For What It’s Worth

The time has come for us to stop calling this the Global War on Terrorism. Really, this has become The Long War. To understand this warfare, this struggle, it is important to understand both the Islamic struggle against the West, as well as the Shi’a / Sunni struggle. Both of these can be understood within the framework of today’s war in Iraq.

Al Qaeda is concerned with two enemies – the Near Enemy, and the Far Enemy. The Near Enemies are those Muslims who have strayed from the true tenents of the faith. Al Qaeda, under the tutelage of the Salafists, says that true Islam is the Islam from the time of the Prophet Mohammed, without updating, without new rules, without consideration for modern society. The Near Enemy is, therefore, any secular Muslim country; any Muslim who is Shi’a; and any Sunni who does not live their live in accordance with the teachings of the faith. The Far Enemy is every other non-believer. At the top of this list are the Jews and the Americans.

Iraq is a battleground for the battle against the Far Enemy. For Al Qaeda and others, Iraq is a battleground on which to battle both the nonbelievers, in the form of the America and coalition forces, and the non-believers in the form of the secular government that has emerged post-Saddam. As such, were the United States to pack up and go home, the fight against the Far Enemy in Iraq would continue on, in an effort to assist the Iraqi people in establishing an Islamic regime. That fight, to create a proper Muslim country, would continue until either success was achieved, or until Iraq is no longer hospitable battleground.

Iraq is compounded by a battle with the Near Enemy. The Shi’a and the Sunni are at odds over the future of the country. These are the Iraqi Shi’a and Sunni, at odds not only over religious differences, but also over the politics, economics and security of Iraq, the future of the country. In this regards, their conflict is as much over the differences between two ethnic groups as it is over religious differences.

Resolving the conflict between the Shi’a and the Sunni of Iraq, the fight with the Near Enemy, will not be enough to bring peace to the country, when compounded with the fight against the Far Enemy. If the Shi’a and Sunni ever work out their differences, finding a way to co-exist, Al Qaeda, Salafists, and other reformers would seek to continue the fight in Iraq, against the Far Enemies of the United States and Coalition forces, and against the Near Enemy of the Iraqi government. It is one battlefield with two distinct fights, the resolution of which are deeply entwined.

Peace for Iraq will come only with the emergence of a government in Baghdad that is able to offer real security for the citizens of Iraq. The Iraqi people will need to create an environment where Iraq is no longer a battlefield, no longer conducive for waging war against either Near Enemies or Far Enemies. When Iraq has that, when Iraq is secure within its own borders, all fighting will be problematic, and the conflict will have to move elsewhere. The Iraqis will need to either establish a stable and strong representative government, or an authoritative or totalitarian regime, for this to happen.

The Long War, then, is only part of the fighting going on in the world today. The United States and others, in the Global War on Terrorism, are fighting off the attacks of Al Qaeda and the Salafists, with both sides thinking that it is this conflict that will define the future of the world. Yet this struggle cannot be seen outside the framework of the other ongoing struggle, that of Muslim against Muslim. It is only when these two conflicts are mitigated that the Long War will end.

I was going to call this “‘Not paid for’ does not mean it’s stolen” but there’s more to it than that.

I’ll be honest. I like computers. They are my friend. They are a pretty darn-tootin’ powerful tool.

Deep down, though, a part of me is worried where America is going on this copyright crusade, and what this will do to ruin my views of computers as tools.

Today, I can go and buy pieces and parts, and assemble a computer. I can choose the pieces, I can choose the parts, I can assemble it as I wish. And as soon as I do, I immediately run into the corporate lawyers — I’ll need an operating system. Microsoft and others have suggested that computer manufacturers — which are, actually, computer assemblers who retail what they assemble — should be forced to sell computers that are loaded with an operating system, in order to use laws to help businesses — software businesses — fight software piracy.

This logic assumes that there’s no such thing as a free meal, that operating systems can only be paid for. Which, BTW, happens to be both stupid and false.

Let’s assume for a moment, though, that I don’t stick it to the man and use one of the bajillions of versions of Linux or other non-commercial / free / GNU/GPL / Creative Commons operating systems, but actually load some variant of Windows. I am main stream America, the bourgeois.

Today, we are at the tipping point for digital rights management for the everyday man. Microsoft’s new iPod rival, the Zune, ships with software that will forcibly add restrictions to music you have — to include music that isn’t copyrighted. Yes, they are going to forcibly treat non-copyrighted music — stuff licensed, for example, under Creative Commons, or stuff that you write and record yourself — as if it is copyrighted, and will restrict what you do with it. Microsoft is saying, in essence, that there is no such thing as non-copyrighted music.

“I made a song. I own it. How come, when I wirelessly send it to a girl I want to impress, the song has 3 days/3 plays?” Good question. There currently isn’t a way to sniff out what you are sending, so we wrap it all up in DRM. We can’t tell if you are sending a song from a known band or your own home recording so we default to the safety of encoding. And besides, she’ll come see you three days later. . . (link)

How wrong is that? You can read the details in simple language, here.

There’s a similar thing going on right now with Amazon’s new video online retail download rental service. Besides the obvious stupidity in how they set up Unbox (like a one-click “feature” that cannot be turned off), there’s language in their users agreement that just plain scares the crap out of me — the software for Unbox will not only inventory and report on the content of your computer (you know, so that Amazon can help you) but it will also be checking up on the digital rights management of your computer. You can read the details, here.

I read these two things — the changes with Zune, and this Unbox crap — on the same day. What I fear is this: When will the day come when the force of digital rights management surpasses my ability to use a computer as a tool? OK, that’s a bit misleading — that’ll never actually happen to me, because I’d walk away from that type of a computer and go running straight to Linux and that old 5.25″ floppy drive I keep in the attic. But still, I worry — when will it get so bad that the photos you load onto your computer, photos that you took with your digital camera, get so consumed by DRM and forcibly applied copyright crap that you can’t even send them to family and friends or do anything other than look at them on your own screen?

And DVD’s are the worst. Make a DVD of home movies with just about any program on a Windows machine, and that DVD is as uncopyable as if it came from MGM. Why? To protect the copyright holder — even if it’s you that holds the rights to the content of the DVD, and even if it’s you that is trying to copy it — and that’s irregardless of whether you protect the contect you created with a copyright or licensing under Creative Commons or something else. The lawyers would have you go back and made a new DVD in lieu of copying the DVD, all for the greater good of the world and to protect the failed business model of the movie and music industry (and probably the software industry, too).

Now, is it all purely evil? No. Of all things, Microsoft has issued a plug-in for Office, to add in licensing information for Creative Commons. A good thing, as I see it — my sister could create check sheets for her work or studies, and slap on the CC licensing so that others can use them under her terms without having the Kinko Nazis yell at anyone trying to photocopy them. This, though, is the exception, not the standard — the very uncommon.
But that’s still what I fear - the day when the media lawyers succeed in making computers unusable, turning them from being useful tools into something akin to a TV set with rabbit ears. That day is going to suck, and I think we’re at the turning point now.

I was looking for another way to phrase it, but really, there isn’t one. The Jedi are just plain stupid.

Why do they get wet when it rains? If I had the force under wraps like they do, I’d be whooshing those drops away every damn time.

And then there’s this. When the first Star Wars movie opens, we’ve got all kinds of Jedi running around, and no Sith. No manifestation of The Dark Side. All good, no bad. In fact, there hasn’t been Sith “for a millennia,” Yoda says. He paints a picture of the Republic where the Jedis have the upper hand, and have for a long time.

So, with that, I really don’t understand this: “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hatred. Hatred leads to suffering. This is the path to the Dark Side.” What the hell is he talking about? With no Sith, there hasn’t been a “Dark Side” for any path to lead to. Jedi — they defy logic on a daily basis — he might as well have said, “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hatred. Hatred leads to suffering. This is the path to becoming a Vampire.”.

And with that comes the whole thing with “the Prophecy.” Samuel Jackson, aka Windu (yes, I had to look that up), talked about how there will come one who will restore the balance to the force. Balance, when they live in a little Jedi fantasy land that has no Sith in it. Lots-o-Jedi, and no Sith — yet somehow they think that the Force is out of balance, in favor of all that Dark Side stuff. The Jedi are stupid — all good, no bad, but they think that the prophecy will somehow help out the Jedi. It took me all of about 3 seconds to realize that the force was out of balance and that the little kid was going to tip the scales some against the Jedi. Back into, oh, I don’t know, balance.

And Obi-Wan. He going into the ol’ HAL 9000, looking for the planet Camino. (And he refers to it as being south of this other planet — south. Hello? South of what?) And gosh, it’s not there. The rest of the planets are still circulating around where he thinks it should be, but it’s not showing up in the mainframe system. It takes some 8 year old trainee’s to point out to him that the obvious explanation is that the automated system has been altered, and reference to the planet removed.

Yoda’s response, to the idea that someone (and it has to have been a Jedi) has hacked the HAL9000? Look into it? Launch an investigation? Call SYSAdmin?

Nope. “Meditate on this, I will.”

What a freakin’ idiot.

Oh, and since we’re geeking out to Star Wars stuff, let’s talk about the little green dude. When he dies of natural causes, Yoda is something like 900 years old. That’s at or near the end of Darth Vader / Anakin Skywalker’s life. In those late years, he’s an old, fragile little dude, slow to move, feeble. If we assume that Darth Vader was, say, 60 when he died, we can guess that Yoda was 850+ when this whole Star Wars saga started. And back then, Yoda was young, spry, nimble, more than willing to toss aside the cane when a good fight breaks out. What’s up with that? In the last 7% of his life, Yoda completely falls apart — from bouncing around in massive light saber fights, to fumbling around with a cane. That I should hold up so well.

And in the first movie, Anakin is all of about 8, while Queen Hottie-Momma looks to be in her 20’s, at least (old enough to be elected queen). In movie II, we’re told that it’s been ten years. So, Anakin is, what, 18? Maybe 20? She still looks like a sophomore in college — quite the MILF, for being in her late thirties. “I’ve been dying a little bit every day, since you came back into my life” — she’s not in her late 30’s and saying crap like that, that’s for sure, unless all Queens of Naboobies are stupid, too.