An officer in Iraq writes:
I hadn’t heard of OpenOffice until you recently mentioned it in your blog. Thanks for bringing it up. I installed it and it works great. I also read in your blog the entry entitled The Darkness Spawns More Evil regarding Windows XP and Linux. How user friendly is Linux for a home system belonging to someone that is not a computer expert (such as myself)? For the average home computer user, is it worth the switch?On a different subject, I wanted to let you know that I tune in daily to the blogspot. Out here in the desert I’ve got a lot of time on my hands to read, and your site is one of my favorites. Count me, as well as a few fellow officers that will listen to me, in as converts to libertarian principles. I can’t believe I was blinded for so long. By the way, that Marine Major’s statement about supporting the troops equals supporting the mission is totally absurd. Obviously, some of us know better. We are the ones who get out of the service as soon as our commitment ends (if they let us re: stop loss orders) I and several other officers in our battalion, are headed for the door.
Linux, as in Fedora Core 2, works very well as a home system except for its home networking capabilities. I haven’t been able to get it working at all; it’s even less functional than Fedora Core 1, with which I could at least access my Windows machines via SMBCLIENT. Big Chilly reports that Mandrake does a very nice job with setting up all the networking stuff, though, and I’m planning to check it out once I wrap up a few more pressing projects.
I’m not in the least bit surprised to hear this officer ridicule the major’s statement, as I’ve heard from plenty of Marines, soldiers and sailors who have their doubts about the mission. Their professionalism allows them to get the job done and get it done right, but they do not make the mistake of confusing themselves with the mission. After all, their oath is to the Constitution, not to the whims of the Commander-in-Chief.
The fact that high-ranking career officers would rather retire than continue serving at the beck and call of the present administration is one of the more damning cases that one can make against the manner in which George Bush has handled his responsibilities as their commmander. No doubt they were expecting much better after being forced to suffer through Bill Clinton’s stewardship.
On a tangential note, does it amaze anyone else that our soldiers are able to remain in such close contact with the home front? I mean, one of my friends in my fantasy football league is back in Iraq again! Not that that will stop us from questioning his manhood and mocking him mercilessly whenever he loses, of course, although we have reluctantly agreed to cut him some slack on roster deadlines and so forth if his commanding officer will provide him with a signed note that he was too busy shooting at people to get his lineups straight.