shills for their POV. We can best support our troops by making sure they aren't abused by misguided polititians and policy.
Here's the link w/o the space in it.The US gov't doesn't care at all about the Iraqi people, just money. First thing we need to change about the way things are going is cut the proposed 73 billion dollar funding to support the war and help surrounding nations back to 45 billion dollars, so that we don't help anyone else out but ourselves. Do you read the newspapers? Most of the funding goes to the troops fighting and for materials, but almost a 1/3 goes to help other nations. The funding for reconstruction in Iraq isn't even considered in that funding.
Second, if the US didn't care, then why are they planning rebuilding Iraq and why do they care about not hitting vital systems to the iraqi people?
Third the US obviously cares more about the Iraqi people than their own republican gaurd who uses their own citizens as sheilds and mines the ports that the US is trying to use to send in relief and supplies for the iraqi people
You are not the only one that has lived in latin america, and most of the people that I know in Panama were pretty happy to act independant and want to kick the US out of the canal zone until they realized their nation would be losing most of it's tourism and other industries major consumers with the absence of the military. They all admit that if the US had never come in they'd still be getting sick with malaria, have horrible highways, have a horrible water supply, and wouldn't be one of the most industrialized and modern countries in all of latin america.
The US might be in most of the endeavors for itself and might put it's own interests first, but don't even try to act like they don't care about the iraqi people. That's just about as insane as the iraqi representative to the UN saying that the US is trying to exterminate the people of Iraq.
If the US didn't care at all, I would imagine that they would bomb all of Iraq to utter destruction kill every citizen they saw and only secure the oil wells and create military compounds around them. That would be easiest, cheapest, and the greatest return on the investment.
The whole oil for money argument is bogus by the way. The bill for the war alone is heading way north of $100B for the parties involved. If every drop of oil went to defray the costs of the war (not to mention paying to rebuild the falling apart oil infrastructure first), it would take over two years to pay for the war. And, of course, the US and Britain are not going to divert the 100% of the oil fees for the next two years.
So if the US is going to provide free infrastructure for the Iraqi people, they should buy exactly whatever they want. If you want to bring in UN funds or your credit card then that would be a different story, but I don't see anyone mathcing the US and Britain's $150B free money for rebuilding.
Otherwise, please save this flame for yourself.
Hunger is the best sauce.
There is a terrible regime operating in the world.
they have a terrible regime which dosent honer the will of their people.
They have a long history of taking over other peoples land with force and violence.
they have a long running history of using biological and chemical warfare, they have used chemical warfare to remove aborigines from valuble land.
Their leaders enact policy based soley on making money for themselves and improving their lifestyle.
they do not allow free speach and freedom of expression.
they attack other contries and fund revolutions to appease corperations and help their own economy.
this terrible violent, brutal, and empiristic country must be stopped.
people of the world unite to overthow the criminal americans.
-rant
Back to GSM vs CDMA topic, it's way better to use NMT. Screw the weight, design and "harmful radiation" reasons, these exist only in over-fed western consumers, but NMT requires way less base stations. Yes, it can't handle as much subscribers as GSM/CDMA, but most of Iraq population won't be able to afford mobiles for a long time, and base station price is the main concern. Note that while GSM rules in Moscow, St. Petersbourg and other big cities (I use GSM motorola T260) NMT covers whole Russia and that's the main concern of anyone of importance if he wants to be connected everywhere.
Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.
That's funny...and here I was thinking that we pulled out of Vietnam because it was a political thing.
FYI, we didn't lose Vietnam because we couldn't win, we lost because we weren't allowed to win by the administration. Something to do with limited targets, Presidential approval of the vast majority of major targets, etc.
In other words, we weren't allow to win.
I thought that the reason for this came about because the US government was planning to use the GSM based system that is already in place and being used by the Iraqi Leaders.
The implication is that the US government will have any easier time listening in to Iraqi cell phone conversations if they continue to use GSM versus CDMA that the congressman is pushing.
Four more years of war is peace, ignorance is strength and slavery is freedom. Four more; may all your interventions be "humanitarian". Four more years of legalized bribery and served corporate interests. Four more years of pay-to-play politics, power and influence. So vote for tweedle-dum or tweedle-dee and a framework of debate narrowed for you courtesy of the ultra-rich and a media that filters out any voice that challenges their power. Like Nader bounced in Boston by State-Troopers because he don't speak for oil-tycoons and bankers, whose pursuit of happiness and liberty demands a rhetoric of fear to be the litmus-test for viable heirs to the phony drug-wars, the trumped-up rogue-states, the permanence of a war-economy.
I feel less hopeful and less human as I'm reduced to nothing more than cheering on embassy bombings as the liars pave their way through four more years..
Both standards have their merits. But I prefer to have standards that we ALL can use. GSM has limited coverage in the US, but I can take my PocketPC with me when I travel (read worldwide) and use it. All I have to do is tell the phone that I'm in Europe and viola. Now I'm not planning on taking a trip to Iraq anytime soon, but I've heard of plans to bring VoIP and Internet to Iraq for "free" speech. Why not also give them a wireless standard that will alow them to speak freely and surf the internet.
With the highest immigration rates of any country, past or present. Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to get really rich and live lives of unimagined luxury. . I guess you were born here, because only morons like who were born here can say such things. I agree that things were bad when many of the immigrants left their country. Yes, this land is the land of opportunity and you can have more freedom. But many people come here imagining a better life, only to come here and find out how miserable and alone you are, unless you adapt to this country and become one of you.
A whole new approach to getting market share in foreign countries: destroy the infrastructure (on the taxpayers dime)and then rebuild it, without any worries about competitive building or conflicts of interest. No complaints about congressional pork barrel politics, because they abdicated their responsibility and handed it over to the CEO of America. No dang disclosure to shareholders, hell Cheney and Rumsfeld don't even have to disclose their dirty little secrets from Nixon-Reagan days, because 30 years isn't long enough to figure out whats protected under "national security".
Don't know if this is in duplicate, but here's the full text of the GSMA's reply.
Nice read, I might add, especially the bit about an American company installing a GSM network in (US-bombed) Afghanistan.
More than mere navel gazing.
After the invasion, occupation, and "liberation" of Iraq the coalition has an ethical obligation to do what is in the best interests of the Iraqi people. In my opinion, I believe this would be handing the decisions about the handling of post-war reconstruction responsibilities, and humanitarian concerns over to the discretion and consensus of the UN, as this is clearly their mandate. I think there would be a better chance of impartiality in matters such as which mobile phone standard to utilize, which companies are contracted to assist in reconstruction, and which currency Iraq denominates its oil in (currently the Euro).
Stop blaming the ills of America on lobbyists.
CDMA is better for rural areas. Guess what? American is really rather freaking large, and *GASP* mostly open land (with quite a great deal of coverage, no less). GSM can be found in some areas - guess what? (At least the last time I looked) - GSM is usually found around the more urban centers. With good reason...it likely makes more sense there than in the middle of bumblefuck, Kansas.
It's not all about lobbyists, or some evil corporate conspriracy - it's about what is more practical for our application over here.
I don't know what Iraq is like on the inside in great enough detail to argue which standard would be better...but with that being said, I don't believe in adapting a technology just because everyone else is doing it. Most tech has it's merits.
Regardless of the technology they use, I think it will make it easier for the US to tap everyone there.
... that this Congressman is from San Diego, the home of Qualcomm. He is doing his job, fighting for his constituency, just like I'm sure the senators and represenatives from the home states and jurisdictions for Lucent and Motorola will be saying much the same things.
BTW: MOT and LU both make GSM equipment, so the argument that GSM = EU manufacturers is completely invalid. This congressman is just saying that because his constituent (Qualcomm) only makes CDMA stuff.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Iraq will be humanitarian nightmare, we all can agree on that. The Revolt in Basra was due to people wanting water. Now imagine this on a much grander scale. Say imagine this little country that 'pacification' was tried in...lets call it Somalia...great success there.
But worse yet is that thinking that the new government is going to truly be democratically elected is somewhat naive. The concept of the Kurds and the Iraqis staying at peace is about as realistic as an evening stroll on the Moon next week for either of us. Nobody in the middle east likes the Kurds, the Iranians, the Turks and the Iraqis regularly attack Kurds on their own territory.
So having already established that post war violence will exist, I'll leave you with saying that the US had already put in a friendly regime in '68 the same fellow they are trying to get rid of now, gave the Iraqis intelligence that was used in gas attacks in the '80s against the Kurds and Iran.
"Nimis exaltatus rex sedet in vertice - caveat ruinam!"
"Nimis exaltatus rex sedet in vertice - caveat ruinam!"
As Clausewitz said "war is politics by other means". Vietnam was won by the Vietcong because they forced the Anericans into a position whereby they couldn't win without taking politically unacceptable actions.
There's a good chance Saddam could, by skillful political and military manouvering, manipulate the situation to the same effect.
because they know best.
Maybe this issue sooo far into the future, it doesn't currently deserve attention. If the Iraqi people are truly lacking drinking water and food, I think, providing them with necessities should be a priority. Last time I checked cell phone was something you wanted. Food was something you needed to say use a cell phone among other things
Fact is the cheapest way of doing telcos is by having a govt monopoly & a single protocol.
Simply because the fixed costs make up such a huge proportion of the costs. Meaning dividing the market between competing carriers multiplies the costs by a huge amount.
http://a8.cpimg.com/image/E8/0F/17578728-2521-0131 00D3-.jpg
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/030 4.marshall.html
2 65 28748.html
s tm
5 -0 83116-7747r.htm
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/07/10468
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2852299.
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/2003022
etc, etc, etc
Some people might argue that it is his job to promote a local company.
In my opinion, this whole ordeal were supposed to be a liberation of Iraq. While it is very obvious to everybody who are not blinded by jingoism, that the US is in this "liberation" for economical gain, not many are ready to say that quite as openly as Issa.
Some might even consider it to be in poor taste to bring this up before there's even an end in sight to the conflict.
Anyway, the business of USA is business, and some lame europeans aren't going to stop that. I suggest y'all educate yourself a bit with the info from the nice guys over at Open Secrets.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
masses of innocent civilians dead who wouldn't otherwise be dead
"Take Iran as a test case. The current government was put into place by a revolution of the people. That's the government they chose."
I think saying "revolution by the people" discredits you completely. There was a revolution, but it was by the extremeists.
It would be like saying the copy-protected CDs were "introduced by the people of the US" because the RIAA happens to employ a few US Citizens. Clue - the RIAA is not a valid representative of the US people, and the extermeists in Iran are not valid representatives of those people either.
half these stories are made up by PR firms employed by Washington or Likudnik neo-con think tanks.
Such useless rethoric and really quite sad. I would say that the congressman is not the only one apparently. Cheers
As Clausewitz said "war is politics by other means".
I don't disagree with this completely, but, to be honest, sometimes war isn't political, at least for one side anyway. I think there's definatly a situation where it could be self defence and survival, not political.
Vietnam was won by the Vietcong because they forced the Anericans into a position whereby they couldn't win without taking politically unacceptable actions.
I see your point, but I still disagree. I don't belive the Vietcong "forced" anything like it. I think our leaders were simply morons who didn't really care and didn't listen to the military as to how to go about it. I think they were simply playing games.
And, though the US didn't "obtain" Vietnam, as in occupy it (that wasn't the goal anyway), there is a sense in which the US actually did win. Linebacker I and II forced N. Vietnam to the barganing table and that's what resulted in the ceasefire, and, I think the outcome was acceptable. The tide of agression was checked. And, really, when thinking about this, one needs to keep in mind that the fight really wasn't about N. and S. Vietnam, it was about the US and the USSR. Anyone who says that the US and USSR was a cold war is full of crap. It was a "hot" war, but for the USSR it was a war by proxy.
There's a good chance Saddam could, by skillful political and military manouvering, manipulate the situation to the same effect.
Militarily? Not really. His troops are really no match for the US/British toops. Yeah, the troops will take casulties, maybe more maybe less, but they'll still win. I think the fact of this is demonstrated by his use of forced human shields. He knows he can't win militarily, so he's trying a political, emotional ploy, namely try and make the US troops look bad for shooting civilians that are being forced to shoot at them, and thereby try and sway public opinion against this conflict. But, that's not a military strategy, it's a political one.
Could it work? Definatly, because the vast majority of people are way too shallow in thir thinking. They will see the effect of his actions, namely the shooting of civilians by the US military, and they will stop thinking at that point and turn against the US troops. The reality of the matter, however, is that the US troops wouldn't be taking that action if it wasn't for Saddam's forcing that hand. But too many people will stop thinking prior to reaching a more root cause, and that actually may work somewhat against the US. But I don't think it actually will change things, personally.
The other thought that comes to mind, with an initial thought toward a possible military manouver that might work, is if he can convence another country to get deeply involved. But, then, that's more of a politial manouver, not a military one. And, I think the US would end up taking them both out in the end.
fixed costs are huge in telcos
singler nation wide protocals save heaps too.
All this means economies of scale are king, meaning govt telco monopolies are the most efficient way to go.
Afterall that's how Nokia, Ericsson & Alcatel all started.
I can't speak for other areas, but the cellular companies in my area of the US are converting to GSM about as fast as their little feet and towers can carry them. In fact, I have a GSM (actually dual-standard) phone sitting in my pocket right now. So, it begs to ask -- someone wants to set up a phone system that's incompatible with both surrounding countries and eventually the US too? Did I just hear the words "reality check"?
Oh well then, I guess the American revolution was started by "extremeists" as well considering 20% percent of the colonists actively opposed independence, and probably an equal number were passively loyal, and a further 30% couldn't have cared less.
History link 1
History link 2
- CreationLTD
Does the USA hate the Iraqi people so much that they would inflict North America's pain (CDMA) on them?
:)
While Qualcomm hoarded patents (I don't even want to comment on the pathetic idiocy that is the current patent system) and forced this incompatible system (CDMA) upon us, Europe (and the rest of the world) moved forward with GSM.
Qualcomm has force-fed us CDMA crap for long enough. Say no to Qualcomm. Say yes to the worldwide standard GSM.
Earth to Qualcomm: You lost the standards race - GSM won over CDMA. (and you suck!)
Operation Iraqi Liberation, but that was a dead give-away....
So, not only do we have different frequencies, but we have different frequency ranges used by different companies, who often used different technologies.
Because of this, each mobile service provider has its own phone models. You cannot use the same phone to get service from Verizon and T-Mobile. If you switch service provider, you need to get a new phone.
That is a big part of why the US market is like that.
Oh, for crying out loud. I don't want to take the time to school you on this, so I'm just going to cherry-pick a few key points. You have the responsibility, as a thinking adult, to read the act for yourself and draw your own conclusions. If you don't want to read the act itself, you have the responsibility to read and compare the interpretations of many groups, not just left-wing lobbyists who have a clear agenda to push.
The first thing the EFF got wrong was their interpretation of the "expanded surveillance" stipulations. Yes, USA PATRIOT defines some new surveillance procedures. But these new procedures cannot be employed without getting a warrant from a federal judge, and that's no trivial task. The EFF misses this completely:
The government may now spy on web surfing of innocent Americans, including terms entered into search engines, by merely telling a judge anywhere in the U.S. that the spying could lead to information that is "relevant" to an ongoing criminal investigation.
This is incorrect. You can't get an electronic wiretap warrant by merely telling a judge anywhere in the US that such a warrant is needed. You have to convince a judge in the appropriate district that the warrant is needed. This is no different under USA PATRIOT than it was before.
The EFF also says, pertaining to roving taps:
The government need not make any showing to a court that the particular information or communication to be acquired is relevant to a criminal investigation.
That's simply untrue. The standard for relevance and appropriateness has not been modified. It's just as hard to get a warrant after USA PATRIOT than it was before; in fact, because the powers of the FBI have been expanded in some ways, it's even harder, because the judge must weigh the invasiveness of the surveillance against the benefits to be gained from it.
The EFF says First it allows ISPs to voluntarily hand over all "non-content" information to law enforcement with no need for any court order or subpoena. sec. 212.
Section 212 of the USA PATRIOT act is titled "Emergency disclosure of electronic communications to protect life and limb." To protect life and limb. The section amends title 18 of the US Code, which previously prohibited an ISP from revealing any information about its users, to add an exception: an ISP may voluntarily reveal information to the FBI if the provider reasonably believes that an emergency involving immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires disclosure of the information without delay. In other words, if an ISP thinks they have information pertaining to "immediate danger of death or serious physical injury," they can call the FBI. This is something every individual has the right, in fact the obligation under law, to do whenever the need arises. Extending the privilege to ISP's is not the bugaboo that the EFF seems to think it is.
The EFF goes on: They are 1) 802 definition of "domestic terrorism" (amending 18 USC 2331), which raises concerns about legitimate protest activity resulting in conviction on terrorism charges, especially if violence erupts.
The definition of "domestic terrorism" in the statute as amended by USA PATRIOT is: "the term 'domestic terrorism' means activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States." In other words, domestic terrorism is any serious crime-- acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of criminal law-- that is intended to scare people, influence the government by scaring people, or
I write in my journal
The surrounding countries use GSM because that's what europe sold them. If europe funded a reconstruction and built some cell towers you know they'd be GSM and that some european company would get paid to set the up and sell GSM components. If the US pays for reconstruction then of course you'll see a preference for american companies.
If you're wondering about the morality of making a profit off a "war victim". It probably isn't right, but it is normal in every war. Conflict creates [business] opportunity. Any country, no matter how self righteous it is bound to have some business minded individuals willing to make something good out of something bad for a profit.
ps- how did this site become an anti-american vs. anti-french / anti-german flame war? You honestly think anyone is just going to accept you bashing their country? You're ALL idiots.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Oh yeah and when we are done blowing everything up, we can change their flag and build a bunch of MC Donalds, and set up a clearchannel hip hop station
The sound of the vultures starting to circle a little lower...
A bunch of mexican-americans are diyng on the iraqui war, I have seen a bunch of family members being interviewed in mexico, all damning bush and insisting that americans take a good look at whos blood is being spilled by their bullshit.
I am sure there are also indian, chinese and almost every other nationality represented in the US armed forces
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=5 84&e=2&cid=584&u=/nm/20030328/pl_nm/iraq_usa_perle _dc
related perhaps?
+5 funny ;-)
It is not exactly the best time to bring out a bill. Many people, especially the governments of the US and UK, have been trying to emphasize that this is a just war. This bill certainly runs the risk of fueling the belief that this war is not purely about disarming a dangerous regime. If this does happen it could increase the resistance faced by the troops out there. I find it very sad that at a time when US citizens should be behind their troops, some people are only concerned with profit and getting back at the French.
Dermot Doran.
American companies, like Motorola, design and manufacture GSM phones and base stations. The only thing this helps is Qualcomm which has a patent lock on CDMA technology.
AT&T is switching to GSM. Cingular is switching to GSM. Verizon is considering switching to GSM, and probably will when they start rolling out 3G. The only company in America sticking with CDMA is Sprint PCS, and we all know how much they suck.
Seems to me that Qualcomm is becoming irrelevant, and is seeking a cash injection from the taxpayer via good old American back-room deals.
Having experienced the quality of CDMA and Sprint PCS, my main feeling is: haven't the poor Iraqis suffered enough?
Then again, Al Qaeda was reported to be using cellphones... Maybe someone thinks Iraq and Al Qaeda really are working together, and they're hoping that by giving Iraq a useless cellphone system they'll throw a spanner in the works.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Food, hospitals, schools, buses, the road system, basic telephony and other things are a priority.
... if you need 300,000 green suits to sell it ;)
A few basic principles of finance:
-There is no such thing as a donation.
-When money is loaned, it has to be paid back at some point.
-A financial aid is just a loan. The basic idea is that a broke country would have trouble getting such money (impossible most of the time). That's where powerful come into the game. They get the loan (at a good interest rate because of their good credit), and transfer it to the broke country: this is called an aid. Therefore, it should be paid back.
Zeb.
Research Guide to the Palestinian-Israeli Co
I want to make a few points:
1. I personally believe (and this has been my opinion from the very start of this campaign) that the motives behind the war are clear and lied about. The motives are: oil, contracts for rebuilding Iraq, establishing a new military base in Middle East and the final one: World Domination.
Most people outside of US and some people in US understand what actually is motivating this war, and human rights of some poor Iraqi arabs are at the very of this list. This list, on the other hand, does include such things as oil, war contracts, rebuilding Iraq contracts, Israeli agenda (10 billion given to Israel? Donald Rumsfeld is a card holding member of the Likud party - Israeli governing party,) world domination.
It is simply insulting that the US started this war under pretence of getting rid of WMD, which are not there (and even if he has a shoebox filled with anthrax, guess who should check their anthrax receits... the US) WMD is a joke, Saddam Husein could have been taken out without this massive war. The American "Liberators" were surprised to see the level of resistance by those, who they are going to "liberate". Liberate from their lives - that is more like it.
I am disgusted by this war, by the lies, by pretence, by cynism and by double standards. Bush says those Iraqis who show POWs on TV are war criminals? Well, holly shit, what a troll! He started an illegal war! He tried to assassinate another country's leader! *(this is also against the Geneva convention, don't tell me that Saddam is also a millitary leader, it does not matter, he is still head of the government.)* Iraqi POWs have also been on TV. The reason why Bush got pissed to see the american POWs on TV is simple - in the US it is important to look GOOD ON TV. Isn't it like the doctrine of the states? No matter what, it should look good on TV?
2. Why is it that 42% of the US people believe that Iraq had anything at all to do with the 9/11 attacks? 20 hours after the attacks the identities of the terrorists were already established. They were mostly from Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
I guess when the US starts war with Iraq, it is Iraq who is responsible for the 9/11. When the US will start another war with Iran, it will be Iran. I am just left wondering, when the US will start a war with Korea, will they blame Korea for 9/11 as well? (I doubt very much they will attack Korea, that state has nukes now.) It is very convenient to say that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, but it is just factually wrong. There is no correlation between Iraq and 9/11. There was never found a correlation between Iraq and 9/11. If you believe that Saddam would have given Al Qaida members the WMD, you are just a fool. Saddam is not that stupid, he lasted for over 20 years in that country doing whatever. He would not attack the US or allow someone to implicate him in that kind of an attack. He probably could use this power as leverage against his neighbours, sure, like Israel for example (why is US helping Israel anyway, they are actually also terrorists?)
3. I think the biggest prove that Iraq has no WMDs is that the US attacked Iraq. I don't believe the US would attack a country with WMD capabilities.
4. http://newsobserver.com/nc24hour/ncnews/story/2379 455p-2217701c.html - there are Iraqi kids who are dying now in battles against the allied troups. These are the same kids that are supposedly going to be liberated from the regime of Saddam Hussein. At what point will the world say to america "enough is enough"? How many dead civilians is acceptable to the american public? How many dead kids is acceptable? How many kids whose lives are destroyed now will become terrorrists? Can you blame them for it? Should America and England take responsibility?
5. I believe that every nation has the government that it deserves. If Iraqis do not believe that the change of Saddam's regime is worth fighting for and is not worth risking lives over, then they do not deserve any other regime. I
You can't handle the truth.
Again, this is another example of European arrogance where they think that just because THEY use it and the Asians use it, it must be better.
At least CDMA is expanding faster around the world than GSM at this point.
Now I know what they mean by "freedom for the Iraqi people": Free evenings and weekends.
I think Clausewitz would say that self defense and survival *is* politics. However the pertinant point in this war is that the Baathists are fighting for survival, America is not, so in the final analysis America's will can be broken before the Baathists if the war can be extended sufficiently long.
I see your point, but I still disagree. I don't belive the Vietcong "forced" anything like it. I think our leaders were simply morons who didn't really care and didn't listen to the military as to how to go about it.
You make the error of seeing the war in purerly military terms. Clausewitz's assertion highlights that war must be seen as part of a wider political process. It really doesn't matter if the Vietcong won because they defeated America militarily, or because they made the cost of America winning politically unacceptable. The result is the same
Militarily? Not really. His troops are really no match for the US/British toops. Yeah, the troops will take casulties, maybe more maybe less, but they'll still win....
...US troops look bad for shooting civilians that are being forced to shoot at them, and thereby try and sway public opinion against this conflict. But, that's not a military strategy, it's a political one.
There is no difference. The political is military and vica versa. Not that this simple truth seems to have been grasped by the truly dreadful Donald Rumsfeld - a man who seems to posses the dialectic sophistication of Lenny Osborne.
Following the bomb in the Baghdad Market this evening, and the consequent achievement by America in uniting all Arab opinion against it, I am now firmly of the conclusion that the Baathists will most probably win. Of sure, they'll be a battle and the republican guard will be defeated, but America will not be able to take and hold Baghdad in the long term without unacceptable political consequences.
I'm not at all sure however this will apply to the whole country. The British experience in Northern Ireland may well stand them in sufficiently good stead that in Basra and the Shi'ite south a viable peace could be achieved. Similarly in the Kurdish north.
To paraphraise Mr Banks...
All the usual rules of uprising realpolitik will still apply, especially that concerning the peculiar dialectic of dissent which - simply stated - dictates that in all but the most dedicatedly repressive hegemonies, if in a sizable population there are one hundred rebels, all of whom are then rounded up and killed, the number of rebels present at the end of the day is not zero, and not even one hundred, but two hundred or three hundred or more; an equation based on human nature which seems often to baffle the military and political mind.
Fuck! This is sick, simply. I mean, phone companies could *at least* wait for the first corpses to be cold before they start competing for the Iraqi market.
Hello! I'm a disaster waiting to happen!
Perhaps he had a bad experience with a Nokia or Ericsson phone? Could there possibly be a ... OK Maybe I'm going out on a limb and assuming all potiticians are in it for the money.. but could there be a possible connection in the fact that Darryl Issa represents San Diego and, SURPRISE!, Qualcomm's headquarters is in San Diego..
Every time you call tech support, a little kitten dies.
& still chose to invade, start the war
Like some Iraqi who's little girl was killed by an American bomb is going to give a flying fuck what cell phone standard Iraq ends up with.
cdma2000 is worthy of asking for by name.
cdma2000 conveniently interoperates with cdma traffic while allowing cdma2000 features to resize the channel per frame to 2^[1-5] channels out of 128 total. (cdma only sees 64 fixed channels).
as t goes to infinity so does infrastructure capacity double by this sort of channel-doubling.
The equipment's sensitivity and noise filtering limits, defined by component cost, supports "g3" today, but the sky's the limit for your regime's application without compromising the installed base...
I cant comment on any recent progress with gsm for fair contrast, except that it's a wee bit simpler to code for.
Well, our economic colonization of Iraq has started already, and we aren't even in Bahgdad yet. "Congressman Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.) Wednesday introduced a bill based on a letter to the Pentagon, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other lawmakers demanding that the Department of Defense and USAID show favor to CDMA technology made by San Diego-based QUALCOMM". Iraqs current (or is it already former) cellular infrastructure is based on GSM, like their neighbors.
You see this war isn't just about the oil in Iraq and the threatened oil in neighboring countries. It's also about selling our crappy cellular technology standard to a country that would then be incompatitble with every country it borders with. Now this bill hasn't passed, and CDMA hasn't been installed there yet. It's quite possible this bill will be shot down, and even then, the military endorsement might not be enough to outweigh the technology's disavantages. But god damn, this is pretty balsy shit, trying moving our companies in 10 days into the war. And to think that some people wonder how Unocal was awarded 46.5% of the rights in the Afghanistan gas pipeline they wanted for years.
Yeah I'm pissed. But this time I'm not pissed at the present administration. I'm pissed at the millions of American who choose to believe this shit doesn't happen.
-no broken link
Is it just a coincidence that this proposal is HR 1441? Wasn't that infamous UN resolution something like uhm, ... resolution 1441?
I think Clausewitz would say that self defense and survival *is* politics.
...so in the final analysis America's will can be broken before the Baathists if the war can be extended sufficiently long.
...which bomb, by the way, is still yet to be proven to be even a "bomb", let alone dropped by US aircraft. All that has been made is an assertion by the Iraqi government that the US did an atrocious thing, and you and a lot of other Arab and non-Arabs seem to have chosen to accept that as an explanation uncritically.
...I am now firmly of the conclusion that the Baathists will most probably win. Of sure, they'll be a battle and the republican guard will be defeated, but America will not be able to take and hold Baghdad in the long term without unacceptable political consequences.
...dictates that in all but the most dedicatedly repressive hegemonies, if in a sizable population there are one hundred rebels, all of whom are then rounded up and killed, the number of rebels present at the end of the day is not zero, and not even one hundred, but two hundred or three hundred or more
And I think I would still disagree with Clausewitz. I think self defense and survival is simply that, self defense and survival. The will to survive, and to survive without harm isn't a political thing, in its base form, it is basic human nature.
Yet to this assertion there is no guarantee, neither that the war *can* be extended sufficiently long enough, nor that the Baathists will can't be broken. I'll grant that maybe it can't be broken completely, but that in no way implies that they will still be able to concentrate a measure of power great enough to make a significant impact on that post-war society, and therefore there is still the possibility of calling this exercise successful, even if the Baathists still exist to some measure.
You make the error of seeing the war in purely military terms. Clausewitz's assertion highlights that war must be seen as part of a wider political process. It really doesn't matter if the Vietcong won because they defeated America militarily, or because they made the cost of America winning politically unacceptable. The result is the same
Ah, but the same result doesn't mean that the causes are the same. War *may be* somewhat political, but I was making a distinction between *military* strategy and *political* strategy. He asserts that they are one in the same, but tell a military strategist that and you will get laughed out of the room. Military strategy may be used to effect a political means, I'll agree, but it, in of itself, is not political. The political is about just that, politics. Military strategy is about fighting, maneuvering, and control of enemy forces. It's about flanking, bombing, attacking, and control of key positions so that the forces can do more of that, more effectively. That these plans and actions effect an ultimate political end does not mean that they are the same as politics at their core. I assert that they remain separate.
And, as I indicated before, there is a valid sense in which the US achieved what the US needed to achieve in Viet Nam, namely the halting of aggression.
Following the bomb in the Baghdad Market this evening, and the consequent achievement by America in uniting all Arab opinion against it
That's fine, I'm not. And, by the way, since neither of us can predict the future, both positions are resigned to be mere opinion, nothing more. Further, it doesn't appear to me that the US has any intentions of "holding Baghdad in the long term".
And this blanket statement, that is written to imply that it applies without question every time, falls prey to the reality that there is the possibility that it may not be true. It is left to assertion, or at the most, an educated prediction, but there is no reason to think that this is or ever will
So they weren't in it just for the oil. They want the telco industry too. What next? To force the Iraqis to choose Xbox (M$, USA) over PS2 (Japan)? What happen to 'doing it fer the good of the poor Iraqi people'?
Carpe Diem: Seize The Day!
1) Qualcomm is based near his home district in southern California.
2) Qualcomm's PAC was the sixth largest campaign contributor to his last election campaign.
3)He served on the board of Directed Electronics, a company that makes automobile telematics based on CDMA; the products were originally a project for Wingcast, Ford and Qualcomm's now-defunct joint venture.
Gee, I wonder if he'll make any money off this deal.
What we need in this country, instead of Daylight Savings Time, which nobody
really understands anyway, is a new concept called Weekday Morning Time,
whereby at 7 a.m. every weekday we go into a space-launch-style "hold" for
two to three hours, during which it just remains 7 a.m. This way we could
all wake up via a civilized gradual process of stretching and belching and
scratching, and it would still be only 7 a.m. when we were ready to actually
emerge from bed.
-- Dave Barry, "$#$%#^%!^%&@%@!"
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