[PLUG] No Linux Clinic this month

Jeme A Brelin jeme at brelin.net
Thu Mar 13 20:50:03 UTC 2003


I just have one very important contribution to this discussion and then
it's back to plug-talk.

On Thu, 13 Mar 2003, AthlonRob wrote:
> On Thu, 2003-03-13 at 09:42, Michael Robinson wrote:
> > 10 of thousands of fools.
> I wouldn't go so far as to call them fools - they just have a few
> mistaken ideas... or are high on something.  :-)

The above was quoted for the purposes of mood setting, more than anything.

> They think people in the MidEast think like we do and have similar basic
> values.  They don't realize there are people out there you simply cannot
> reason with.

There are people who do not have your values and they live somewhere else
and you would like to impose your values upon them through military force.
If 11 September, 2001 should teach us ANYTHING, it's that killing people
is ugly and horrible and doesn't solve anything and, more often than not,
is just used to encourage more killing.

I'm going to skip all of Rob's regurgitation of the "justification" for
war that you can read in any mainstream newspaper or see on CNN.  However,
I'll note that they're all about Saddam Hussein and the regime in Iraq
and, therefore, show total ignorance of the situation and why the U.S. is
involved.

> Many of them also seem to think they have a better understanding of the
> situation than those with actual power to act.

I have the same understanding as "those with actual power to act" (though
I would also claim to be a person with some power to act).  They told us
all about what they wanted and why they want it.

There's an organization founded largely by those in power today (Cheney,
Rumsfeld, Khalilzad, Jeb Bush, etc.) called the Project For The New
American Century (PNAC) that released a report in September 2000 (!!)
entitled "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources
For a New Century".  The report is available as a PDF here:
<URL: http://www.newamericancentury.org/publicationsreports.htm >

It's fairly safe to say that this is the opinion and strategy of the
people in power today.

The report is shockingly frank and straightforward and describes a world
domination plan where U.S. military and economic control is unchallenged
and U.S. dependence is mandatory for a nation to survive.

One of the most shocking aspects of this report is that it's ostensibly
about U.S. defenses, but concerns itself primarily with reshaping foreign
nations to align themselves with the ideals of the authors.  The unstated
truth being that the state they evision cannot stand up to fair economic
competition.

Anyway, it's an interesting read and I recommend anyone interested in
seeing the world from the point of view of the hawks in office go ahead
and take the time to page through the report.

For the purposes of this discussion, there is the following section from
the report (Section III:  Repositioning Today's Force):

"Indeed, the United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent
role in Gulf regional security.  While the unresolved conflict with Iraq
provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American
force presence in teh Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam
Hussein."

In other words, this has nothing to do with the Iraqi people and
everything to do with building up U.S. forces in the Gulf region
permanently.

"Although Saudi domestic sensibilities demand that the forces based in the
Kingdom nominally remain rotational forces, it has become apparent that
this is now a semi-permanent mission.  From an American perspective, the
value of such bases would endure even should Saddam Hussein pass from the
scene.  Over the long term, Iran may well prove as large a threat to U.S.
interests in teh Gulf as Iraq has.  And even should U.S.-Iranian relations
improve, retaining forward-based forces in the region would still be an
essential element in U.S. security strategy given the longstanding
American interests in the region."

This is about "American interests in the region" and not at all about
democracy and freedom for the Iraqi people.  It's not about improving
their lives or their standard of living.  It's about setting up permant
bullying stations around the world to beat the living shit out of anyone
who threatens anything on the planet that the United States might possible
want to claim for itself.

> They know things that haven't been released to the public for security
> reasons... but we know better, for sure.

Do you think that Microsoft's claim that source code was not released for
"security reasons" is valid?  It's no more valid here, sir.

There is no secret information withheld for security reasons.  The UK
report that claimed to be suppressed for security reasons turned out to be
plagiarized from a graduate student thesis, misspellings and all.

As a user of Free and merely Open Source software, you should realize that
no security is gained from secrecy.  It's an excuse.

They need the veil of secret organizations so they can do whatever they
want and pretend to have secret information to justify it.

As any sysadmin will tell you, security through obscurity is no security
at all.

Open government for a Free world.
J.
-- 
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     Jeme A Brelin
    jeme at brelin.net
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