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Iraq: Mindset behind intelligence failures in Politics JoeUser Forums

The article below gives a fairly balanced view of what went wrong with American intelligence, focussing particularly on Colin Powells presentation to the UN Security Council. Analysis by Paul Reynolds BBC News Online world affairs correspondent A year after the US Secretary of State Colin Powell presented the American case against Iraq to the Security Council, attention is turning from the actual failures of intelligence to why they happened. <

People versus parties in Politics JoeUser Forums

I once saw a statistic saying that 80% of the American population would always vote for their political party irrespective of it's policies. While I don't believe the number is so high (and I can't find the reference) it seems believeable that many people do indeed always vote the same party. I see it among my friends and colleagues. Worse is the fact that many of them have no idea of who their candidate even is, just which party they stand for. So what's wrong with this? How can it be put right

Reply to Tony says ...believe me as much I believe me in Politics JoeUser Forums

Unfortunately for Tony Blair, he made WMD the one and only issue for going to war. There was no secondary issue. Hence it now looks very bad for him that WMD may not exist. In reality though the British public are very apathetic towards the entire issue though and he's unlikely to have any major problems. None of my British colleagues even care that he may have lied to them. He's a politician!!!! They expect it. They're more amused that so many Britons

Reply to Organizing the categories & topics of JoeUser in Work Reports JoeUser Forums

I like the idea. What about work reports? I enjoy reading these. Paul.

Poll topic in Political Machine JoeUser Forums

Any chance of getting a neither / independant added to the poll? Not that importnat, but for non Americans like me, I have no idea what either party stands for and feel left out not being able ot vote Paul.

Reply to The Brits Think They're Better! in Pure Technology JoeUser Forums

Actually I have to agree with the articles writer. Working in the scientific community in the UK I have been very disappointed with the attempt of the Beagle team to generate an air of superiority. There's nothing wrong with boosting team spirit with some friendly competition, but some of the comments I've heard Pillinger come out with were a disgrace. For someone in the public eye I expect him to be more diplomatic. He comes across a a complete idiot in the British press and interviews because

Reply to The Point System Explained in Blogging JoeUser Forums

I'm pretty sure the Q icon is for quoting. I do need to practice using it though. Paul.

Reply to The Point System Explained in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Come to think of it, I don't think any points are awarded for posting on the forums at all. Paul.

Reply to The Point System Explained in Blogging JoeUser Forums

What about the forums? I notice that you can't award bonus ratings on the forums. Is this likely to change? I tend to use the forums for most of my reading and I miss the ability to click articles as interesting or insightful. Paul.

Metaverse in Political Machine JoeUser Forums

I like the idea of the metaverse. It works well in Galciv and should help create and active community here in political machine. I assume there will be two seperate metaverses for Repulblican and Democrat candidates? Also can you say a bit about what factors will determine the scoring? Total votes? Swing from last election? Winning debates? paul.

Reply to State Bias in Political Machine JoeUser Forums

or to randomise those biases?

Reply to Iraq and Kosovo what's the difference? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Brad, which part of "we don't know" do you have problems with. "We don't know" does NOT mean "we believe saddam has WMD". Why do you have such problems believing the French president. He went on CBS and gave a frank (no pun intended) and honest interview. He said he had seen NO evidence to support WMD (not just nuclear - stop playing with his words). NONE. NOT one iota of evidence. Maybe you just don't trust politicians any more. May

Reply to Iraq and Kosovo what's the difference? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Brad, I think you're being unfair here. You said France and Germany believed Iraq had WMD. I said they didn't. You asked for quotes. I provided them. You now argue that the quotes mean the opposite of what I say. I will indeed concede (as I made clear in my last post) that both sides can pick from Chiracs quotes what they want the 'If' to mean. But you seem to be unwilling to concede this. You seem convinced that France KNEW Iraq had WMD. The tr

Reply to Iraq and Kosovo what's the difference? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Anthony. Sorry Brad I don't agree I'm wrong. I think we disagree over the term believe. France KNEW Saddam once had WMD. France BELIEVED they were all disarmed and removed by the weapon inspectors prior to 1998. Hence Chirac's comment of 'IF there are any' France could NOT be certain and hence it's strong support for 1441 (once the second clause about a future re

Reply to Political Machine is putty in my hands in Work Reports JoeUser Forums

Like the idea of editors for issues and questions. Would these be shipped with the game to allow players to add their own issues and questions? Or would they be used solely by stardock for added scenarios/content at later dates? Paul.

Reply to The left kills millions yearly in Pure Technology JoeUser Forums

Sorry Brad, I don't get time to read all articles, and often don't reply or comment in threads even if I disagree. I often disagree with both sides and commented on Israel/Arab threads. I must have missed the Genocide one. In this case as a scientist I felt I had to highlight the big issues with DDT and then got a bit side tracked in complaining about the cause/effect inaccuracies (big issue in science, cause and effect. So many mistakes are man

Reply to Iraq and Kosovo what's the difference? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Brad, you keep harping on about the passage of 1441 and the fact that France and Germany suppoorted this because they knew there were WMD. This is wrong. No matter how many times you repeat it, it still doesn't make it correct. Let me give some quotes then. To be fair I'll give quotes from both sides of the arguement. Firstly, the reason many people claimed France believed Saddam had WMD; The French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin,

Reply to The left kills millions yearly in Pure Technology JoeUser Forums

Brad the title of the thread is "The left kills millions yearly" This is an obviously inflamatory title to anyone who may consider themselves on the left. This is a direct statement of blame. You state that the deaths of all 50 million people who died in the previous 30 years from Malaria are the fault of the left. That is an insult to anyone's intelligence. It's identical me suggesting that you are directly responsible for the deaths of any A

Reply to Iraq and Kosovo what's the difference? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Brad, I totally agree with you as to the threat of Saddam and believe that was reason enough for war. The sad truth is that if the job had been done earlier when Saddam was far more obviously not compling with UN sanctions few would have objected. I don't agree that France and Germany believed Saddam had WMD. They clearly stated that they didn't. They supported article 1441 which called on Iraq to disarm. They strongly believed that

Reply to The left kills millions yearly in Pure Technology JoeUser Forums

Sorry JillUser, but the information on junkscience is very biased in this regard. There has been much research on DDT over the years (especially in the mid 90's). The good news is that body fat concentrations of DDT have in the US have decreased from 15mg/kg (in 1955) to Just to quote some research for you to read Male alligators in Lake Apopk

Reply to Of course the White House fears free election in Iraq in Politics JoeUser Forums

Totally agreed, and that's where the compromising will hopefully come in. The US needs to allow direct elections, but not necessarily to allow free structure. For example, the US could design the structure of the government asigning x places to each community and then let those communities have direct elections to fill those places. Hence the Iraqi worry about the US taking it's resources can be blocked, and the US worry about civil war can be

Reply to Iraq and Kosovo what's the difference? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Brad you cover a lot in your post so I'll just cherry pick the major disagreements I have. I do agree with much of your opening talk though. "Bush Lied" - I consider myself sane and definitely believe he lied. Even if you try the 'he was mistaken' approach, he set up his OWN intelligence division to cherry pick the intelligence and bypass the usual channels. If he was really mistaken then he is incompetant. You don't tell people to find the in

Reply to Of course the White House fears free election in Iraq in Politics JoeUser Forums

While I agree with much of the article, the author choose to ignore the serious stability concerns a free election may cause. In particular are the concerns about the minority populations. Without a legal framework of equality and protection of minority rights in place (which can only be effectively done with a constitution), there would be nothing stopping a majority government punishing the minorities in any way they saw fit. This is a major concern,

Reply to Beta? in Political Machine JoeUser Forums

I believe that the beta will be available to all subscribers of Stardock's Drengin.net subscription service. Based on previous experience, They may also allow pre-orders to test the beta. Paul.

Reply to Galactic Civilizations: Altarian Prophecy Status report in Work Reports JoeUser Forums

You also deserve to be chuffed! Taking pride in your work is always allowed! Paul