Gulf War general says Iraq invasion ‘totally unjustified’.

London, The Sunday Telegraph: 22-09-2002
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent

The officer who commanded the British 7th Armoured Brigade in the Gulf War has revealed that he is strongly opposed to a military invasion of Iraq.

Maj Gen Patrick Cordingley, who commanded the brigade - the renowned Desert Rats - in 1991, believes that Iraq poses no imminent threat to Britain or its interests and that “the case for war has not yet been made by the politicians“.

Gen Cordingley told The Telegraph: “I’m absolutely opposed to a war. I feel very strongly that it is wrong. There is no justification for sending British troops to Iraq.”   Via Blog Left: Critical Interventions

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Begone Microsoft!

My current PC is a wheezingly obsolete P3 800 with 512 mb of RAM running Win98.  I’ve been installing new versions of Windows on top of old ones since Windows 3.0.  Thus, I have humungous amounts of clutter on my system (500 mb of DLL’s in Windows\System - some dating back to 1994!), and a system that is increasingly unstable.

A well written operating system wouldn’t lock up sometimes several times a day for no apparent reason.  A well written operating system would clean up after itself when a new version is installed.  A well written operating system wouldn’t require installing endless security fixes.

Most of my system crashes occur while using Microsoft products, primarily Outlook 2000 or Internet Explorer.  I find it bizarre and annoying that I must keep downloading fixes from Microsoft to fix gaping and deadly security holes that should never have existed in the first place.

So, I’m getting a new PC (the old one will be networked to it) and will make as free from Microsoft products as I can.  Yes, I can hear you Macheads and Linux wonks saying - why not chuck Microsoft completely, and you have a point!

But for now, the new box will run Win 2000 (the most stable of Windows operating systems) and - the real point of this - some seriously cool open source software.  Open source is code maintained at large by hordes of programmers which runs on mutiple operating systems.  Linux is open source, for example.  Also, open source programs are free.

So, what I’ll be using on the new computer is:

Mozilla.  The first open source web browser.  Runs on PCs, Linux, Sun, and has an alpha for Mac OS X.  Netscape uses Mozilla for their new version 7.0.  I’m running Mozilla now and it is snappier and more responsive than Internet Explorer and doesn’t come with “features” that allow hackers to destroy your system unless you turn these features off.

Open Office Pioneered by Sun, now available as open source, Open Office is a full featured office suite.  Word processor, spreadsheet, etc.  Reviews have been quite positive.

Eudora  An excellent mail reader (not open source but available in a free version) with more features than Outlook and none of the appalling security holes.

Are any of you using open source?

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Destabilization

Arafat’s movement opposes attacks on civilians in Israel

In a three-page letter released Tuesday, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement said it opposes and will prevent attacks on civilians in Israel, but suggested it will continue to target Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Fatah may halt attacks on civilians inside Israel.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)’s largest faction, Fatah has reportedly issued a statement calling for an immediate halt of retaliatory attacks against Israeli civilians and targets beyond the 1967 border.

Sharon threatens Lebanon with war (same article as above)

Sharon, who led a deadly war against Lebanon in 1982 is threatening of another war against the small Arab state. He warned that diverting water from the Lebanese Hasbani river constitutes grounds for war, Israeli army radio reported.

Hamas vows to continue resistance as Israel intensifies terror

Palestinian jihad movement Hamas today vowed to continue martyrdom operations against Zionists despite a series of savage methods by the Israelis.

“We also warn the occupation authorities that they will pay dearly. Deeds rather than words will confirm our statement, Inshaallah [God-willing],” it said in a statement released today.

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Bush’s war plans are a cover-up, Sen. Byrd

Byrd is chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, and the first major player in Congress to voice serious opposition to Bush.  May the trend continue.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., said President Bush’s plans to invade Iraq are a conscious effort to distract public attention from growing problems at home.

“This administration, all of a sudden, wants to go to war with Iraq, Byrd said. The [political] polls are dropping, the domestic situation has problems…. So all of a sudden we have this war talk, war fervor, the bugles of war, drums of war, clouds of war.”

“Don’t tell me that things suddenly went wrong. Back in August, the president had no plans…. Then all of a sudden this country is going to war,” Byrd told the Senate on Friday.

“Are politicians talking about the domestic situation, the stock market, weaknesses in the economy, jobs that are being lost, housing problems? No.”

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Leno on Iraq

“Bush said he wants a change so that the people of Iraq will be allowed to choose their own leaders. Good luck, we can’t even get the people of Florida to choose their own leaders.”

“The Bush administration said today there is a lot of support for us to attack Iraq. Exxon, Mobil, Texaco, Chevron, they’re all lining up.”

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Get those Evildoers!

Flash animation

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