Damn right. When Russia was losing 500 people a day in 1941 and Molotov was in Washington pleading for a second front, the SecDef said "We don't see the need."
At this point it is still much to early to say with certainty who is responsible for this terrorist attack. But after being invaded and occupied based on bogus claims of WMD. After witnessing the wholesale destruction of their cities and the murder of more than a hundred thousand of their civilians, Iraqis have about as much moral right to set off bombs in London as the U.S. had in attacking Japan after Pearl Harbor.
No Slashdot/NewsForge said I resigned because I am opposed to the war in Iraq. Their simple description is simply wrong so you should read my whole letter and you should ask Roblimo why he didn't include the link in his piece.
The short story is that I resigned because in as much as people are being slaughtered in Iraq by this country and Linux people seem quite willing to ignore that reality and in fact indirectly contribute to it all the time carrying on business as usual, I said that the time I spent leading the user group could be better spent raising peoples consciousness about the war.
In response to the question "What good will it do?" If you read my whole letter you will see clearly that at the time I thought there was a serious danger that the Marines were going to make an example of Fallouja by massacring thousands of people. If the Marines have pulled back and now a massacre now seems less likely it is only because enough light has been shined on the situation. (reporters getting into Fallouja and reporting on the situation, people protesting around the world, especially in Iraq, etc.)
Sadly, if you look at the various statements from CentCom on up the Bush himself, they showed little concern for the lives of Iraqi civilians. They are only concerned with how it will 'look' to the rest of the world. If they have moved from saying the Marines will go into Fallouja and kill anyone who opposes them to saying they will allow an all Iraqi force to go in and handle things, it is because they realize now that a massacre cannot be carried out without the world watching.
My letter was largely designed to raise awareness of this situation in the Linux community. This could have been more successful had Slashdot even acknowledge that aspect of my letter. Instead they choose to make light of the situation with their forget-about-military-oxygen-use dept. subheading. And refused to even include a link to the whole letter.
In any case, many thousand of beams of light got shined on the Fallouja situation and the Marines did pull back. I hope that the controversy I raised on Slashdot was one such beam. If that is the case then I can justifiably feel that the work I did here and else where saved lives, both American and Iraqi.
We killed 3.4 million people in the Vietnam War. Without the antiwar movement we would have killed more and lost more American lives in doing so. I believe that the anti-war movement will save many lives this time as well, and I can think of no more noble or necessary task at this time (including running a user group!).
This is the best I could Google up on such short notice:
"Despite the defeat of the sanctions bill in the fall of 1988, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Claiborne Pell and other legislators have continued to press the case for sanctions. In June l989 Senator Pell presented an amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act that would require the President to make a determination whether Iraq consistently commits gross abuses of human rights. Aware that such a determination, if honestly made, would have to be in the affirmative, the Bush administration opposed the amendment, arguing once again that Iraq is "impervious to leverage." The State Department's Iraqi desk officer, Philip Remler, lamented that "Congress is not very protective of our relationship with Iraq."
At the end of September 1989, Senator Daniel Inouye put a rider on the Foreign Assistance Appropriations Act that barred the bank from further dealings with Iraq. The Inouye amendment, itself later amended to allow a Presidential override of the ban, became law in November. At year's end, the fate of the Pell amendment was still uncertain. "
If you care to find out more on your own, just Google around and you will see that a whole series of economic sanctions against Iraq became U.S. law in 89-90.
Who asked us anyway? Right now thanks to us, Iraq's present is in many respects worst than it's past. The future is anybody's guess.
Under Saddam Hussein Iraq had a president and a rubber stamp legislature. Under George Bush's latest plan Iraq will have a president and no legislature. That's progress!
And no I don't wish for a return of Saddam Hussein, unless I could also bring back all the dead, on all sides, from this war. If I could do that I'd make the swap in a NY minute.
Yeah Saddam killed lots in the Iran-Iraq war while he was our guy, and after the '91 war, while we instigated revolt and then sat back and watched.
The question that should have been asked last March before war was launched, especially now that the WMD excuse has been shown to be so much whoey, is "Who has he killed lately?"
Anyway as we speak it still looks like the Marines are planning a massacre in Fallouja - a city of 300,000.
What truly bothers me about this whole affair is that Roblimo, having decided to interview me and run the story, quoted roughly 15% of my letter of resignation and failed to provide a link to the whole letter when he could have easily done so. That's not my idea of how an open source news organization should do things.
It really and truly bothers me. Along with Google email using target ads and Bob Dylan doing commercials for Victoria Secrets. Ethics has gone to hell.
Trust me, I am opposed to terrorist using Linux also.
Just because I think that slamming 700 cruise missiles into Baghdad is also a form of terrorism, doesn't mean I support little people with dynamite belts.
I didn't say I resigned "Over Military Linux Use" NewsForge said I did, and then didn't provide a link to the whole email so people could read for themselves.
"NewsForge is carrying the news that the founder and president of Linux Users Los Angeles (LULA) has resigned because of his opposition to the war in Iraq"
If they had stopped right there they would have been technically true. As I said in the email anti-war work is a higher priority in my time now.
"and the U.S. Armed Forces' use of Linux."
If had they said "And he is opposed to the U.S. Armed Forces' use of Linux in Iraq" That also would had been an accurate statement.
But they mangled everything together to give the impression that I resigned from the executive of Lula because the miltary uses Linux, which is stupid. And then they forgot to include a link to the piece they were summing up.
There is so much misinformation here I don't known were to begin. The U.S. imposed sanctions in 1989 for reasons that had nothing to do with Kuwait. After '91 we convinced the UN to go along because of the invasion of Kuwait.
Even if Iraq gave up their WMD, as apparently they did, sanctions never would have been lifted because the goal was the conquest of Iraq.
What truly bothers me about this whole affair is that Roblimo, having decided to interview me and run the story, quoted roughly 15% of my letter of resignation and failed to provide a link to the whole letter when he could have easily done so. That's not my idea of how an open source news organization should do things.
It really and truly bothers me. Along with Google email using target ads and Bob Dylan doing commercials for Victoria Secrets. Ethics has gone to hell.
I never said I was abandoning Linux or the Lug. Just the presidency. I never said that the military could or should be stopped from using Linux. I did say that the military should not have invaded and should not now occupy Iraq. I do say that these issues should be discussed in the Linux community whereas a lot of people think they should not.
One of the many problems I have with this war is that the government is going out of its way to make it very cost free for Americans that matter, like the people on/. The monetary costs are being charged to the future and the fighting and dying is being done by 'volunteers' that could not afford a techy education. We are killing people big time in a country that never attacked us and most people on/. don't want to be bothered.
What truly bothers me about this whole affair is that Roblimo, having decided to interview me and run the story, quoted roughly 15% of my letter of resignation and failed to provide a link to the whole letter when he could have easily done so. That's not my idea of how an open source news organization should do things.
It really and truly bothers me. Along with Google email using target ads and Bob Dylan doing commercials for Victoria Secrets. Ethics has gone to hell.
Question: Why did Dick Cheney go to Shanghai last week? Answer: Because the Chinese said they would only talk to the top guy.
The sad truth is that we i.e. Cheney and Bush, are up to no good in Iraq. That's why WorldCom got the contract to rebuild the telephone system and...
What truly bothers me about this whole affair is that Roblimo, having decided to interview me and run the story, quoted roughly 15% of my letter of resignation and failed to provide a link to the whole letter when he could have easily done so. That's not my idea of how an open source news organization should do things.
It really and truly bothers me. Along with Google email using target ads and Bob Dylan doing commercials for Victoria Secrets. Ethics has gone to hell.
What truly bothers me about this whole affair is that Roblimo, having decided to interview me and run the story, quoted roughly 15% of my letter of resignation and failed to provide a link to the whole letter when he could have easily done so. That's not my idea of how an open source news organization should do things.
It really and truly bothers me. Along with Google email using targeted ads and Bob Dylan doing commercials for Victoria Secrets. Ethics has gone to hell in this country.
First read my whole statement not excerpts. Then respond. NewsForge and Slashdot could have provided a link to the source but it seems in this case they elected not to give you full access.
My point is that there are times an issue must be raised in every quarter. The United States is massacuring people in Falluoja today. That makes this one of those times.
In all fairness I think Slashdot and NewsForge could have provided links to my full statement.
Instead they choose to redact any mention of the dying in Fallouja that so far looks like it is proceeding as I have predicted and turn the matter into a joke with their from the forget-about-military-oxygen-use dept. subheading.
When all the smoke has cleared, I'd rather be in my position than theirs.
In all fairness I think Slashdot and NewsForge could have provided links to my full statement.
Instead they choose to redact any mention of the dying in Fallouja that so far looks like it is proceeding as I have predicted and turn the matter into a joke with their from the forget-about-military-oxygen-use dept. subheading.
When all the smoke has cleared, I'd rather be in my position than theirs.
In all fairness I think Slashdot and NewsForge could have provided links to my full statement.
Instead they choose to redact any mention of the dying in Fallouja that so far looks like it is proceeding as I have predicted and turn the matter into a joke with their from the forget-about-military-oxygen-use dept. subheading.
When all the smoke has cleared, I'd rather be in my position than theirs.
NewsForge and Slashdot could have provided a link to the source but it seems in this case they elected not to give you full access.
My point is that there are times an issue must be raised in every quarter. The United States is massacuring people in Falluoja today. That makes this one of those times.
NewsForge and Slashdot could have provided a link to the source but it seems in this case they elected not to give you full access.
My point is that there are times an issue must be raised in every quarter. The United States is massacuring people in Falluoja today. That makes this one of those times.
As a matter of fact I think he should be tried for war crimes for what is going on in Fallouja right now.
First read my whole statement not excerpts. Then respond. NewsForge and Slashdot could have provided a link to the source but it seems in this case they elected not to give you full access.
My point is that there are times an issue must be raised in every quarter. The United States is massacuring people in Falluoja today. That makes this one of those times.
NewsForge and Slashdot could have provided a link to the source but it seems in this case they elected not to give you full access.
My point is that there are times an issue must be raised in every quarter. The United States is massacuring people in Falluoja today. That makes this one of those times.
Slashdot Mirror
Damn right. When Russia was losing 500 people a day in 1941 and Molotov was in Washington pleading for a second front, the SecDef said "We don't see the need."
At this point it is still much to early to say with certainty who is responsible for this terrorist attack. But after being invaded and occupied based on bogus claims of WMD. After witnessing the wholesale destruction of their cities and the murder of more than a hundred thousand of their civilians, Iraqis have about as much moral right to set off bombs in London as the U.S. had in attacking Japan after Pearl Harbor.
No Slashdot/NewsForge said I resigned because I am opposed to the war in Iraq. Their simple description is simply wrong so you should read my whole letter and you should ask Roblimo why he didn't include the link in his piece.
The short story is that I resigned because in as much as people are being slaughtered in Iraq by this country and Linux people seem quite willing to ignore that reality and in fact indirectly contribute to it all the time carrying on business as usual, I said that the time I spent leading the user group could be better spent raising peoples consciousness about the war.
In response to the question "What good will it do?" If you read my whole letter you will see clearly that at the time I thought there was a serious danger that the Marines were going to make an example of Fallouja by massacring thousands of people. If the Marines have pulled back and now a massacre now seems less likely it is only because enough light has been shined on the situation. (reporters getting into Fallouja and reporting on the situation, people protesting around the world, especially in Iraq, etc.)
Sadly, if you look at the various statements from CentCom on up the Bush himself, they showed little concern for the lives of Iraqi civilians. They are only concerned with how it will 'look' to the rest of the world. If they have moved from saying the Marines will go into Fallouja and kill anyone who opposes them to saying they will allow an all Iraqi force to go in and handle things, it is because they realize now that a massacre cannot be carried out without the world watching.
My letter was largely designed to raise awareness of this situation in the Linux community. This could have been more successful had Slashdot even acknowledge that aspect of my letter. Instead they choose to make light of the situation with their forget-about-military-oxygen-use dept. subheading. And refused to even include a link to the whole letter.
In any case, many thousand of beams of light got shined on the Fallouja situation and the Marines did pull back. I hope that the controversy I raised on Slashdot was one such beam. If that is the case then I can justifiably feel that the work I did here and else where saved lives, both American and Iraqi.
We killed 3.4 million people in the Vietnam War. Without the antiwar movement we would have killed more and lost more American lives in doing so. I believe that the anti-war movement will save many lives this time as well, and I can think of no more noble or necessary task at this time (including running a user group!).
I hope that answers your question.
This is the best I could Google up on such short notice:
"Despite the defeat of the sanctions bill in the fall of 1988, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Claiborne Pell and other legislators have continued to press the case for sanctions. In June l989 Senator Pell presented an amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act that would require the President to make a determination whether Iraq consistently commits gross abuses of human rights. Aware that such a determination, if honestly made, would have to be in the affirmative, the Bush administration opposed the amendment, arguing once again that Iraq is "impervious to leverage." The State Department's Iraqi desk officer, Philip Remler, lamented that "Congress is not very protective of our relationship with Iraq."
At the end of September 1989, Senator Daniel Inouye put a rider on the Foreign Assistance Appropriations Act that barred the bank from further dealings with Iraq. The Inouye amendment, itself later amended to allow a Presidential override of the ban, became law in November. At year's end, the fate of the Pell amendment was still uncertain. "
If you care to find out more on your own, just Google around and you will see that a whole series of economic sanctions against Iraq became U.S. law in 89-90.
Who asked us anyway? Right now thanks to us, Iraq's present is in many respects worst than it's past. The future is anybody's guess.
Under Saddam Hussein Iraq had a president and a rubber stamp legislature. Under George Bush's latest plan Iraq will have a president and no legislature. That's progress!
And no I don't wish for a return of Saddam Hussein, unless I could also bring back all the dead, on all sides, from this war. If I could do that I'd make the swap in a NY minute.
Yeah Saddam killed lots in the Iran-Iraq war while he was our guy, and after the '91 war, while we instigated revolt and then sat back and watched.
The question that should have been asked last March before war was launched, especially now that the WMD excuse has been shown to be so much whoey, is "Who has he killed lately?"
Anyway as we speak it still looks like the Marines are planning a massacre in Fallouja - a city of 300,000.
the piece
"Where is the wrong in that?"
Ask the dead and injured.
"if you are to be taken seriously then you would have spoken in 1998... you didn't."
I did, I didn't see you around though.
statement
What truly bothers me about this whole affair is that Roblimo, having decided to interview me and run the story, quoted roughly 15% of my letter of resignation and failed to provide a link to the whole letter when he could have easily done so. That's not my idea of how an open source news organization should do things.
It really and truly bothers me. Along with Google email using target ads and Bob Dylan doing commercials for Victoria Secrets. Ethics has gone to hell.
Trust me, I am opposed to terrorist using Linux also.
Just because I think that slamming 700 cruise missiles into Baghdad is also a form of terrorism, doesn't mean I support little people with dynamite belts.
whole statement
I didn't say I resigned "Over Military Linux Use" NewsForge said I did, and then didn't provide a link to the whole email so people could read for themselves.
"NewsForge is carrying the news that the founder and president of Linux Users Los Angeles (LULA) has resigned because of his opposition to the war in Iraq"
If they had stopped right there they would have been technically true. As I said in the email anti-war work is a higher priority in my time now.
"and the U.S. Armed Forces' use of Linux."
If had they said "And he is opposed to the U.S. Armed Forces' use of Linux in Iraq" That also would had been an accurate statement.
But they mangled everything together to give the impression that I resigned from the executive of Lula because the miltary uses Linux, which is stupid. And then they forgot to include a link to the piece they were summing up.
I'm speechless. What should I put in my spam filter for you.
click herefor a good time.
Even if Iraq gave up their WMD, as apparently they did, sanctions never would have been lifted because the goal was the conquest of Iraq.
What truly bothers me about this whole affair is that Roblimo, having decided to interview me and run the story, quoted roughly 15% of my letter of resignation and failed to provide a link to the whole letter when he could have easily done so. That's not my idea of how an open source news organization should do things.
It really and truly bothers me. Along with Google email using target ads and Bob Dylan doing commercials for Victoria Secrets. Ethics has gone to hell.
Thank you for your thoughtful comments.
/. The monetary costs are being charged to the future and the fighting and dying is being done by 'volunteers' that could not afford a techy education. We are killing people big time in a country that never attacked us and most people on /. don't want to be bothered.
I never said I was abandoning Linux or the Lug. Just the presidency. I never said that the military could or should be stopped from using Linux. I did say that the military should not have invaded and should not now occupy Iraq. I do say that these issues should be discussed in the Linux community whereas a lot of people think they should not.
One of the many problems I have with this war is that the government is going out of its way to make it very cost free for Americans that matter, like the people on
It really and truly bothers me. Along with Google email using target ads and Bob Dylan doing commercials for Victoria Secrets. Ethics has gone to hell.
Question: Why did Dick Cheney go to Shanghai last week?
Answer: Because the Chinese said they would only talk to the top guy.
The sad truth is that we i.e. Cheney and Bush, are up to no good in Iraq. That's why WorldCom got the contract to rebuild the telephone system and...
What truly bothers me about this whole affair is that Roblimo, having decided to interview me and run the story, quoted roughly 15% of my letter of resignation and failed to provide a link to the whole letter when he could have easily done so. That's not my idea of how an open source news organization should do things.
It really and truly bothers me. Along with Google email using target ads and Bob Dylan doing commercials for Victoria Secrets. Ethics has gone to hell.
No soap. First read my whole statement not excerpts. Then respond.
Are you talking about me? First read my whole statement not excerpts. Then respond.
It really and truly bothers me. Along with Google email using targeted ads and Bob Dylan doing commercials for Victoria Secrets. Ethics has gone to hell in this country.
First read my whole statement not excerpts. Then respond.
NewsForge and Slashdot could have provided a link to the source but it seems in this case they elected not to give you full access.
My point is that there are times an issue must be raised in every quarter. The United States is massacuring people in Falluoja today. That makes this one of those times.
In all fairness I think Slashdot and NewsForge could have provided links to my full statement.
Instead they choose to redact any mention of the dying in Fallouja that so far looks like it is proceeding as I have predicted and turn the matter into a joke with their from the forget-about-military-oxygen-use dept. subheading.
When all the smoke has cleared, I'd rather be in my position than theirs.
In all fairness I think Slashdot and NewsForge could have provided links to my full statement.
Instead they choose to redact any mention of the dying in Fallouja that so far looks like it is proceeding as I have predicted and turn the matter into a joke with their from the forget-about-military-oxygen-use dept. subheading.
When all the smoke has cleared, I'd rather be in my position than theirs.
In all fairness I think Slashdot and NewsForge could have provided links to my full statement. Instead they choose to redact any mention of the dying in Fallouja that so far looks like it is proceeding as I have predicted and turn the matter into a joke with their from the forget-about-military-oxygen-use dept. subheading. When all the smoke has cleared, I'd rather be in my position than theirs.
The sad truth is that we i.e. Cheney and Bush, are up to no good in Iraq. That's why WorldCom got the contract to rebuild the telephone system and...
First read my whole statement not excerpts. Then respond.
NewsForge and Slashdot could have provided a link to the source but it seems in this case they elected not to give you full access.
My point is that there are times an issue must be raised in every quarter. The United States is massacuring people in Falluoja today. That makes this one of those times.
Technically people are still dying.
Question: Why did Dick Cheney go to Shanghai last week?
Answer: Because the Chinese said they would only talk to the top guy.
The sad truth is that we i.e. Cheney and Bush, are up to no good in Iraq. That's why WorldCom got the contract to rebuild the telephone system and...
First read my whole statement not excerpts. Then respond.
NewsForge and Slashdot could have provided a link to the source but it seems in this case they elected not to give you full access.
My point is that there are times an issue must be raised in every quarter. The United States is massacuring people in Falluoja today. That makes this one of those times.
As a matter of fact I think he should be tried for war crimes for what is going on in Fallouja right now.
First read my whole statement not excerpts. Then respond.
NewsForge and Slashdot could have provided a link to the source but it seems in this case they elected not to give you full access.
My point is that there are times an issue must be raised in every quarter. The United States is massacuring people in Falluoja today. That makes this one of those times.
What innocent websites are there? Are you staying we can't afford to discuss the war because it uses bandwidth?
First read my whole statement not excerpts. Then respond.
NewsForge and Slashdot could have provided a link to the source but it seems in this case they elected not to give you full access.
My point is that there are times an issue must be raised in every quarter. The United States is massacuring people in Falluoja today. That makes this one of those times.