Re: Iraq and computers

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

At 6:33 PM -0700 11/24/97, Anonymous wrote:

(stuff elided about more computers being deployed in Iraq)

>This is an interesting development because it also makes it hard for
>the Iraqi government to track what is going on, too.  The government
>of Iraq has been aware of the dangers of computers for many years.  At
>one time they were tightly controlled.  Even typewriters were
>controlled.  The government had writing samples of each one.
>
>Now, apparently, this policy is loosening.  This suggests that U.S.
>policy of the last 8 years has managed to achieve what Saddam Hussein
>could not - it has made the Hussein regime a genuinely popular
>government.

Embargos (or is it embargoes?) tend to alienate the people who are,
obviously, most affected. Embargos seldom affect the ruling class.

In the case of Iraq, more than a hundred thousand infants and children and
others are estimated to have died as a direct result of the embargo. (I
don't know if this is precisely accurate, but anytime the U.S. exerts its
superpower status to embargo free trade with some nation, obviously there
is some effect.)

As for Iraq and Hussein, he's JAD...Just Another Dictator. Not that much
worse than several dozen others, including most rulers in the Middle East,
that the U.S. deals with on a daily basis.

For some reason (hint: oil companies), the American President decided to
take a stand against his invasion of a neighboring country. No such stands
have been taken in recent years in many other such invasions.

(Bush may not have properly consulted the oil companies, either, as there
is ample evidence that Hussein would _not_ have cut off oil shipments had
he succeeded. In fact, he probably would have _increased_ oil exports.
Hmmmhhhh.)

>Still, it can't be universally popular.  How many cypherpunks live in
>Iraq?

I certainly wouldn't choose to live there. Of the 200 or so nations, there
are very few I would choose to live in, and few that would be conducive to
"Cypherpunks activities."

(It is not an accident that the nexus of the Net and Web is, loosely
speaking, "Western Civilization" in general, and America in particular.
Many reasons for this. Not just overall wealth, which allows for very good
connectivity and zillions of PCs in homes and businesses, but also the
First Amendment and facsimiles in European nations. Etc. Etc.)

But the whole Iraq situation bugged me, as that is one of the few places I
really planned to visit someday as a tourist...Sumeria, Babylon, the
Hanging Gardens, all those great Mesopotamian places. Egypt has no
attraction to me, but seeing the Gate of Ishtar, what's left of
Babylon....wow.

Maybe if I'm arrested for anti-government activities here in the U.S. I'll
be able to travel safely in Iraq when I get out of prison.

(Though by then the CIA may have successfully assassinated Hussein and
installed its own repressive government. )

I'm not a champion of Hussein or Iraq, but he's just another dictator (JAD).

By the way, I totally and completely and fully reject the U.S. position on
Cuba. It seems a slam dunk issue of repressing the liberties of Americans
to say they cannot travel to Cuba, cannot trade with Cubans, cannot give
money to Cubans, just because the government in D.C. decided 37 years ago
to isolate Castro.

Castro is JAD, and our isolation of Cuba has helped keep him in power.

>Monty Cantsin
>Editor in Chief
>Smile Magazine


--Tim May

The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^2,976,221   | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."