Re: DebConf 2 post-mortem
On Thu, 11 Jul 2002 06:43, Scott Dier wrote:
> * Russell Coker <russell@coker.com.au> [020710 23:19]:
> > I've never seen the Canadian PM declaring war on terrorists or drug
>
> The amount of grandstanding some people in power do is sometimes much
> different than the amount of crap some in other places of considerable
> power can handle. The president saying X Y and Z is a far cry from
> actually doing such.
The president's statements may not actually change anything, but they
certainly draw attention. When he says that he wants to attack some group of
people then you can be certain that some members of that group will want to
do a pre-emptive strike in response...
Announcing an intent to kill someone is the best way of getting them to
attack you.
> There is a majority here that want drugs to not be out there. Theres a
The majority of people who want drugs banned don't know anything about them.
They haven't met any drug addicts, don't know anything about biochemistry,
and haven't considered the practical issues of law enforcement.
The benefit of having a democratic government with separation of judicial,
executive, and legislative powers over mob-rule is to stop such uninformed
opinions becoming policy.
> majority here that dont paticulary like terrorists. I personally think
There are many people who I don't like, and who I think could be of best
service to the world by leaving it rapidly. However not wanting to start a
dispute which is likely to result in injury or death to myself I refrain from
telling them that. It seems that the US president is not so smart.
> that people who wage war over an idea with no state linked backing are
> criminals and not 'soldiers'. If a state is involved, its just warfare
> of a different type.
So what of a government that supports terrorists in another country? Is that
government a terrorist organization? Or should the terrorists be considered
an army of a different type?
> What should be scaring you is the "strike first" crap that gets spouted
> off about Iraq. Talk about setting a example for the others in the
> neighborhood.
Yes, discussion is just beginning on what Saddam will do this time, whether
he'll choose to use weapons of mass destruction, and whether the US forces
can stop him.
But this is all the trivial stuff, there's more worrying things than that
happening which I won't discuss on a public forum. It's a pity we didn't
discuss this at DebConf.
--
I do not get viruses because I do not use MS software.
If you use Outlook then please do not put my email address in your
address-book so that WHEN you get a virus it won't use my address in the
>From field.
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
Reply to: