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Army Plans Overhaul of Infantry Gear
nxg125 writes "Wired is running an article about a seven-year, $250 million revamping of the US Army's uniforms. One of the major obstacles is going to be how to power all the electronic devices that the soldiers will use. 'They have at least one idea, though. "Avoid the use of Microsoft Windows operating systems," a recent memo on the subject directed. FFW is going open source. Cleaner software needs less energy to run.'"
BTW, talking of immoral, how does locking people up for years with no charges half way around the world on some island fall in to your reckoning? It seems like an immoral abuse of overwhelming force to me.
The Geneva Conventions are the first thing thrown out. Even better, thrown at one's enemy, because it's a big stack of paper and has sharp corners.
Other than that, it's just a flowery set of words made up by a bunch of politicians during peacetime. When you're a soldier on the sharp end, they mean positively jack.
That said, I do beleive in the principles laid down in the conventions, and think that they should be followed by all parties involved. The problem is, they aren't. And if one side gains an advantage by ignoring them, I can see why the other would do the same. Abu-Garad(sp?) prison in Iraq is a case in point. The "insurgents" in Iraq certainly don't follow the conventions. They torture and kill POWs, hide in medical and religious buildings etc. And it gives them an advantage. So in response, the US used some unsavory interogation techniques on it's own prisoners. Should it have happened? No. But I can understand why it did. As it was said before, "Fuck the rest of them". That's the way war is.
Why don't you check how many UN resolutions Israel is in violation of - and we're not talking Security Council resolutions, these are resolutions about Israeli human rights violations that the ENTIRE WORLD voted for except the US. Are we going to invade them next? I doubt it.
Sure, Saddam was a 'bad guy', but let's not forget we created him. And if we're going to go after all the 'bad guys', there are many worse than Saddam we should start with.
And yes, please show me a link between Saddam and terrorists. Further, Bush did lie about Saddam trying to buy plutonium from Africa - that happened over 20 years ago and the CIA knew it was unsuccessful. Bush knew it as well, yet still used this as a justification for war. Iraq posed no imminent threat to the US. Where are all these weapons that he was supposed to have been able to use to attack us? Nevermind that these are weapons that WE (the US) gave him because we didn't like the Iranians.
Stop listening to Rush...
> Thats the first time I have ever heard anyone say that We won the
> Vietnam war.
I said nothing of the sort. I said the Viet Cong won the war through a very innovative strategy of shifting the battlefield to US college campuses and the halls of Congress, and that one of their leaders in said irregular action was John Forbes Kerry, A former decorated US soldier who switched sides and started fighting a propaganda war on behalf of the Viet Cong.
History has had time to render it's judgement on the Vietnam War. Kerry's side won and millions of people went into mass graves, just like in each and every case where Socialists rise to power. He must accept responsibility for the consequences of his actions as a first step towards redemption and I have yet to hear him apologize for anything he did during his 'protester' phase.
> Kerry wants to destroy individual liberty?
Yes, like Socialists everywhere. Individualism is 180 degrees out of phase with their worldview of the rights of the state and groups.
> Osama destroys the world trade centers, so we pass the Patriot act.
Predictable overreaction to an extreme provocation. At least we have matured enough we didn't put all the arab-americans in camps this time. In case you don't follow politics, the Republicans are determined to allow most of the odious bits of PATRIOT to quietly expire. But a lot of what was in PATRIOT wan't all that objectionable, like the roving wiretaps to bring wiretap law up to the age of disposable cellphones so it will probably be renewed.
Democrat delenda est
Yes they did
Gee, I'm sorry, I naturally assumed that, you know, we were talking about American law and American history since we're talking about America's war.
What's the point in deliberately taking something out of context when the original is above? it is not clever at all, in fact it makes you look a bit dim.
You don't understand.
Osama bin Laden is dead. He was killed in the assault on the Tora Bora mountains in November 2001. He's a dead man. What's the point of declaring war against a dead man?
No and again taking something out of context and then slinging mud is childish and immature.
I didn't take anything out of context. From your unacceptable spelling, incorrect grammar, and inability to use punctuation, it was clear that you were typing while drunk.
I'm pretty sure that's the case. What other explanation could you have had for thinking that the United States declared war on Napoleon and that Osama bin Laden is alive?
I write in my journal