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iPods at War
phaedo00 writes "Ars Technica has put together an outstanding piece of journalism about the use of personal technology in America's military and how these devices along with blatant piracy is causing new problems in the face of war: "While soldiers once deployed with little more than a backpack and a rifle, today's crop of infantry troops pack along MP3 players, digital cameras, DVD players, video games, movie collections, and computers of their own. The personal electronics have made modern American warfare the most comfortable it has ever been, but they've also brought a new set of problems onto the battlefield.""
I haven't heard any anecdotal stories about "so and so would still be alive if he hadn't been listening to his iPod." Or people's personal devices interfering with a mission. I think the number one weapon against the United States military is the IED (Improvised Explosive Devices). And these things blow up without warning. If you're super alert or playing a DS Lite in your vehicle, it's not going to make a difference when one of those things go off.
The loss of USB drives with sensitive data happens here at home, is it a surprise it happens at war?
Furthermore, if a soldier wants to play Counter Strike during his or her off-time in his or her tent, why not? If there's a surprise attack, there's not going to be much difference whether they were playing football, reading a book or playing counter strike. Human beings are distracted naturally and this is necessary, you can't ask someone to concentrate on war 100% of the time.
Our troops aren't just fighting for Democracy, they're also fighting for stable economies & developed infrastructures. I don't think it looks bad if they have gadgets and bells and whistles along with them while they're at war. These are some of the things they're fighting for them and their children to keep.
I would speculate that if you took away these devices that reminded them of home and society, their performance and morale would probably drop. I believe the USO show was designed to distract soldiers from the horrors of the war they fought, let them have an iPod if it does just that even better.
"Outstanding"?! It's an interesting piece but I'd hardly call it 'outstanding' or even credible journalism. Just an interesting thing to consider.
My work here is dung.
From the fine article, first page, a paragraph:
First, please let this be tongue in cheek on the author's part (I'm assuming it is).
That aside, it's an interesting notion. Yeah, let the MPAA and RIAA go after the piracy of media by soldiers afield. The stipulation would be that the RIAA and MPAA must confront the accused personally, i.e., make them go the active front... after all, they've claimed they themselves are engaged in a war. What better way to experience that reality?
Anyway, if you've read Joseph Heller's Catch 22, soldiers' ingenuity to make their insane world a little more liveable is Milo Minderbinder redux. More power to them for making it through.
The last thing that I want is to be distracted by some electronic gizmo. Of course, it would be nice to take my mind off of what's going on in down time.
I'm in Iraq and having no problems surfing Slashdot while under fire.
In fact, bullets aren't even coming clo...^C^C^C^C^C No route to host.
If a soldier can carry entertainment with him/her without hindering the task that the soldier is ordered to complete I think it should be priorized that the soldier can relax and be comforable since living in a foreign country for some months at diffrent locations shouldn't be that much fun. Really, think about it. Still: ComputerDeck of cards when being with your friends.
+1 Agree -1 Disagree
...and see them sue some soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan. :)
Somehow I think Orrin Hatch would shit a brick of confusion over how to react
Sugapablo
Good. No more Perry Como forced down our soldier's throats (ala Good Morning Vietnam).. they get to hear the music they bring, and they share in what other soldiers bring too.
meh
I would never deny a little bit of humanizing recreation to our troops. Maybe it is being so de-humanized in a very high stress life or death situation lead to things like PTSD and prisoner abuse scandals.
If you are willing to get shot at, I am willing to let you play playstation and listen to music on you off hours without any objection from me.
I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
Mark Twain
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"No more Perry Como forced down our soldier's throats"
Ah. Soylent Green day at the mess tent. I bet he went down smooooooth too.
Where were you when the voynix came?
If a soldier is willing on the front lines fighting for their country they should be entitled to some good tunes. If the **AA goes after them I think they should declare war on DRM. Whose the real pirates anway?
"These soldiers aren't exactly enjoying an evening at Chuck E. Cheese, for pity's sake!"
Did you ever go to any of the last of the "old style" Chuck E Cheez's before they closed down? You know, the ones where you'd walk down a hall and look off to the side and there would be a huge auditorium, empty of humans, and on a stage was a band made of giant Elvis man-dog robots that shook and gyrated, with their crude mechanics making so much noise that the songs in the speakers couldn't even be heard? If this scene (and it was real) isn't as close as you can come to the future war with the robots, then nothing is.
Where were you when the voynix came?
in Apocalypse now, " As long as our officers and troups (sic) perform tours of duty limited to one year, they will remain dilletantes in war and tourists in Vietnam. As long as cold beer, hot food, rock and roll and all the other amenities remain the expected norm, our conduct of the war will gain only impotence. (In the document, but not read aloud - The wholesale and indiscriminate use of firepower will only increase the effectiveness of the enemy and strengthen their resolve to prove the superiority of an agrarian culture against the world's greatest technocracy...The central tragedy of our effort in this conflict has been the confusion of a sophisticated technology with human commitment. Our bombs may in time destroy the geography, but they will never win the war...)...We need fewer men, and better; if they were committed, this war could be won with a fourth of our present force..."
While I have been against the Iraq war from the begining, I wonder how much truth there is to this. Are short stints and relatively comfortable surroundings really not motivating the troops to do their job? A quote from Captain Willard: "Charlie didn't get much USO. He was dug in too deep or moving too fast. His idea of great R and R was cold rice and a little rat meat. He had only two ways home: death or victory."
Just take the above quotes and replace "Vietnam" with "Iraq" and "Charlie" with the insurgency and you have quotes that apply as much to this war as it did 'Nam....
Monstar L
Who needs body armor when you're carrying around all those gadgets? Everyone knows that bullets only hit small things in your pockets or under your shirt anyway and that they always get stopped by it just in the nick of time. The more stuff our soldiers carry, the better!
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
Really? This is such a non-issue.
"Who needs body armor when you're carrying around all those gadgets?"
And then you get some guy who goes all Rambo and takes out a few villages after he finds out that his iPod Mini got scratched somehow.
Where were you when the voynix came?
As the length of a war increases, the length of tours of duty increase and the likelihood that the war can be won decreases. The most effective fighting force is one of fresh troops who know that they will not be staying long. These troops have relatively high moral. The longer they stay in the theatre, the more demoralized they become and the less they care about the end of the war.
People who've never been deployed and only seen movies don't realize that soldiering is 99% boredom and 1% sheer terror. It is just as important (maybe more) to handle the boredom as the terror.
Pah! I'll see your animatronic mice and raise you Survival Research Laboratories!
but why, at 18, are our kids old enough to fight and die for our country, yet they are not old enough to drink?
Just wondering, since this is a thread about soldiers' diversions and such.
Just hook up those iPods to some speakers, and if you pick the right music, you can add psychological warfare to the physical weapons.
Though the question is, will playing "Who Let the Dogs Out?" at high volume cause the insurgency to run away in terror, or try harder to destroy the iPod?
You just brought back a very very bad childhood memory.
------
"And may your days be long upon the earth."
Another thing about Catch 22 is that it showed how the first contention of the article, that soldiers used to go to battle with nothing more than a rifle and a backpack isn't true. Remember Orr, Yossarian's tent-mate? He was always adding stuff to the tent. Basically everytime he came into a scene, he was either being shot down or trying to get the gas stove working better. Or consider the show MASH. Hawkeye's tent was full of "luxury" items. Ok these are fictional accounts, but based on non-fiction accounts I've read, I'd be willing to bet they were pretty close the real case in terms of personal possessions...at least for units that stayed in one place for any significant amount of time.
Here's another good paragraph
I'm more inclined to think it goes the other way: movies and video games are unable to depict conflict any other way than by focusing on the action, only filling in the context sufficiently to give the viewer/gamer a plausible plot. Except for fans of the movie Jarhead, nobody is very much fascinated by the mundane elements of war: cleaning your rifle, trying to stay awake through guard duty, cleaning your rifle, doing PT, cleaning your rifle, cleaning the latrines, cleaning your rifle. Audiences expect 5 minutes of that, then a lot of shooting and heroism.
Consider amatuer movies at home. For example, the obligatory end-of-the-season high school football team music video recap. It's all clips of tackles, touchdowns, passes, field goals, pranks during scrimmage, etc. Nobody's interested in the time spent running around the track, doing calistenics, sitting on the bench, and especially not sitting in class trying to maintain acedemic elegibility.
Furthermore, we really are talking about amatuer's here, putting together simple recaps. They're not master storytellers. They don't have the time or luxury of putting together complex narratives, and since they're only sharing this with friends and family, they don't need complex expositions making it clear to the viewer that this is so-and-so's involvement in Operation Enduring Freedom.
Actually, let them go after the parties offering the goods for sale. As I understand, the lawyers interest is not as much in the receivers as the providers. Please, go confront Abdul about his copying CD's to sell to the GI's. A flak jacket might be a good a better idea than a briefcase, though.
Hah, I used to work on a generic version of those beastly robots for a Chuck E. Cheese competitor. One time we had the furry coverings stripped off the whole set for maintainance. I still consider watching a band of animal-shaped Terminator endoskeletons sing happy kiddie songs on a loop for half an hour to be one of the best concerts I've ever been to.
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I'm not sure the point is relevant here.
You can't make troops more committed to the battle by taking away amenities; all that's going to do is make them less committed, less trusting of their command structure, and less eager to risk their lives. It's the "we'll stop beating you when morale improves" school of leadership, and it only works when you're trying to get people to do mindless manual labor, under close supervision. In short, you can't make good soldiers through force or coercion.
A more general form of your (and Kurtz's) point is that the motivation which drives a force is supremely important in warfare, and there is a certain question in my mind today as to what that motivation is supposed to be, for our troops. It's not exactly clear what the purpose of the war was or is, and frankly I don't think that many Americans can get all that wound up over bringing democracy to a bunch of people who aren't that interested anyway. I think that if you really asked the right questions, you'd probably figure out that most soldiers' motivation is a lot less big-picture and a lot more personal; they're in Iraq because they're career military and want the combat time, or because they want the respect that it'll garner them back home, or just because they thought it would be more interesting than whatever job they would have been doing Stateside. Maybe they think it gives them some personal insight. Everyone has his or her own.
You'd do better to try and find what actually does drive our troops, and encourage that, rather than trying to create a motivation out of fear and misery where there really isn't one now. Where Kurtz was wrong was in likening U.S. troops to Charlie too closely: you can't motivate them in the same way to fight, because they're each there for such totally different reasons, the same things won't work.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
If the solders are picking up "cheap" cd's/dvd's, what are the chances they are also picking up "cheap" software? Wouldn't this software be a good way for the enemy to deliver viruses? Are command/control systems isolated enough from the solders personal electronics to prevent virus infections?
God Bless America
You know, the image of some RIAA invetigators going to a firebase in Baghdad, Mossul or anywhere else in Iraq to try and take iPod with pirated songs from a bunch of armed and pissed off Marines almost makes having the RIAA tax worthwhile.
I'd even pay for Cary Sherman to fly there, get into a Land Rover and try take the iPod directly from the MTTs.
I was deployed to LSA Anaconda last year. We used to have a huge "morale drive." Basically, anyone with a portable drive would hook it up to the network and upload and download songs. About the time I was getting ready to leave they took the morale drive down and reminded us that copyright infringement is illegal.
And the Wii will only make them even better shots. The smallest of the consoles, it will be the easiest to pack up and ship out. Using the Wiimote on a low sensitivity will help to better train hand-eye cordination, as well. (It will also server a double purpose with the DVD functionality.)
So you better watch your back, or the console wars may become real wars...
Or "I heard that George Bush, he married Exxon/They had half-human, half-oil babies/They named them Chevron and Halliburon/These oil babies, they look really strange."
Where were you when the voynix came?
"Hah, I used to work on a generic version of those beastly robots for a Chuck E. Cheese competitor."
I wonder where these things all went when the pizza-joints got rid of them. Who bought them all? I bet there's an entire generation of kids afraid of robots like kids used to be afraid of clowns. Anyway, keep watching Drudge and Google for news stories of rusty fur-covered animal robots lurching from North Korea into the DMZ as part of an attack. Of course, they'll move at 1 mile every 2 hours, fall over if you blow on them, and trip over dandelions and fall into 600 pieces, but they'll scare the beejebers out of everyone for at least a few minutes.
Where were you when the voynix came?
Our troops aren't just fighting for Democracy, they're also fighting for stable economies & developed infrastructures.
Have you picked up a newspaper lately? Half a million Iraqi citizens dead, infrastructure (that we destroyed) still massively broken despite billions upon billions of dollars being forked over to government contractors, and currently the country is essentially in the midst of civil war; you've got your warlords, and now there are Iraqi police departments turning into gangs. The country is in complete, total, utter chaos.
The party line is "fighting for freedom", by the way.
Please help metamoderate.
They're pirating music! Call in the RIAA!
Note: I'm not so much in favor of soldiers getting sued as I am in favor of soldiers with a grudge and souvenir rpg's visiting the riaa to rebut their arguments...
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
in the animated Superman to two supervillians that seemed to dispatch Superman.
To paraphrase: If the **AA starts suing soldiers on the front, I will *persoanlly* lead the mob that takes down the **AA offices wherever they may stand.
eldavojohn
A lot of those soldiers are under 21. I say let's give them the right to drink.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
anyone who has been to ANY third world country, or anyplace where the USA is not the govt, will have noticed that $5 is all you need for any software...Windows XP Pro, Photoshop, or any game you can imagine. $5 is all you need for anything at all. Computer sellers outside the us make the money only on hardware, not software. So our Troops, stationed in a third world country, with hard currency, have access to this...so what ? I'm an American, but I know that the USA is not the world, and outside our borders, things are different...not better, not worse, just different. Even tho' they should NOT be there, if any of the poor bastards sent forth by the chickenhawk asshat cabal (mis)"running" our country finds some fun or escape in a bootleg copy of "Buckaroo Bonzai" or a recording of some rock,rap or country, I'm all for it. There are bits of the USA in Iraq, protected zones. That's because they didn't welcome us with open arms, as we were lied to by Cheney and Rumsfeld. Really, the RIAA is as laugable as our War on Drugs. Sure, some people get hurt by it, but mostly it is ignored or used as a payoff to the local warlords, who use it to deliever up a local who is out of favor with the ruling junta.
I bet soldiers from all the different wars/conflicts have stories about items being brought along with them. Military personnel are genuises when it comes to that kind of thing. Where there's a will there's a way. Just like when civilians build something indestructible, soldiers will find a way to break it.
My uncle was in the Blackwatch before Viet Nam and participated in wargames with the US soldiers. He said he wasn't suprised the US lost vietnam because it was so easy to take out yanks because you could hear em for miles with their transistor radios. They were easy to track and they never heard you coming.
I think if there is a possibility it's going to be your last days on earth if you fsck up, well you'd better put down the toys and face it head on like a man and maybe survive. The enemy sure ain't playing games... they want to kill you just so they can get your boots instead of the crap they have on their feet.
My guess is all three. You have no idea what's going on. Those brainwashed troops (they are TOLD they are avenging 9-11 for instance,even though Iraq had ZERO to do with it) are fighting "for" israel and the whackjob notion of "greater zion", which was insane to start with, some "end times" fundamentalist armageddon bullshit(the great decider said twice that god told him to invade. Oh really??), oil and defense contracts that will *never end* as long as they keep saying there's a war on "tarrer", and to keep globalist billionaires and their stooges in fascist power and to perpetuate and extend the domestic police state.
Really, it's in all the papers, here's a dime, buy a CLUE.
As to what junk they tote, who cares? WW2 it was a deck of cards if they were lucky and a crystal radio. They can have what they want, no one cares, none, it's their stuff.
Many of the above entries have been quick to criticize the article as negatively portraying troops as tech-addicted consumer whores or even implying that we should deprive soldiers of morale boosting comforts. The author painted these perhaps unflattering portraits of American soldiers enjoying Counterstrike and porn to illustrate that these are aspects of the American lifestyle that we aggressively defend. The amount of posters who have apparently ignored this main argument to defend the after hours activities of troops shows just how much we hold our gadgets dear to us. I love playing an online FPS, watching porn, and listening to my iPod as much as my fellow countrymen, but it seems crass to have these icons rise to the forefront of American ideals and Democracy. It creates a bit of dissonance with those commericals featuring Marines single-handedly slaying lava monsters (unless most Marines are really into WoW or something). Anyway, the author made the point that we need to re-examine our global image, especially as manifested through our fighting forces.
We had a drive at my dojo collecting whatever we could to send off to Irag, I sent MP3 players, clean undies and toothbrushes. Are toothbrushes and undies next on the "they should'nt have" list, because they may be too distracting?
Especially when you are quoting source material that actually uses the word, like so:
"Fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck. What's the big fuckin' deal?"
Other things you probably shouldn't say. Like Donkey raping shit-eater. You definitely shouldn't say donkey raping shit-eater on slashdot. People could get offended if you mentioned donkey raping shit-eaters.
Mellonfarmer? Come on. What's the point of shit like that? What are you, some kinda smegma licking pussy? Everyone knows what you mean, it's not like people don't make the fucking mental translation instantly, you haven't sheilded their tender, innocent brains from having to process and comprehend "that word."
Sorry, sorry, that was kind of a rangent (that's a rant off on a tangent...) But if you learned anything from all this, it's that you shouldn't mention donkey raping shit-eaters on slashdot.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Indeed, those damn things still show up in my nightmares from time to time.
Also - needle exchanges for drug addicts are a workable program that have succeeded in what they're designed to do - prevent the spread of blood borne diseases.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
Much like a network administrators job.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
"is a traitor to this country and the men and women defending it."
Now you are sounding more like the music industry. That's like calling a kid who downloads pirated stuff a criminal. I agree that our troops shouldn't be cracked down for pirated content, but I hate this crap about calling people traitors. It's being misused just like the word heros.
Can I bum a sig?
Getting rid of sadam was the right thing, even if they did it for the wrong reasons (a debate raised enough already, so we'll skip that one). And maybe they're doing a crappy job at rebuilding, but it was always going to be a slow painful process. A bunch of people who were kept in track by fear of sadam 'n co, now have the freedom to run riot, and that's what's happening. Meanwhile, contractors... well they're totally taking advantage of the situation, "there's money to be made, lots and lots of money".
But I have no doubt that in 50 years, it will be better over there than it would have been if it were left to sadam 'n son. The price is high, but that's expected by anyone who wasn't stupid enough to think it was gonna be a cake walk (eg, bush and his "mission success").
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
it's all relative.
You heard it, the RIAA hates our troops. That's just un-American...
I say we invade the RIAA next...
Yeah, now they can play Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" out their Black Hawks without bringing a turntable.
While members of the military do probably take a lot more 'niceties' to the field now than they did in the past, they are also leaving a lot more of what they have come to be accustomed to behind. While my grandfather didn't have an i-pod in WW2, he didn't really have a lot 'luxuries' he left behind here in the states. I guess what I'm saying is, it's all relative.
Have you picked up a newspaper lately? Half a million Iraqi citizens dead
Please provide some statistics to backup your claim. In looking at this site, the total is nowhere near what you claim. IraqBodyCount.org has the civilian totals for civilian casualties between 40,000 to 45,000. Not a small number by any means but nowhere near the amount you claim.
The country is in complete, total, utter chaos.
Been subscribing to one of the far left theories I see. Sure, parts of the country have problems but if you look a bit, you can find other references to success in Iraq. I'm sure I could present a pretty picture of Iraq without any facts, very much like what you did, but then I'd be labeled on the far right. I'll stick to my "center of the road" ways.
Jim
Not the only source, but a half-assed google search found the AMA with an article on page 1. Lots of goodies there, here's one:
"A higher MLDA results in fewer alcohol-related problems among youth, and the 21-year-old MLDA saves the lives of well over 1,000 youth each year (Jones et al, 1992; NHTSA, 1989). Conversely, when the MLDA is lowered, motor vehicle crashes and deaths among youth increase. At least 50 studies have evaluated this correlation (Wagenaar, 1993)."
Thanks for playing.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
GI's had portable phonographs in World War 1 (although they weren't carried in the field).
In World War 2, the troops had "foxhole" (crystal) radios, the detector was a razor blade and safety pin. There were many AC and DC powered radios. AFRTS started broadcasting during World War 2. There were also portable phonographs.
I am not sure what the GI's used during the Korean Conflict because transistor radios hadn't been introduced yet; they would have had phonographs, they may have carried battery operated tube type radios.
In Vietnam, transistor radios and tape players were carried in the field. MANY GI's came home from Vietman with high end stereos.
During the Gulf War and Bosnia, there would have been portable radios, portable CD players and possibly still some portable cassette players.
iPods and MP3 players were probably first used in Afghanistan.
Now, during Iraqui Freedom and Afghanistan, the state of the technology includes iPods. Same idea, smaller devices.
What? You're not a U.S. citizen, you say? Support our troops anyway, because their work is still saving your life, no matter what country you're from.
This is not all that new. A friend of mine in college had a kick ass computer (a 386 when I had a 286) and had every game imagineable. All of which he got when in the military. One thing you have, if your single, when your on active duty is money. Yuo don't have to pay for clothes or food when your on active duty. Yuo still get paid and thus can buy alot of stuff at teh PX or on Amazon.com. Personally, I agree with others.....this war in Iraq is now about 3 years old and it's time for us to exit, or make sure we swap in fresh troops on a regular basis. Give the ones who have been out for a while a long leave. If this is impossible, then at least make the off duty hours comfortable.
Gorkman
Yes, I agree, lousy politicians. If it weren't for them those brave soldiers would have put down their budweisers and transistor radios and won that thing given another eight years.
There have been reports of U.S. military submitting various terror suspects to "torture" by playing them very loud heavy metal...Other people pay good bucks for that kind of entertainment:D
r oll.shtml
On a more realistic note, here's a report on the military applications of music in Iraq and elsewhere: http://sptimes.com/2004/11/21/Floridian/Iraq__n__
Microsoft put the "sucks" in "success".
> > The country is in complete, total, utter chaos.
> Been subscribing to one of the far left theories I see.
> Sure, parts of the country have problems but if you
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Retard.
That's a common fallacy. They cannot drink in the US, though some establishments ignore this rule and I'm sure a lot of law enforcement do as well. Soldiers stationed in countries with drinking ages lower than those in the US follow guildlines established by the CO of whatever base they are stationed at.
Actually...
On specific instructions from the Chuck E. Cheez top management, a large number of these had their fur disposed of and their endoskeletons/mechanics cut up with blowtorches. A friend of mine used to work at one of these places when the order came down. He managed to rescue one of them (sans fur) from the cutter and I wound up with it when he no longer had space for it. It's a very interesting device, all pneumatically actuated using a low pressure air line. He also managed to grab a programming console for it, which you can use to drive it manually. All you need is an air source (a truck inner tube will do) and you can drive it around. Since this one was the lead guitar player (I think), it has a reasonable number of degrees of freedom.
The most striking thing about it is the beautiful blue eyes. Seeing it for the first time is quite a shock since the rest of it is quite Terminator-esque.
It's currently standing guard in my basement, waiting for the rise of Goog... I mean SkyNet...
Curse you plastic mold maker!
At some point it's starting to look like a preferable option to the course we're taking now..
But the chips in those Playstations could be used for Saddam's weapon systems!
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
The American soldier NEVER lost a battle in Vietnam. Then again, you and your ilks hate for the military was always based on your and your ilk's percieved self 'superiority' in the first place.
Our troops aren't just fighting for Democracy, they're also fighting for stable economies & developed infrastructures. I don't think it looks bad if they have gadgets and bells and whistles along with them while they're at war. These are some of the things they're fighting for them and their children to keep.
Not in Iraq they aren't. I support the troops 100%, but they are not being used in an honorable way by our government. They certainly aren't "fighting for stable economies and developed infrastructures". Well, maybe they are...but 3 years ago they were fighting against a stable enconomy and developed infrastructre...why did the flip-flop?
Maybe it's because the reasons for the Iraq war were mostly lies?
(See, I can poltically-troll too!)
Blar.
"It's actually easy enough to render legal: the US govt has the power and authority to use any patents, copyrights and trademarks however it wishes with impunity."
Well setting aside the unprovability of the above (besides do you really want a government that violates laws with impunity? Oh, wait. Don't answer that). There's a little matter of setting a bad example. That's why we have stories like this.
If you have to actually search to find something good, there is not enough good.
Slow Down, Cowboy! It's been 60 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment.
Computers bad for our soldiers!? Obviously people do not understand the use of Scrolling Combat Text and how it's saving soldiers lives!
If only our government officials would take the same advice and learn proper agro control, they'd never be in this mess.
In Soviet Russia these Soviet Russia jokes aren't considered the least bit amusing...
In other news, it's been found out that servicemen are issued fully-automatic assault weapons with high-capacity magazines - devices which are illegal (in one way or another) in all fifty states with a felony charge! ... besides, they're not in the US. US business or copyright law does not apply.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Although you may not have meant that Junior swore on his mother's grave literally, Barbara Bush is not dead yet -although even the Republicans may have wished she was after she made some insensitive comments during a tour of the Katrina-damaged areas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Bush
Sure, because we know how well 'good news' sells. If it bleeds it leads is one of the first things you learn in J-school. There is plenty of good news out there, but when most of it isn't being covered then you have to go search for it. It's not a matter of it being there, it's a matter of what journalists are paid to report.
Politicians are like diapers - they should be changed frequently and for the same reasons.
"I have nothing but sympathy for our soldiers..."
"...I'd rather have them flying back with nightmares that haunt them for the rest of their lives."
These aren't dogs nuzzling at a porcupine in curiosity. How can it seem ethical to you for human beings to nuzzle the porcupine of war and return with quills of "nightmares that haunt them for the rest of their lives" - just to teach "us" a lesson?
Linux: Free if your time is worthless.
As it precisely echoes my experience serving in the USN - unit effectiveness and cohesiveness builds in direct proportion to the camaraderie among the troops. Camraderie builds on shared experience, not just the privations that come with being at sea or in the field; but in crowding around a shortwave set in a quonset hut in WII, or twenty of us crammed into a tiny lounge watching a movie we've seen a thousand times just for the tit shot in the last fifteen minutes in the 1980's.
Gents and Ladies,
Regardless of what side of the coin you follow (democrat or republican, liberal or conservative), if you are not putting your
life on the line don't criticize others that do. In addition, as to servicemembers allegedly listening to music or watching videos
illegally, I would ask you to consider the morale factor. If you know you can possibly die at anytime, do you really think that we care
(during our deployment in a hostile country) that the RIAA is going to come after us? Whatever my fellow servicemembers and I need to
maintain our calm in a chaotic situation is what matters plain and simple. Because the simple matter is lives are at stake, namely ours.
Irregardless of whether this war is a good or bad action to undertake.
Another way I'll put is like this: If the RIAA wants to fight terrorism in Iraq before it comes to our shores, I'll gladly hand my M16A4
over to one of the cushy (or pudgy in somecases) lawyers and they can stand post. I don't mind sitting on my ass collecting big checks from
overpaid, overhyped artists (whom the majority can't sing or act anyway). At least I won't harrass dead people's families, college students,
and children. (Not to mention, all that gear hurts my back any damm way).
Regards,
MBC1977
(US Marine, College Student, and Good Guy)
Please note: The following comment is personal and not an official US Marine statement
Regards,
MBC1977,
So why doesn't the US Military simply license the RIAA's catalog? I bet that the RIAA would even go for it as a publicity stunt at some fantastically low rate. Because, if they don't but they condone the situation, then what they're doing is nothing less than allowing the military to use the intellectual property of others, generally US citizens and corporations, without recompense. And that's a slippery slope, especially since that's the kind of "rule of law" that they're supposed to be fighting for.
And yes, those companies do have IP rights and copyright according to the US constitution, one of those quaint documents that the military is supposed to be in favor of. Argue that its not fair all you want -- I probably even agree with you -- its the law right now, damnit, and official US organizations should respect that, especially when the alternative is getting remarkably close to violating the spirit of the 3rd amendment. After all, if its okay for them to use IP without permission, isn't it our duty to give up our iPods to soldiers who don't have them?
Note: supplying soldiers with iPods and tunes is something that I'd actually be in favor of, if done legitimately. I'm not arguing, at all, that its useful, morale boosting, popular, or even that its anything other than inexpensive. But it needs to be done legally. That's what the USA is (used to be?) all about: the triumph of codified law over convenience for the mighty.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Yes, because it was a formalized military that flew 4 commercial airliners into the twin towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. Seriously, get a grip, dude. Horrible things happen all over the world every day in which no organized military plays a role. If we didn't have an organized military then you'd be one of the first people to be killed in the ensuing melee as Reconquistas and Islamofacists slugged it out to see who would rule America. Face it, as much as you and other self-labeled "progressives" hate the military and always have, it's only the threat of annihilation that keeps our long list of enemies at bay.
Who said anything about journalism?
Slow Down, Cowboy! It's been 60 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment.
One of the best parts of Battlefield Vietnam was being able to blow away enemy tanks and napalm helpless infantry with Van Halen blaring away on the speakers! Why would the real world be any different?
Sounds like you had some real pisspot officers.
You forgot to tell him about the porn these drives contained. My god, I've never seen so much porn...
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Where exactly did I state I hate the military? All I stated was my Uncle's firsthand impression of the American Army as he saw it when he was engaged with them in war games whilst serving in the Blackwatch backed up what the original post said was unfounded. And this was in the late fifties! American troops have a long tradition of bringing toys to the battlefront to distract themselves.
From their website, http://www.army.mod.uk/blackwatch/ , the Black Watch lay claim to being "one of the most famous fighting forces in the world. We combine the proud history and tradition of an organisation that has been soldiering for over 250 years, with the skills and professionalism of a front-line unit in a modern Army." So you might understand why he was unimpressed by the yanks and he'll go on and on about how easy they were to beat and how exactly they went about taking advantage of the 'lazy, spoilt Americans.'
My Uncle is an expert marksmen. He represented his country in the Commonwealth games. Additionally he has served in Honour Guard for the Queen. I have the greatest respect for the military, but not all military. Respect is not given, it is earned. Those who fail to hold true to Duty, Honour and Country have no respect in my book.
The American soldier never lost a battle in Vietnam!? Who's the revisionist, exactly? The biggest battle American soldiers in Viet Nam lost on the terms of Duty and Honour was My Lai. Militarily, they didn't have much success with the Tet Offensive either, did they? I also remember a bit of a dodgy showing in Hanoi.
As a force, American soldiers have dwindling respect worldwide. They are seen as greedy, lazy, arrogant and more likely to die from friendly fire than enemy (although this is an exaggeration it is the perception, for example in the original Gulf War only a third of US troops who died were killed by friendly fire and that is hardly a majority is it?). Episodes from My Lai to Haditha do little to improve their image worldwide either.
Although the article does mention that the guys on the frontline are more worried about enemy attacks than big screen tv's and I am sure they are doing a solid job, it is unfortunate that the guys who are good soldiers are sullied by so many bad apples.
So we are fighting a war to keep gadgets? sounds like a noble cause...
...Tokyo Rose would have been a podcaster.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
In that case, the comment should read: "People ... don't realize that soldering is 99% boredom and 1% sheer terror."
This article was submitted by Clint Ecker, the owner of phaedo.cx. Ecker writes for Ars Technica's mac blog along with his girlfriend Jacqui.
Most ArsTech writers hold multiple digg and slashdot accounts. This type of plugging is par for the course, and they like to bury digg and slashdot comments that are critical of their articles.
Considering the source it isn't unusual that they've labeled their own piece as outstanding.
That reeeally makes you wanna shoot somebody...
I guess we should do it like the good old days, no electronics, no games or toys, just beer and pot.
In recent times, the US soldier has always taken then current technology with him to war. Sure, it may have been a phonograph in Korea or a tape recorder in Viet Nam, but that's all there was back then.
As for video games and the stuff this article describes, well, these guys (and gals) are on a military base, you know. If they were stationed in Germany, or the US, nobody would bat an eye. Just because their base in the the Middle East and isn't meant to be permanent doesn't mean they shouldn't have some pleasures.
I would imagine that while they are on patrol, they are pretty aware of their surroundings. Besides, I'm pretty sure if a mortar round went off next to them, it wouldn't matter if they were listening to an mp3 or not.
The problem is that public tax dollars are funding the whole mess. Just because the kids they send over there have been sold on a total lie, (being that the war has any positive moral qualities to it at all and is not largely a money scam/creepy apocalypse cult thing for Bush and friends), doesn't mean that I shouldn't speak my mind about it. In fact, I'd say that the exact opposite is true.
Burglars, rapists and murderers also put their lives on the line in their chosen profession, but I'm certainly not going to withhold my criticism about them.
Sorry. You may be a nice guy, and no doubt you are, but you are still carrying an automatic weapon in a land where you are not and never were wanted. There were no WMD's in Iraq, Saddam had nothing to do with 9-11, and Iraq is a lot worse off today than it was before the American invasion, and the only people benefiting are those selling weapons and oil, and they will keep the war running until the public finally threatens to hang the management. So why on earth are you playing pawn out there? If I were you, I'd get out right smart quick before I got hurt or before my brain short-circuited on too much negative stimulus.
Best wishes and good luck to you!
-FL
You are a fucking idiot. Where exactly should one get news about Iraq, except from the "if it bleeds, it leads" media? Most of the soldiers I've talked to say it's going fairly well, except for a few ugly areas. Tell ya what, you book the next flight to Iraq and let us know how it's going over there.
You mean like, "There were no WMD's"? And, "Saddam had nothing to do with 9-11"? Or how about the Downing Street Memo fave, "Blair and Bush planned to invade regardless of whether they found WMD's or not."?
And let's not forget about, "Close friends and family of Bush and his cabal benefit directly from arms and oil sales."
This all comes from the Western Press. So what are you talking about?
-FL
supporting the troops is supporting the war effort. until the US bring back conscription, every american on the field of battle is there because they chose to be, to support the war effort.
"... like kids used to be afraid of clowns."
wtf are you talking about...!? i'm 27, and clowns still scare the crap out of me...
Besides the fact that there are satalite and UAV images of trucks evacuating into Syria during the 24 hour period Bush gave Sadam to leave. And there is also this thing called digging a hole, dogs do it all the time, then they bury something in that hole and cover it up again. Iraq is extremely large and it would not be difficult to either bury or hide weapons/labs/storage under the sand. With radar and satalite imaging only able to penetrate solid ground up to a few meters these caches could remain hidden unless a sonar device was used, simmilar to how oil and other minerals are found.
"wtf are you talking about...!? i'm 27, and clowns still scare the crap out of me..."
It's not too late to register yourself as "Aclownmenaced Coward"
Where were you when the voynix came?
You have obviously never served your country. (ie:military, USO,Red Cross, etc.), so, STFU!
Traitor?!?
"And I could make an argument for calling you a traitor, or perhaps more accurately as being "Unamerican", for not being a proper defendant of the true American way. Nothing is more important to this society that the promulgation of profit."
You sir, are a complete asshat, and are not deserving of an opinion as far as "being a traitor" or an American.
If you want to seperate yourself from the real world, then ok- your fantasy world may work for you....good luck with that.
You have NO rights to infer "traitor" to anyone with your attitude, and as for your "god-given DUTY", then all I can say is show up here:
708 S. McDonald St., Stillwater, OK 74074 at at ANY TIME and I will set you straight, or end your miserable existence on this planet..that is a PROMISE, not a threat.
Un-American?, you have no fsckin' clue, assclown. Got a problem with this?- Fsck you- show up and we can discuss this face to fist.
Yeah I'm militant about this, but having been in combat and fscked-up firefights in E.Berlin, Vietnam, and a few other places I would (gladly- for you) have to kill you for telling you about, I can tell you that the front-line troops are more worried about keeping themselves and their buddies alive, and have NO thoughts about copyright/patent infringement.
If they can download tunes to keep themselves entertained, so good for them.
Got a problem with that?....Tough shiite! Take it up with the front- line troops, or (better yet for me) follow my address to me, it's above.
BTW, I don't agree we should be in Iraq still, or should have even went there, but will support and defend my alumni at all costs. Not every mission do you as an individual ( as military personel) have a choice on deployment, but you still have an obligation to do your duty.
On the subject of imposing our will on oil/capitalism: yes, that may be an issue, but not the only one at stake.
Consider free choice about the way the respective countries are wanting to exercise their rights.
Also, where do you get off on the "god-given DUTY" aspect of the arg's? What gives you the right to invoke your "god" in this. That is already a defeatist argument.
Yes, I mod only when drunk, so SUE ME!- Ive got karma to burn!!!!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Oh, Jesus, your parents made you watch the 'Banana Splits'??? Is it too late to sue them for child abuse????
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
Most historians believe WWI was more or less "lost" by all sides...
What an a grade fuckwit you are.
A great pity someone didnt do the world a favour and shoot you whilst in the military.
Should have claimed fair use...
Yeah, because I remember how Rush, and Fox, Little Green Footballs and The GOP were all at the forefront of the fight to get the US involved in "restoring freedom to Rwanda"...
Or was that some alcohol-induced dream I had...?
Maybe it's his annoying neighbours' address...
US military are pirates and also uses non-DRM material. Why don't RIAA sue them? The army has a lot more money than your average grandmother/child.
There were many AC and DC powered radios.
Radios powered by AC? Wouldn't cowards just run away?
during the Napoleonic wars troops on both sides would regularly rape and pillage wherever they were, safe in the knowledge that they were unlikely to be caught or punished.
Which ever side you support, whatever your views on the current situation, what can not be denied is there are a LOT of tooled up, strong, testosterone-filled soldiers in these places. When not at work they need to keep themselves entertained and occupied, surely anything which avoids raping, pillaging, the use of narcotics and general misbehaviour is to be welcomed. And if the RIAA have a problem with that they can try footing the bill for reparations and compensation when, having been denied electronic entertainment, soldiers resort to their more "traditional" distractions.
My brother said alot of the time when there's no action going on, there's little to do except for chain-smoke & watch DVDs or play computer games. Alot of the (UK) soldiers have digital cameras to play about with...it's all good & fine, but I must say my brother's friends did take some disturbing photos of shit that happens out there.
http://nathanlindsell.blogspot.com/
Thank you, kind sir for putting it in perspective.
Piracy is the least of our concerns here. In fact, piracy is mostly the ONLY way we are able to get music and movies to bring a little comfort into our lives. I'm stationed in Iraq now, and have been so for the past 10 months. Let me tell you - we soldiers swap movies and music amongst ourselves all the time. The PX'es have a small selection of music and movies, and so we turn to other avenues (like swapping music and movies) or buying pirated CD's and DVD's from Iraqis. We can get whole TV series (Babylon 5, Sopranos, Simpsons) and if they are DVD rips, the quality is pretty good. We can even get movies when they're still in theater - of course, the copy is pretty crappy, but sometimes it'll do. Piracy is rampant here and I wonder if the RIAA knows about it. To put it quite simply, none of us are really bothered - we're mostly trying to make sure we stay alert and alive. To be honest, I find that if I hear some music from a band/artist I like, I buy their CD's. For example, I recently got a song or two by Death Cab For Cutie from my friend. I liked their music, so I bought their CD.
I'm waiting for the day when the *AA sends their representatives into the battlefield to make sure piracy isn't running wild amongst the troops - I'd laugh. I wonder if they'd have the balls to do that or to prosecute soldiers/marines/seamen/airmen who are simply trying to make their lives a little more comfortable.
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
and Iraq is a lot worse off today than it was before the American invasion,
Try asking an Iraqi about that. They'd rather be able to choose to live in an "occupied" country and shoot at each other than have Saddam murder and rape them against their will.
They play Counterstrike in their time off?
-5 Redundant.
"Oh, Jesus, your parents made you watch the 'Banana Splits'??? Is it too late to sue them for child abuse????"
Pretty close. The Banana Splits could count as giant Elvis man-dogs, but I'm pretty sure they were of the 'walking Muppet' variety like Big Bird, and were not robots.
Where were you when the voynix came?
Yeah, I joined the military to help pay for school, because I didn't think my dad should have to fork out that much $$$$ to put me through school. In addition, I liked the idea of joining the military and having some order and discipline to my life.
Words like Loyalty, Honour, and Duty MEAN something to me. Whether I agree with the administration and its views is completely irrelevant to my duty. I'll do my job as best as I can, and I'll get out. And please spare me your rebuttal if it's going to be "oh and your job is killing iraqis and stealing their oil?" - if you have a fucking problem, then point it at the administration. Not us. We do our job, regardless of who is in power.
"Besides, everyone knows the true source of pain is neither the hand nor the heart. It is the mouth. Is it not, Minister?" -G'Kar
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
Our troops aren't just fighting for Democracy
Too right! They're (unwittingly maybe) fighting for oil and the control of massive oil reserves. Democracy and all the rest are just desirable side effects. Or maybe, economic stability and developed infrastructure wiil facilitate the ability to control the oil. Not that I have a problem with that. I just wish the politicos would be upfront and honest about what they're trying to achieve.
I'm sure you were just trying to make a sarcastic point, but private ownership of fully automatic weapons are not illegal in the US, just highly regulated. Nor are high capacity magazines illegal.
I remember when I was in the service the only weapons they gave us were old battle-scarred walkmans that could only play 99 Red Balloons. That was before they realized that batteries did not carry enough charge and desert sand played the mickey with tape-fed cartridges. Often you'd be hunkered down in the trenches, waiting for the whistle and cry to go 'over the top,' only to find that your tape had jammed.
Then near the end of doing my bit, they rolled out slim players that needed only one battery and had special sand filters. They played, "Another One Bites the Dust," and were quite the thing. We put the Jerries to route with that number. A handful of the lads were equipped with odd prototypes that had no batteries or cartridges and got their songs from a computer, but we hard-bitten vets laughed and laughed and would never have gone to war with something like that.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
We've defined the enemy as "terrorism". This is the "War on Terror"; but terrorism is a tactic, not a group. No matter how many "terrorists" you kill, you do not kill terrorism. Indeed, when the fighting drags on as it has, and the inevitable atrocities that come with such situations occur, and the inevitable innocents killed collaterally, you begin to recruit more terrorists than you kill.
You hear a great many comparisons these days between the U.S. and the Roman Empire. They're understandable; but I find them all just a bit off. We have all seen this before in many facets of life. It is at its heart, competition. We are failing because we are becoming more interested in our position as a leader than we are in leading.
We had a great deal of support from all regions of the world after 9/11. If we had been good leaders, we'd have declared war on Al Queda, and fought them relentlessly. The world would have respected that. The middle-east would have respected that. We'd have shown the world that we were strong, reasoned, and purposeful.
Instead, we picked terrorism as a broader target, and a third party Iraq as a specific. We invaded a country that was not a threat to us. We used evidence we knew was shaky to make the case for doing so. Because terrorism was more than just killing, we dreamed up more justifications than preservation. We did it for all manner of reasons: defense, liberty, humanity, etc. We talked ourselves into a position of wondering "why not invade Iraq?".
But the selfishness and hubris that corrupt our politics now also ensure that nothing will stay secret forever. Somebody who knows the truth will not be able to keep his/her mouth shut. And so we learn more and more about meetings where prococations are planned, where contradictory evidence is ignored, and where policy defines reality rather than the opposite.
It was a failure of leadership. And, we have ourselves as citizens to blame for not being more questioning of those who would propose to hold our high offices. We are lazy voters. We are uninformed voters. We surrender to our whims and our passions, at the expense of study and reason.
The leaders we elect, we deserve.
Hot Damn! It's the Soggy Bottom Boys!
While soldiers once deployed with little more than a backpack and a rifle
// End history rant
Well excuse me, but I'm reading world history atm, and no army has ever been as trimmed down as the ones of today (except small rebel groups of course). They used to have musical bands, barbers, doctors (most of whom were barbers too), artists and let's not forget the fun girls. When de Alba attacked the Netherlands Filip the 2nd sent with him court of women dressed like princesses, to defeat the uproar by amazement. A whole lot of people followed the armies on foot, living off of them.
Hannibal had elephants. Not potbellypigelephants.
As for equipment, costume was just as important as it is today. Except that today you're not to be seen.
Defining Statistics and Social Research
hmmmn, interesting insight. Not sure if I agree, but will have to think about it for a while because I can never figure out why there are Mc Donalds there now...
"There's a fairly robust grey market run by the locals"
A man in denial, right before your eyes: this is not a "grey" market he is describing. "Grey" implies it's not clearly right or wrong. It is a black market, openly selling bootlegged copyrighted material.
Bootlegging of DVDs is very common in the Gulf region. I still have the business card of a guy in Kuwait who sells DVDs door-to-door. I also have a Fargo DVD which I paid full price for at a chain retailer in Riyadh (Rotana? Mega-? The one at al Faisaliah, whatever name it is), which turned out to be a bootleg in fancy packaging. It is not just the "locals"; there are plenty of westerners in the region who stock large libraries of DVDs and supply lists of available titles to anyone interested, promising copies direct from the original on good media - expect to pay an extra buck or two per unit for this top-quality merchandise!
RTFM; please, I beg you.
...That all soldeirs get life insrance on the government: They can't get it anywhere else. Think about that when you curse them for having the same rights as you to enjoy themselves when under fire hundreds of thousands of miles away from home.
Didn't you watch MASH. The Potter had his horse, Klinger had womans clothing, Hawkeye, Trapper had the still; and every one else has Rose's bar.
Oh really? And how many Iraqis have you polled recently? Heck, how many Iraqis actually have the 'choice' you speak of. In any case, the kids making road-side bombs seem to think you don't know what you're talking about.
-FL
Our troops aren't just fighting for Democracy, they're also fighting for stable economies & developed infrastructures.
Where have you been the last 5 years????
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
The Iraqi's that choose to demonstrate (a small minority) do so all the time. Peaceably even, without any kind of repercussion. Talk to any American soldier who's been there. They'll tell you that its just a few people making the rest of the Iraqis' life hard for them. The rest of them see the necessity for the Coalition's presence and don't want us to go until it's stable there. So to even imply that it's everyone who hates us is absurd.
They even get to vote freely. The Coalition forces protect them when they do it from the very people who would rather have a minority (the Shia militias, the Sunni insurgents, or the foreign fighters) rule it all just like it had been before Saddam. And the Iraqis elect people who would rather us not be there and don't like our foreign policy, i.e. Pro-Israel, that's how freely they are allowed to vote. I mean, isn't an election split 6 different ways with no clear 50+ percent majority much more democratic than the 100% participation and results that Saddam somehow got every "term" that ended? And somehow, they all get a voice in the government, with a Shia PM, and a Sunni head of their DoD.
You need to let your distate of whatever you believe was the causes for the war (when the reality is that the majority of the countries in the world, through their own respective intelligence services, all came to the same conclusion that Iraq had WMD) stop coloring your interpretation of the facts, allow you to see the good that is coming out of it, and talk to someone who has been there with boots and sandals on the ground.
From a letter entered into the congressional record. .
Is this guy misrepresenting his experiences? I don't know, but I've read numerous reports from the front, and it all sounds similar.
You need to let your distate of whatever you believe was the causes for the war (when the reality is that the majority of the countries in the world, through their own respective intelligence services, all came to the same conclusion that Iraq had WMD)
No they did not.
There were weapons inspectors in Iraq for months and they found nothing which could threaten the U.S.. Any missiles which were capable of flying beyond a specific limit were required to be destroyed. Iraq complied. This was actually quite a funny few months; every demand made by Bush was met by Iraq, which meant no reason to invade. And so increasingly ridiculous demands were made. Finally it came down to fabricated evidence.
The CIA declared that they had no evidence and that the White House doctored their reports in order to favor an invasion. --The White House claimed otherwise, saying that the CIA made a blunder by feeding them false positives about WMD's, which the CIA denies. --This bickerfest was all over the papers for months and the one underlying fact was that there were no WMD's. Eventually, the war began in earnest, and bad record keeping and clerical errors were the mumbled excuses. --Which it a lie, of course. --The infamous Downing Street Memos document Tony Blair and Bush conspiring to invade regardless of what the WMD status was. This is all part of the public record. Finally, the semi-official reason for invading was because "Saddam was a really bad guy and the Iraqis needed liberating."
Intresting in that Saddam was armed and installed by the CIA, and given support and weapons from the late Fifties until the mid-Eighties. If you want to start a war, it's convenient to have a fall guy in place who will have exactly the policies you require and who you can turn on in a heartbeat.
It's also important to remember that there isn't ever just one factor in war. It's about confusion and chaos. That's what sells the most weapons. Clear-cut scenarios are easy to solve because they're clear-cut. So the more muddied and confused, the more participants, the more likely that a war will be something which cannot be easily ended. This is what the weapons salesmen want. There are fortunes bein
Why would you submit something from a congressional record, which is controlled by the very same people who are "interested instead in securing as much ill-gotten power, (which they mistake for safety), for themselves and their immediate families and friends" and live in a "world of money and power and manipulation, and it is more sick and disheartening than most people imagine". So, unless you are stating that the politicians of the House are of a standard completely apart from the rest of the politicians running the government, then I can only acknowledge that this is anecdotal evidence.
Using anecdotal evidence, I could say every Marine is a murderer and rapist if we're talking about Haditha, as what happened according to FOX news, or I could say every Marine is a paragon of virtue, and that they only help give small children the necessary vaccines and build their schools, as I see when I switch the channel to CNN. So I'll take those records with the same grain of salt as I do awe inspiring stories of Iraqi's taking soldiers into their home for dinner, and the happy kids running along the Bradleys and singing "We love America" as my brother tells me of in Iraq.
The so-called democratic elections have been a farce. American can't even hold their own elections without massive corruption and pre-fabricated results. The Diebold scandal on U.S. shores is an embarrassment to the entire idea of democracy.
I don't like Diebold because they make ATMs and I used to work at a bank before I entered the U.S. Army. They are a corporation with as much legal and administrative oversight as any other corporation in America, and if they make something that doesn't work, they should be subject to the U.S. Legal system like every other company that makes faulty products. And they are. But when American democracy keeps corruption and scandal at below 1% on a consistant basis (especially more recently. Do some research on LBJ or Kennedy's elections and you'll be appalled. I think they were both good Presidents, but that's a separate subject.) We have the free-est elections in the world, and Diebold is not stealing anyone's vote. If you read the Diebold story earlier today, the votes still got hand counted, so everyone wins! Amazingly, our democratic process is still healthy and working, and it is in Iraq. The people they elected, after an extensive hand count (the same process used when the Diebold machines fail), got the offices they were elected for. I don't see what's broken.
"Nothing is solved by shooting. Violence is just a big negative Karma engine, and it'll sweep you up and keep spinning you until you make the decision to get out.
Because people like Osama, Saddam, or Hitler can be reasoned with? Information, no matter how pure and distilled it is, or how well communicated, does not change some people's minds. Taking such a stance as to only use mentoring and diplomacy, we are relegated to becoming another victim, albeit an ideal holding Martyr of a victim. Some people are not so selfish as to delegate that choice to the rest of the world, and instead are going to stand up to these people with sick mindsets and beliefs. Use reason on the rest of the world where reason has a chance of working.
With awareness and knowledge, the likes of Hitler and such can't come to power. Power entails being followed, usually by people of good conscience. There are psychopaths and such out there, but they are vastly out-numbered by the rest of humanity. If the rest of humanity is aware, they need not live difficult lives under bad apples.
Mind you, there are lessons to be had through the expression of violence, and they have their place. But they are tough, and they are the kind of thing I think we are trying to grow away from.
-FL
"Saudi Arabia has been a member for less than a year, and Kuwait has been since 1995"
I meant to say they are members of the WTO... and are therefore bound by its treaties and agreements, including intellectual property protection.
RTFM; please, I beg you.