US Military Uses Spam, Internet Explorer 332
chundo writes "CNN reports that the United States government has been secretly encouraging the defection of senior Iraqi officials via email. Iraq is responding by shutting down some of their internet gateways to prevent these emails from getting through, forcing the US to find alternate means to deliver the message. Maybe they should have enlisted this guy - emails from him keep showing up in my inbox no matter what I do." This story about the growing military network bandwidth crunch shows the U.S. military trying hard to get every soldier online, all the time.
What are we promising them? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What are we promising them? (Score:2)
Not 72 virgins I hope.
I should hope not! I would be up in arms, if they (the 'enemy') were being offered virgins! Especially since my school is only 1/3 girls.
:D
neurostarRe:What are we promising them? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What are we promising them? (Score:2)
You're obviously not using them, so I don't see where the problem is.
At my school: "Girls are like parking spots. The good ones are already taken, and the rest are handicapped."
Unfortunately, it's beyond my control. :D
neurostarRe:What are we promising them? (Score:2, Funny)
Islamic Spam (Score:5, Funny)
RE: Pictures of Alah! Download now!
RE: Make money selling burkas from your home.
RE: Gain weight now!
Re:Islamic Spam (Score:2)
Re:Islamic Spam (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, that one will get you in trouble. You're not supposed to have pictures of holy people/things/etc. For example, nobody is quite sure what Mohammed looked like because the artists of the time weren't allowed to paint his face.
Re:Islamic Spam (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, and Christians today have a wonderful idea of what Christ looked like. Let's see... he was Jewish, lived in the middle east, in the desert... he must have been tall, blond, blue-eyed, and white!
Re:Islamic Spam (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, there is the perhaps more basic question of whether there is anything to portray at all or whether Christ is just a myth. And if you do believe the entire story, then the issue becomes: given his father, Christ might have had looked like anything, or even appeared differently to different people.
Re:Islamic Spam (Score:3, Insightful)
features in nordic cultures, he is also generally
portrayed with asian features in asian cultures,
and african features in african cultures as well,
quite appropriately to the universality of his
role. After all, the entire point of incarnation
is identification with individual humans. Any
barrier to identification is profoundly counter-
productive to his purpose.
Re:Islamic Spam (Score:2)
What, the idiotic stereotype of spammers? There's nothing stereotypically Muslim in the post at all!
Observe:
Are Muslims promised virgins in the afterlife? Yes.
Do Muslims worship Allah? Yes.
Do Muslims advocate the use of burkas? Yes.
Are Muslims typically underweight? Actually, I don't know. But it can't be much of a stereotype if it's not widely known, can it? Maybe it's just a misconception.
Now, the post is still offensive for other reasons, but you were probably too busy stereotyping Slashdotters as "arrogant" to notice :)
Re:Islamic Spam (Score:2)
I am not judging the whole nation by a few idiots. e.g. I certainly appreciate the Americans that go to Iraq to become a human shield. But there is something that can be called `American arrogance' there is a definite disrespect for human life if that human is not American, among your society. Think of the people American government holding in Cuba right now. Could they do this to American citizens? What is the difference? American citizens deserve rightful trial but others don't? Again, I ask you, what would you call it?
Re:Islamic Spam (Score:4, Insightful)
Entertain for a few minutes, the possability that maybe that Saddam and his cronies actually have the power to stop the lost innocent lives if maybe they do as the UN asks. Or mabye if he was not attempting to get nuclear weapons, or maybe had he not used mustard gas on his own populace...
Think for a little while that though the USA has had bad moments of unleashing destruction against civilians (Japanese and German) that maybe this time the intent is to not do so?
How about the fact that the USA is pushing the high technology smart and precision weapons, spending billions and billions dollars on them, weapons that allow strategic and tactical goals of war to go on with less loss of civilian life?
The USA could bomb the whole place flat with regular, nuclear or thermobaric bombs, twice or three times without the new techonogy. Yet that has not been done.
And, whatever you do, please do not forget the Muslem extremists specfic and intended goal is to destroy civilians, women, children and soldiers simply for what they are and where they are born, what their religion is an the fact they dont beat their daughters for going outside without full robes.
Yes, civilians will die. The most saintly person in Iraq could be killed by a cranked up air force pilot dropping bombs in the wrong place. But the air force, army, and whatever the Brits send are there because the alternative will be worse.
Blame the USA for a few dead civilians if you want. We'll still keep coming to rescue your pussy European ass anyway.
Re:Islamic Spam (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't like the fact that we dropped atomic bombs on Japan, but I do believe it was the correct decision in a horrible situation. Our other option was to try to take Japan with a beach landing. I think that we would have won that battle (especially since Germany had surrendered - we could have moved out troops from Europe to Japan). But that would still have meant that millions of Japanese would have died along with several thousand Americans.
Re:Islamic Spam (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Islamic Spam (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Islamic Spam (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah. The Whitehouse.
Spam sample (Score:4, Funny)
To: saddam@iraq.com
Subj: Hot Iraqi Women in your Email!
You have credit problms? Is you penis to small? Well you hav win $1,000,00 million dollars! Click here to claim you prize mony and send a nuke your way.
us.mil? (Score:2)
Finaly, Iraq's internet sites would be in *.iq, not iraq.com
Re:us.mil? (Score:2)
The Spiegel Almanach entry for Iraq [spiegel.de] has Al-Jumhuriya al-Iraqiya as the country's offical name (in Arab, I guess). So
With all that spam.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:With all that spam.... (Score:2, Informative)
important message for IRAQ SCIENTIST (Score:2, Funny)
I have inherited 5milion dollars and we can split it, all is needed is the transfer fee and for you to defect... profit!
Investor Insites: Hot opportunity. (Score:2)
Is the US government stupid? (Score:5, Insightful)
How does the US expect their defectors to reply to the offers? They can't very well send them by email for fear of being nabbed. Maybe they tell them to draw a big 'V' in the ground so the spy satellites can see that they want to vacate Iraq?
Re:Is the US government stupid? (Score:3, Interesting)
Any scientist smart enough that we want him would know how to take an American public key, use it to encrypt details of a defection back to the states, and shit just hand-write the ASCII armor of it and fax it back..
Stupid, or hypocritical? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Is the US government stupid? (Score:5, Insightful)
It only makes the content of the communication unreadable, not the act of communication, which (at least for a police state) is enough information.
Faxing doesn't hide the communication either. Hint: dialing a 1 as country code could be slightly suspicous.
Re:Is the US government stupid? (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately, there are no patches for that.
Re:Is the US government stupid? (Score:2, Informative)
One word.
Rubberhose [rubberhose.org].
Re:Is the US government stupid? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Is the US government stupid? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Is the US government stupid? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Is the US government stupid? (Score:5, Informative)
YES! (was: Re:Is the US government stupid?) (Score:4, Insightful)
How much more proof do you need that Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction?
Spamming them may be a good plan to waste enough of their time to delay their progress, but it sure isn't stopping them from using the ones they have now -- because they don't have any!
By the way: read this poll result [rumormillnews.com] in Portugal; more than 70% of the population think that the USA is the biggest threat to world peace today. 3% say it's Iraq, 1% say it's China. 12% say it's Israel.
All this warmongering will only make things worse. First of all, it gave North Korea a legitimate excuse to leave the nuclear proliferation treaty. After all, Bush said he will to preventive strikes against his enemies, and he said North Korea is part of the Axis of Evil, so he actually gave North Korea the only good excuse to build more weapons.
Bush should focus on rebuilding the economy he ruined so thoroughly, not on bombing Iraq and alienating Europe. Do you have any idea how frightened the South Koreans must be now, and all of that just because of a few dumb remarks from Mr. Bush?
Agreed-- what Bush really wants (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Ranking senators in the intelligence committees saying they had not been shown any further evidence that made them conclude that Iraq had WMD.
2) The Administration's insistance that the group it shares the information with from the UN be *larger* than the current group of inspectors. Larger? WTF? If you want something to be secret you tell as few people as possible. Even the IAEA has mentioned that it would be helpful to them if the US has such informatin that they turn it over to the UN.
3) Ok, so assuming that the Administration knows that their allegations are false, then what? Why pick on Saddam now? His army is far weaker, though better entrenched, than it was in 1991, and the real threats to US forces would likely be post-Saddam ethnic violence.
So why Iraq and why now?
15 of the 9-11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, and I believe that the Administration feels that probing too closely into any aspect of the Saudi nation or government fundamentally undermines US capability in the Middle East. First we have the fact that they are THE MAJOR source of foreign oil (not a big deal, we could always get it from Russia, or Iraq...), but the bigger issue is not about oil.
We are immensely dependent on two nations in the Middle East for basing rights-- Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
I suspect that the idea is that we can position US bases in a Post Saddam Iraq because, just as we are doing in Afghanistan today, we will continue to create a divisive system which needs some oversight by US troups.
But I think the focus on Iraq is that a
"liberated" (occupied) Iraq would make Saudi Arabia dispensible, and that we would no longer have to pull our punches regarding that regime-- expect it to replace Iraq in Bush's Axis of evil.
In the end, I grudgingly supported operations in Afghanistan because I felt that Al Qaeda was a direct result of US aid to and recruitment for the rebels against the Soviets. But I am deeply concerned that if the US continues to sponsor the various warlords, that the rule of law will not return to Afghanistan, and it will be a place that will end up being the further breeding ground of terrorism. If we turn the middle east into our playground for witch-hunts, we will be encouraging the very thing we claim to be fighting, just as we did in Vietnam.
I will disagree with you though-- the North Korea situation is complicated--
1) North Korea we think was probably restarting their nuclear program in 2000, but only admitted to it more recently. On the other hand, the 1994 framework was supposed to give North Korea fully normalized relations with the US and membership in the world bank. These parts were never implimented, so one could argue that we broke it first (what the hawks think in North Korea, I would bet).
2) The reactor was restarted when we suspended fuel shipment-- this gave them the excuse to restart the reactor because they do need the electricity. When the IAEA complained that the refusal to allow inspectors was a violation of the Nonproliveration Treaty, North Korea withdrew from the treaty.
The unfortunate likely result is that North Korea will go nuclear-- we cannot negotiate with then for fear of encouraging nations, maybe including Iran, Egypt, or Saudi Arabia from starting nuclear programs. And failure to respond diplomatically, will result in North Korea going nuclear. Does this scare me? No-- North Korea has been a very repressive regime, but their policy towards the US has been one of deterrence.
How inspections work (Score:3, Insightful)
Saying inspectors are unlikely to find anything driving arround is like saying that the FBI is unlikely to find bank robbers by driving arround, visiting banks and looking for them. Sure the statement is correct on the surface, but that is not how the inspectors operate.
The inspectors are detectives-- nuclear, biological, chemical. They are experts at putting information together and checking it out. this is easy with regard to a nuclear weapons program which requires extensive infrastructure components (U236 enrichment plants, breeder reactors, etc.), and much more difficult with chemical or biological (area denial similar in function to land mines rather than massively destructive weapons like nuclear ones). These agents don't require the massive infrastructure, but they lost their combat effectivenenss comparitively quickly. If the gas decomposes, it doesn't make a very good area denial agent.
If I were Saddam, I would have a lot of greenish-colred smoke bombs ready.
Re:Is the US government stupid? (Score:4, Interesting)
In any case, this is an attempt at pyschological warfare: Stay on the sidelines in a war or you will be captured and tried as a war criminal.
Uh (Score:2)
Re:Uh oh (Score:2)
Re:Is the US government stupid? (Score:2)
Well, for my business email, sure. Doesn't everyone put in compliments about their boss (and especially their IT staff) in their business email every once in a while?
Otherwise, I use Hushmail for personal use, and I KNOW my IT department hasn't gotten it together enough to employ key loggers. Yeah, I know Hush isn't completely safe, but nothing will stop key loggers if you are trying to log in on a computer you don't know is secure...
Re:Is the US government stupid? (Score:2)
"The message includes instructions to the e-mail recipients to contact the United Nations in Iraq if they want to defect."
OK evilempireinc, what method of contact did the email's recommend? Telephone, winking, email, fax, letter bomb?
Army Spam - I can see it now... (Score:5, Funny)
You MAY be SURPRISED to receive this, but THE OFFICE GIRL said that you were a most TRUSTWORTHY PERSON. I beg you Forgive me for contacting you without prior contacting your office, but I am looking for a WORTHY business PARTNER to donate the sum of USD 124.5 million dollars. I am the son of the FORMER president of the U.S.A GEORGE BUSH who initiated a MILITARY CAMPAIGN in 1991. During this campaign, we discovered HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of DOLLARS stolen from THE REBELS. OUR economy is IN TROUBLE and we MUST get this MONEY overseas before the people DISCOVER it. We will gladly be willing to pay you the SUM of 26 MILLION DOLLARS for ASSISTING US. I pray to GOD that you will HELP US get this MONEY out of the country. ALL we need FROM you is your PASSPORT and SIGNATURE which you can fax to me or my colleauges to initiate the transfer of the MILLIONS of dollars. I remain your most humble SERVANT, and PRAY that you will be OUR SAVIOR.
SINCERELY,
MR. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
Re:Army Spam - I can see it now... (Score:5, Troll)
I doubt it (Score:5, Funny)
Always Online (Score:3, Funny)
Do they really need to be playing CounterStrike in the gulf *war*?
Bandwidth crunch in the Marine Corps (Score:5, Insightful)
Then fantasize about your Linux boxes at home as you try to salvage some idiot officer's "important files" from his Outlook virus infested brand new Dell laptop that he didn't deserve and no one loaded Norton on since he took it home every night and "was too busy" to let some enlisted IT guy fix w/ our standard program load.
Can you tell I'm not looking forward to deploying?
Re:Bandwidth crunch in the Marine Corps (Score:5, Funny)
BOFH, indeed.
huh! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Bandwidth crunch in the Marine Corps-Dark Fiber (Score:2)
We're talking about tactical networks here, set up out in the field running off of diesel generators and using satellite uplink.
Maybe your servers but not mine (Score:2)
MY servers are NT. We have not received any more Win2K licenses so we install what we have which is mainly NT. The situation is improving as all of the new computers shipped to us have Win2K on them.
What you see at where you work and what actually goes on in the Fleet Marine Corps are two different animals apparently.
Re:Bandwidth crunch in the Marine Corps (Score:2)
Screw retinal scans, rectal scans all the way! No more looking into a silly camera, just pray you're the first one at the office today and shove a probe up your ass for a tremendously painful rectal scan which lasts five minutes! I'm not even going to mention other body orrifices...
"all is fair in love and war" (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:"all is fair in love and war" (Score:2)
No, it's something else. (Score:4, Funny)
(FwooshSpinSpinSpinGargle) -- the sound of my karma as I click the Submit button)
Re:No, it's something else. (Score:2)
Marketing - creating the need (Score:4, Insightful)
Offtopic to Iraq, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
Growing military network bandwidth crunch (Score:2, Funny)
So slashdoting their servers earlier just might not have been such a good idea...
Seems unlikely (Score:2, Interesting)
It's a nice idea, but it again shows a poor understanding of the local situation by the West and most likely little consideration for the lives of exactly those insider people willing to oppose the regime.
Moz.
Re:Seems unlikely (Score:2)
Special bonus tip: I served in a PsyOp battalion for six years. I've seen the manuals. This problem is accounted for. It, and hundreds of other problems, are documented, evaluated, and proceduralized as during the initial planning stages of any PsyOp mission.
Extra special bonus tip: The real goal of missions like this is to decrease morale and undermine the enemy commander's ability to trust his troops. A secondary goal is to increase the probability that an enemy soldier will defect or desert if given a reasonable opportunity. Are these emails intended to be a reasonable opportunity? Probably not. They're simply classic FUD.
Current military PsyOp doctrine begins with Sun Tzu's premise that victory is best achieved in the mind of the enemy before the fighting even begins. It also proposes that demoralized troops fight less and surrender more. This reduces the death toll on your own army and the enemy army. It also shortens the duration and cost of the conflict. It's a classic tactic, dating back at least as far as Alexander the Great. Sadly, its value is too little understood these days (obviously).
of course the US military uses spam (Score:3, Funny)
Should have known... (Score:2, Funny)
Playing SOCOM, no doubt
I hope it gets better than this (Score:4, Insightful)
Ohhh, they must really be quaking, all that scary spam. Ohhhh.
C'mon! Send them some pr0n or something, a virus or trojan, even some Rap! Also, how stupid do the planners of this brilliant campaign Iraqi scientists are? Sheesh. I'd love to see the 'click-thru' rate on that one.
Computer geek peddles bootleg porn from city hall [xnewswire.com]
Re:I hope it gets better than this (Score:3, Insightful)
1. Just because they didn't bounce doesn't mean anyone is looking at them. I have set up 'black holes' before, and the email (or whatever) just floods in and suuuuuck! it's gone.
2. It's not very hard (at least in Linux) to simply deny any address (including whole domains/IP).
3. Does anyone really believe (except for the rear-echelon types that thought up this 'brilliant' scheme-can you tell I was an operator?) that this will have any effect? If the Iraqi government, scientific institutions, or military required the use of email to function, they would have abandoned it months ago and gone back to the old ways. All it really does is make the officer-clerk-brainiacs that 'thought' this up look like fools. Better would have been to monitor (oh, that's right, only 10 people in the Army speak Farsi, Arabic, Pushtu, etc.) the emails, play with some intercepted ones, and for gods sakes DON'T TELL ANYONE!!!
They released the info precisely because it wasn't working. Our techniques were much more effective.
Computer geek peddles bootleg porn from city hall [xnewswire.com]
Re:I hope it gets better than this (Score:2)
I don't know what kind of "operator" you were, but it obviously wasn't the "knows anything about psychological operations" kind. What if the intended effect wasn't to prompt immediate defections at all? What if the effect was to undermine the Iraqi brass's confidence in their subordinates and scientists? How much reliability can you really assign to the work of a man who's receiving propaganda email from the enemy all day?
Also, it obviously never occurred to you in your undoubtedly long and illustrious career as an "operator" that sometimes the people that make the decisions just need you to carry out your part of the job, and don't have the time to waste explaining the whole plan to you? That what you think is a stupid idea may actually not be stupid at all?
Did you ever notice that, in World War II, the most effective tactic was to rush the enemy position and try to overrun it before they shot all of you? Did the company commander sit down with the platoon and say "I need you to rush that position. Some of you will get shot, but as long as you don't stop attacking, some of you will survive. Once you make it to the position, I need you to hold it for half an hour while battalion moves up reinforcements to support you. It's going to suck, but I need you to do it anyway, because the position is important, and if you don't take it we'll lose the line, and the battle."?
Of course not! He just says, "rush that position!" The soldiers may think it's a stupid idea, but the real stupidity would be to question the orders and fail in their assigned task.
You want to be initimately familiar with the big picture? Fine, but Generals usually have to earn their rank--in any army--by showing they know how to follow orders. And even Generals are still obligated by oath and common sense to follow orders from their civilian commander in chief, even when those orders seem counter-productive or of no military value.
Does the Army put idiots in charge sometimes? Of course! What organization doesn't? But that doesn't suddenly make you the expert on how things should be run, nor does it mean that every order that seems idiotic to you actually is idiotic.
A good argument for why spamming can be 'good' (Score:2)
There is one difference, though. This stuff isn't commercial
the usual suspects (Score:3, Interesting)
lets hope they get their systems all in order.
i've heard and read so many nightmare scenarios about each part of each branch using some old incompatible box to store important data with the mil spec version of George Jetson sitting around, paid to click three buttons a day on machines so old nobody else can operate them.
Re:the usual suspects (Score:3, Interesting)
> will take in the next 20 years concerning the
> net, wireless and broadband, just watch the
> military over the next 5 years. their ideas will,
> as always, filter down to the public in this
> country.
Wrong. Ever since the miltary decided to cut costs and run itself like a business it has been following the tech sector, not leading it. With the exception of encryption and satellite, all the equipment is off-the-shelf and developed by the private sector five years ago.
Re:the usual suspects (Score:2)
to clarify, i'm speaking more about their massive deployment of mobility along with connectivity. so no, not the tech stuff itsself, we got it already, but the way they do it. think what it means to ups employees, office buildings, government beaurocracies. what it means to efficiency of these things too.
can anyone name a larger institution, company, government, etc. that is attempting to become 100% mobile and networked?
Slashdot editors, slipping... (Score:2, Troll)
"Internet Explorer" (Score:3, Informative)
military working to increase bandwidth (Score:2)
Oh just great (Score:4, Funny)
Hmmm..... (Score:3, Funny)
(Someone has waaaaay too much time on their hands)
Entire US arsenal available via the internet?!?! (Score:3, Insightful)
ah MSIE is rated as unsecure by Garner and Foreste (Score:2, Funny)
Imagine this:
Hacker in Iraq reads acccess hacking information breeding grounds like l)pht.cm, 2600.com and etc than uses flasw in MSIE to prevent a timed US military strike on Iraq..
Scary isn't it?
Where does Iraq get its Internet connection from? (Score:3, Interesting)
Persian Gulf War. This is pretty curious to me... where does Iraq hook up to the net -- what countries does it peer up with? What's their total bandwidth?
Can private citizens even get on the Internet at all there?
Seeding doubt into the enemy is very old (Score:3, Interesting)
Freedom of the press really is dead. (Score:3, Interesting)
Remember, way back in the 70s, this person called Deep Throat that blew the lid off of the Watergate scandal? Whatever happened to hearing information from a reliable source, then actually REPORTING that information without first consulting the government? How about the press being an independant journalistic adventure, instead of some guy pulling stuff off a news wire that's all pre-approved by the government? What about jounalists who actually investigate stories instead spewing back the same BS they heard 10 minutes before? The press here today is no better then that of the so called "restrictive nations" like many Mid East nations, where all news comes from the government approved facilities. If this is how the entire world is going to turn to, then bring on WW3 so we can start rebuilding a better society.
Not the same thing (Score:3, Insightful)
Here, our country is on the brink of war with another nation. The press served the people by ensuring that they were not releasing information that compromised a military operation. They were free to print what they knew, but chose not to do so of their own volition. There was no oppression here.
Both situations involve responsible behavior on the part of the press.
Soldiers Online?! (Score:4, Funny)
I can just imagine how that will turn out...
Private: Sarge! We're pinned down by Jerry's on all sides. We're almost out of ammo. We have no medical kits and Private Wilkins is bleeding to death. What do we do!?!
Sarge: We're pulling out. Private Booths, send an instant message to HQ asking for a chopper liftout.
Private: Uhhh, I can't do that Sarge. The PDA is jammed up with these messages for enlarging your penis.
Sarge: Enlarged penis, you say? Must be a new battle technique. Right, men! Everybody flop out your penis and enlarge them. That'll get the Jerry's running scared.
Re:Wtf ? (Score:2)
I'm with you, I don't have a clue what Internet Explorer has to do with this story.
Re:Wtf ? (Score:2, Interesting)
Nothing, as far as I can see. Doesn't really have anything to do with spam, either, in any meaningful sense, unless "spam" now means any large-scale use of email. The CNN article saysIf you ask me, this is a great idea.
Re:Wtf ? (Score:2)
No, but large scale use of unsolicited email + hiding the source = spam to me...though it's not UCE cause it's not commercial...
Re:Wtf ? (Score:3, Informative)
The "bandwidth crunch link".
Re:Wtf ? (Score:2)
Re:Wtf ? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wtf ? (Score:2)
Re:Wtf ? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wtf ? (Score:2, Funny)
I think it is wrong because they are promoting micrsoft software and x86 hardware as if it was the only alternative out there like many places do, ugh.. Linux R0x0rZ, now give me Karma!
Re:Wtf ? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Let 'em die (Score:4, Interesting)
Err ... no. Bush I. chose to retreat from Iraq to have a justification for U.S. troops to remain stationed all over the Middle East. They went there during the Gulf war and never left. As for the press, it was heavily (and voluntarily) censored during that time, virtually all the footage was Army-approved, and in fact provided by the Army.
Anyway, it was expected that Saddam would comply with U.S. interests after his defeat, without having to occupy Iraq and thus remove the need for U.S. 'protection' in the area. After this had proven wrong, the sanctions were put in place. Saddam remained defiant, and that's why the U.S. is heading there again.
Re:Let 'em die (Score:3, Interesting)
#1 The media does not have access to Allied intelligence. Without access to the solid information that Iraq is a problem, they will publish many stories that are questioning the US position on Iraq simply because it's the only thing they have that is interresting to read.
#2 I live in Japan and my friends here as well as some friends I have in China would all disagree with you. Granted, they all have at least college degrees and have spent enough time studying governement and political science to realize that the situation in Iraq is more than just a personal problem with GW Bush....Iraq's actions have negatively affected the whole region and pose a real threat to the stability of trade in the region. This eventually effects us all as it could provide a chain reaction of rising inflation should those trade routes be disrupted. Inflation that outpaces income growth will widen the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" which could potentially unbalance countries with existing unrest.
It's all about being a responsible citizen of the planet. Iraq has taken the attitude that it should be free to do whatever it wants. Unfortunately, personal freedom can only go so far before it begins to conflict with the freedoms of others. The UN is involved in this for a reason. And lacking all the info myself, I will trust that these educated men and women who represent their countries in the UN have expressed an interrest because they have credible evidence that the problem is real.
Re:Let 'em die (Score:2)
Did you think that up all by yourself? Or did your uneducated friends help you out?
Bush has repeatedly said he would not attack North Korea. [yahoo.com] Bush has no intentions of bombing Iran. [cnn.com] Bush said a war with Iraq is to get rid of Saddam's regime, not to bomb the Iraqi people. [cnn.com]
You can hate Bush and disagree on a war with Iraq all you want. But next time, read the news. Your ignorant reasons for spreading anti-Americanism doesn't do the world any good.
Re:Let 'em die (Score:2)
should have been written as "Is this mainstream America's feelings on the subject?" Which I would have to reply as Yes, with the recent Congressional elections and the Republican victories as my chief piece of evidence.
Re:spam kills airforce pilots (Score:5, Funny)
To: centralcommand@us.mil
From: WhiskeyBravo49@iraq.us.mil
Subject: Request Instructions
Priority: High^H^H^H^HCritic^H^H^H^H^HANSWER ME NOW DAMNIT!
We're being shot at. Please advise. Thanks.
Lt. James Parker, USAF
555-555-5555 x555 (M-F 8a-5pm)
Of course, Central Command probably just has an autoreply set up.
Thank you for contacting Central Command. We are experiencing a higher than normal email volume due to the war in Iraq. Please be patient while we get to your email in the order that it was received. Your comments and questions are important to use, and thank you for risking your life for the USA.
Re:What The Hell?? (Score:4, Insightful)
"We want YOU!"
Oh, for the days whenever the US government wanted reputable people working for them..
Re:Axes of Evil??? Where's the Origin? (Score:2)
A single axis doesn't need an origin, only some points to define it. Conveniently, nations can function as points in this context.
Also, two axes can be parallel, or even perpendicular but on two discrete and parallel planes. In fact, you can have multiple infinities of axes without ever requiring a single origin!
Next, please.