Today started off in a hotel in the desert, near a military base. I went to that base. We talked about ranging maneuvers and the code to parse scrambled image data. We spent hours on the latter project, and then spent a couple hours on the road, a couple hours between airports, and then maybe half an hour driving home.
In that time, Bush declared his intention to bomb the fuck out of Iraq, unless hussein leaves and takes his sons with him, and his intention to move in and take over regardless.
Rohan described my response to the work we do well. It makes me ‘ethically itchy’. The stuff I do allows a plane to not hit other stuff in the sky visually (therefore, without giving away its position, though there are other advantages to such a system). It doesn’t directly enable bad shit. It has several civilian applications. Still, though…
I’ve gone to the peace protests.
I trust that Hussein is a bad guy, who does, or at least, has done, atrocious things to the people within his power. I trust that things could be made better for the Iraqis under a U.S. imposed regime (as well as under a variety of other conditions), but I do not trust that they will. I believe that military action against Iraq would likely support widespread anti-american sentiment in the middle east. I do not believe that Iraq under Hussein is any great danger to the U.S. I adamantly do not believe that the current U.S. administration has pursued this war in a wise fashion, or for good reason. Their stated justification does not appear to hold water. I believe that we have commited a diplomatic fiasco. I have no way of judging whether more people will die earlier with armed intervention than without.
Bush, et al, have given me no reason to trust them. I can see plausible explanations that their actions are not based on final outcomes, such as personal gain and familial vengence. It’s probable that homeland terrorism will increase, and civil liberties decrease. I have recieved conflicting reports about the current state of Afghanistan, and have no clue what things will be like in Iraq after the invasion by the U.S.
What I want is the information I don’t have. It is conceivable, though highly unlikely, that if I knew all the facts, I’d support the war. Bleh.
These thoughts have been going through my head all night.
Upon arriving home, I welcomed Simon’s friend, Ellen into our happy home. Then eventually went to the white horse, where I hung out with a small cadre of younger medics as affiliated individuals. Including Catherine. Making for a very unusually high estrogen count for the evening for me. (which is pretty sad).
But I did have a pleasant moment in the bar, where I was complaining about my minigut, and saying it concealed my sixpack, but medic and Catherine said that it was quite clearly visible, then they started rubbing my abs. It was flattering to the ego, and pleasant to have the affectionate contact. Ah. Medic in question, also quite cute, and showed his very low fat abdominal region as an illustration of what he didn’t find quite as desireable (which I had no complaints about).
Also downloading cygwin so I’ll have bash, and grep, and gcc, and all that lovely shit on my laptop. Under windows. =) Ah…..