To me, removing Saddam from the board seems like a pretty clear cut "smart" thing for the US to do for so many different reasons. 
 
But if you try hard enough, you can make any foreign policy decision look foolish.  Why, in June 1944 did the why did the US invade northwest Europe? Hundreds of thousands of Americans died in Europe.  Why? The USSR would have defeated Germany on its own. That was pretty obvious by June 1944 so we don't have the excuse of not knowing.  Heck, we could have waited until August 1945 to decide whether we needed to use ground forces. If the atom bombs worked, we let them do the work. If not, then we could decide whether to invade or not. And if we did, we could have "softened" up things with a couple of atomic bombs which would have, in the long term, saved a lot more lives.

Seriously. Let's revisit the events of World War II:

D-Day: June 6, 1944.  A bloody invasion of the French coast. Goal? To liberate France and conquer Germany.

But why? The majority of the official governments of Europe in 1944 did not want the US to invade.  What about respecting their sovereignty? The position of the official government of France was that the US should not invade. Those damn Americans, Brits, Australians, and Canadians were acting pretty unilaterally weren't they? 

If we had not invaded in 1944, odds are the Soviet Union would have conquered Germany and set up France as a puppet socialist country. Then what? The Soviet Union would still have almost certainly crashed. It might have even crashed faster since it would have cost a lot more to keep western Europe pacified as well.

Now, some 380 or so Americans have died in Iraq I believe.  380,000 Americans died in World War II. I don't recall reading of any politicians of the day arguing that invading Europe was a failed policy. It would seem that we lived in a much less cynical world in those days. People recognized the difference between right and wrong and put politics aside to a greater degree than today to roll up their sleeves and do the job that needed done.

Now fast forward 60 years. Iraq, led by a fascist dictator had already invaded 2 of his neighbors. One neighbor was freed thanks to, you guessed it, mainly the US and UK. Iraq flagrantly violated the terms of the cease fire countless times, took pot shots at US planes, funneled money to Palestinian terrorists, brutalized his people, had a history of intent to develop WMD, and is geographically located in the center of an area where the world's most brutal terrorists seem to originate from.  And if that's not enough, it's also positioned right in the middle of where the majority of the world's oil reserves exist.  And yet there are people who still argue that we shouldn't have invaded to remove this guy? Huh?

I think those who oppose US policy should really take a step back and try to look at things from a fresh perspective.  Regardless of whether weapons of mass destruction are ever found (they were never the driving force anyway)., the removal of a dictator guilty of the things I just mentioned certainly rank up there with the reasons for expending so much blood and treasure to liberate France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, etc.

And consider this - one could put together a clear headed argument (with a lot of hindsight to help) that the US invasion of northwest Europe was unnecessary or at least could have waited until the atomic bombs arrived in 1945 to make that decision.  "Why the rush?" could have just as easily been asked in June 1944 as today.  Why were we in such a hurry to send our young men into harm's way when the Russians were doing a splendid job grinding down the Nazi's in the East?

My view is pretty clear: We did the right thing in 1944 and we did the right thing in 2003.

In an article asking whether Europe liking the US should be a campaign issue or not, I pointed out some of the questionable international actions of France in the past century.  Admittedly, the article had its share of French bashing.

My point wasn't just to bash France though. It was to point out the absurdity of listening to France's advice on foreign policy.

I got a lot of email on this as well as comments on it. Here's one that asked specific questions that I'd like to address.

1. What nation helped america become independent from the british monarch?

Sure, France helped the United States a couple hundred years ago. How many Frenchman perished in that? A few hundred?  That debt was paid back countless times in World War I.

2. Does france actually do anything to america other than do as the people/voters want and freely oppose their policies?

My point is that there is something wrong with the French culture when it comes to foreign policy. Perhaps they should take notice that they keep losing internationally. It may sometimes be expedient to be against something but in the long haul, you need to stand for something to have long term influence.

3. Has France helped america in the war on terror? The first gulf war? Somalia? Kosavo?

Sure. France has helped. So has Mexico. It's a matter of degree. The French also helped the Germans exterminate its Jewish population in WW2. I realize that sounds harsh but let's keep these actions in perspective.

4. america's track history for "rebuilding" nations has been...well, somewhat poor. Most of the nations that you have helped liberate and rebuilt have turned against you (france has turned against you as much as israel has now). Many of your rebuilding efforts have led to more war, chaos and anarchy and less american involvement. I cite the examples of: Nicuragua, Afganistan (the first time lol), Iraq (the first time as well lol), Argetina, Vietnam, Cambodia (a million died in this one....), Somalia, Kosavo, and a few others in South America. Many of these new leaders turned against america, committed huge genocides, mass sterilization, fund terror and as a smaller crime, steal from international charities.

Let's see, rebuilding of countries.  There was all of Western Europe. Does Western Europe "hate" the United States?

Then there was Japan. They seem to like us too.  And South Korea as another.

Does everyone there like us? Of course not. But they're not hijacking airplanes and crashing them into our buildings either. With any luck, in 50 years the Democratic government of Iraq will be confident enough in its freedom to disagree with US policies in a peaceful way.

But the track record the US has in rebuilding countries is actually remarkably good. Now, do you have a list of countries France has rebuilt? Any?

5. What is wrong with asking for evidence before entering a long, controversial and unpopular (to them) war.

There was plenty of evidence. Remember the whole UN inspections thing? Which gets into another issue that I've seen thrown out lately: That if we had just waited a few more weeks then we might have gotten France's support. No way. There was no indication that things were progressing.  "Why the rush?" Because starting in March the temperatures in Iraq start climbing very high.  By April the temps reach over 100 degrees F.

You want to know my theory as to why things started off disorganized after victory? No one anticipated such a rapid victory. The whole thing was over in a few weeks.  If they had known that Iraq would be so easy to defeat in war, maybe they would have given another couple weeks of time. But they didn't. All they knew is that each day they waited raised the specter of higher casualties because of heat related issues.  Heck, France has already lost over 40 times as many people due to heat in their own country. So certainly, no one in France is in a position to argue against the seriousness of heat to health.

6. I don't feel that the liberation of the people in Iraq is valid for justification for a war. Where was america when 40mil died in China? There are other oppressed areas of the world today that have attacked america, but they still stand and fund terror like Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China. If you insist that it was the caring efforts that brought the war to depose of Saddam, then why were the Iraqi people left in his hands twice? Once was after the first gulf war.

Luckily for France, the United States has considered liberation a justifiable reason to spend blood and treasure.

But I don't consider liberation a major reason for taking out Saddam. It was a nice side effect, but the reason had more to do with putting direct pressure on Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.  Being in Iraq allows the United States infinitely more flexibility with dealing with those countries which, surprise surprise, Iraq has a border with.

The question isn't whether the United States is an angel. It's not.  But France's behavior has been vastly worse in the past century than the United States. Which is particularly remarkable considering its limited ability scope of abilities.

Which dovetails nicely into the karma article. If bad karma were a "root cause" of 9/11, the Eiffel Tower would have been toast long ago. The fact is, there are very very bad people out there. Not every villain is a Star Trek villain where it's not evil as the motive but misunderstanding as the cause. No, really there are just some very very bad people out there who hate things so much they're willing to give their lives in an effort to harm the things they hate. And the United States, representing western culture, is the biggest target.

9/11 wasn't caused by any specific foreign policy decisions. It was the result of a general hatred of western civilization and its gradual encroachment into the Islamic world. One could point out that 9/11 may not have happened if the US wasn't stationing troops in Saudi Arabia. But eventually the Islamonaziklan would have been "provoked" to do what they did. Better that they did it now before they acquired WMD than later so that we can deal with it now rather than later.

But one thing we should know, the US is going to have to follow its own path. It has the most at stake in this and it can't be taking cues from countries like France who have demonstrated time and time again their ineptness in foreign policy.

There is often a basic problem when trying to debate geo politics. You have one side that seems to be ruled by emotion or at least believes in "spiritual forces". You have the other side that seems to be ruled by logic and believes in direct causes and effects.

The two don't mingle too well in debates. And nothing brings that up into sharper contrast than the debate about "root causes" of 9/11.

For instance, some try to argue that the United States "provoked" 9/11. Brought it onto itself.  But how? When you try to nail down these reasons you end up with what essentially can be described as an accumulation of bad karma.  In their mind, the US did enough little things to build up the bad karma that triggered 9/11. I'm sorry but that's ridiculous.

Let's cut to the chase:

On September 11, 2001 19 Hijackers, mostly from Saudi Arabia hijacked 4 civilian airliners. Their goal was to take their hijacked planes and ram them into 3 buildings.  One was the World Trade Center, the world's largest civilian building that could house up to 200,000 people at any given time. A virtual city.  The other two were buildings in Washington DC (the Pentagon was struck and we don't know for sure what the other target was because that plane went down).

So what were the root causes? What specifically were they?  Those of us who have followed this have heard the investigative reports. That essentially Osama Bin Laden, leader of Al Queda, was angry with Saudi Arabia. US troops were located in Saudi Arabia after the first Gulf War. His hope was that their attacks on US interests and now on the US itself would motivate the United States to pull out of the Middle East so that Al Queda would be free to try to overthrow the "corrupt" Saudi regime and install a true Islamic based one.

Shortly after the attack, Bin Laden expanded that to talk about the Palestinians and Iraqi's but that was a hollow charge since he had never shown interest in those causes before.

But the American haters through the world and the United States itself weren't content with that. Such reasons were obviously far too weak to justify such massive carnage, particularly of innocents. Hence we have the "Why do they hate you" idiocy that some on the left gush out without thinking.  To them, everything from US actions in Central America to the US not helping enough to rebuild Afghanistan after the Soviets were ejected to CIA stuff to the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 all added up together and it was time for some galactic justice to be dished out.

To the American haters, it never occurred to them that hey, you know what, the US may not be perfect but it's not a monster. And in fact, there are some true monsters out there such as Osama Bin Laden who would, if they had the means, exterminate billions. In fact, the more people have learned about Al Queda, the more they discover that they are essentially the "Klan of the Koran", basically the KKK equivalent for Muslims. A bunch of small minded, spoiled wealthy people whose personal bigotry is so vast that there is no evil they aren't willing to commit on those who are sub-human (such as Americans).

Most American haters I've bumped into on-line have only a very partial grasp on world history. It's essentially bits and pieces of propaganda. The "bad" things the United States does tends to get publicized.  You don't hear, nearly as much, the stoning of women or other horrific acts that occur routinely in the Islamic world.

Regardless though, I can't see how any rational thinking person could possibly believe in some sort of universal karma for nation states. That a government over a period of decades could build up bad karma and just mysteriously be punished for it.  After all, there weren't any Japanese, Vietnamese, German, or Costa Rican terrorists on 9/11.

The new issue of WinCustomize Magazine is out. This issue includes:

• Overview of the skin tray program
• Article "Why customize your PC?"
• The Skin Primer 2003
• September Skinning Highlights
• SkinStudio 4 info
• and more!

Phew. It's done.  So after 4 months of work we've finished up the expansion pack for Galactic Civilizations. And we're giving it away for free.  I wonder, looking back in a year or two, what the verdict will be on having made this expansion pack for free.

I think it's safe to say we could have sold this expansion pack for $15 to $20. But my "ulterior" motive is that with GalCiv we have a real hit on our hands and it is better to sacrifice short term profit for a long term user base. As we know from Object Desktop, loyal customers make a big different over the long haul. And we're in this for the long haul.

But holy cow does this expansion pack have a lot of stuff.  Take a look at all this:

Galactic Civilizations: Expanded Universe - New Features, Tweaks, and Bug Fixes

New Features : + Explored Star List - You can now keep track of stars you've explored but haven't colonized. + Search star feature + Rally Points Creator. From the main screen, top right button, you can create a rally point on the map. + Rally Point Creator Hot Key: P (for point). Hit P and it will create a rally point on the screen. Double click on a Rally point to configure it. + Rally Point Planet Screen. On the planet screen you can then have ships go to the rally points you previously created. + Rally points can be renamed. + Rally Points can give orders to ships once they reach the rally point. + Rally Point Order: Create Fleet + Rally Point Order: Attack nearby ships + Rally Point Order: Hold position (default) + Can send individual ships to a rally point from the ship menu (double click on ship) + Hot key on selected ship will bring up Rally Point list (hit the X key when a ship is selected + Dotted Sector Lines + Locked Sliders On Domestic Economic screen + Obsolete Button on Governor Screen - you can now make units obsolete + Planet screen obeys obsolete list. I.e. old ships can be hidden away. + Tech Tree Navigator. You can navigate through the tech tree seeing what each one does and what they lead to. + Hyper-link integration throughout the UI. You can right-click on a hyperlinked item to open up the tech navigator. + Hyper-linking integrated into the Diplomacy screen. + Trade Routes button on Foreign Stats Screen + Wrapped text list boxes on trade screen + Star Destroyed Explosion + Completely re-rendered graphics for the stars + Several new anomalies complete with new graphics+ + Diplomacy Screen now has hyperlink properties for ships (will bring up a map showing where they are and what they do). + Hyperlinking in diplomacy screen for star systems that will bring up a mini dialog showing info on that system and where it is located visually. + Trade Embargo. Can now prevent trade coming from a particular player. + Several new random events added complete with new graphics. + Tons of little tweaks, fixes, changes, performance tweaks, etc. + Added a "None" option for rally points + Added option to turn off tool tips + When AI researched final frontier it informs you that this has occurred and final frontier victory condition for human is removed. + Retire option added + Score system tweaked to reward higher difficulty levels more + Arceans do not use a set tech tree but instead randomly choose based on need + Updated Scoring System: Players who play at higher difficulty are rewarded with significantly more points than before since teh game is more difficult to win now. + new debugging code for Metaverse submission (needs latest sdnetlib.dll) + Sort by research production added to Planet List sort options + New Ship: Death Knight. A more expensive battle ship class. + Weapon Enhancement series of techs. A series of technologies that enhance your existing ships weapons. Requires Corvette Tech. + Can left click on techs on the research tree to get into tech navigator + You can now search for stars and view all stars in galaxy. + Several new technologies added in that can pump up your weapons tech. + New random event: Computer civilization's ethical philosophy can now change during the course of the game. + All star graphics replaced + About a dozen new anomalies added. + AI coordinates ships somewhat better + New Gigantic Galaxy Size Expanded: Now 28x28 sectors (Nearly 800 sectors now!!!) + CHEAT KEYS. On the Options screen on the left there is now a new option "enable cheat keys". Cheat Keys. CTRL A adds hit points, move points, attack and defense points CTRL B battleship CTRL C clone selected ship CTRL E decreases morality CTRL G increases morality CTRL H heals ship, restores move points CTRL J make all human colonies complete their social and military projects CTRL L assign all the worlds and resources to major races CTRL M money (adds $1000) CTRL O add anomaly CTRL P increase the class of the planets in the selected star system CTRL S research current tech (if shift key is also held, all techs except final frontier are researched) CTRL T teleport CTRL U clear FOW CTRL V create random ship CTRL Y create colony ship Note: Don't try to submit a score to the Metaverse once you enable cheat keys. It will report it as 0.   Tweaks: + Trade greatly decreases odds of AI asking for tribute or lowering relations. + Morality much more taken into account on tribute / lowering relations (no more "Altarian bastards always want tribute no matter how much trade and how nice I am!") + Network of friends taken into account by AI. AI looks at who you're at war with and who you're at peace with when deciding whether it should raise or lower relations. + Technology pace is significantly increased -- techs cost less to research now so you will go through the tech tree faster. + Starbases now cost 10 to maintain. + Constructors cost 1 to maintain. Fixes: - hard coded text taken out and put into english.str for easier foreign trnslations - fixed data for first turn graphcs - fixed gorvernors resetting projects bugs - fixed bug where events cleared by shift-clicking were coming back next turn - I League description fixed - fixed bug where traded starbaess were moving off stacked ships - Change in philosphy event should work correctly. - fixed senate election occuring after changed back to Imperial - fixed date not refreshing with new turn (used to not refresh until clicking on something forced a refresh) - fixed bug where minimap range lines were not refreshing if an alien ship was selected or no ship was selected - fixed some typos - fixed bug that was causing all mini-freighters (including alien ones) to be AutoPilot, thereby causing alien ships to be selected during the move autopilot ships phase of the end of the player turn. - fixed bug where selected governor was reset every time governor screen was unhidden -fixed crash if you destroyed a colony while going through news events -refresh planet list while propaganda sliders going -fixed crash in during end turn if no one was reasearching anything -fixed crash on fp if you trade for all remaining planets from a minor civ -starships found in anomalies now appear in the same spot as the survey vessel to avoid hit detection problems -fixed info warfare bug -fixed bug where turn button gets stuck after loading end game save - Lots of other glitches and bugs fixed.

That's more stuff than most full priced expansions come with.  Sure, there aren't any new races or a bunch of new units but some of these features are pretty major. The built in encyclopedia, the rally points, the cheat keys, hyper linking, search features. And this is on top of having already added a ton of features in 1.01, 1.02, 1.03, 1.04 and 1.05.  We've been putting out tons of free stuff all along anyway. So it will definitely be interesting to see how this works out in the long term.

Hopefully, when we go to make Elemental, The Political Machine, Mobilization, and beyond we'll have a user base that knows what our Object Desktop users know -- we'll take care of them.

The cool thing for us is that we've gotten some great talent over here at Stardock in the past few months. Our new lead cut scene animator moved here from New Zealand having just completed working on Lord of the Rings (the movie). His job was to help animate Gollum. We also have one of the world's top skinners and icon designers now here in house who left Disney to come join us. Plus some of the new development talent is really making a big difference too.  Our Pear3D engine is coming along nicely. GalCiv will be our last 2D engine (sprite based) game. Sprites just can't compete with hardware accelerated 3D in terms of performance or visual appeal.  Still, I liked 2D. I understand how it works. 3D is mumbo jumbo to me programming wise. I guess the days of me programming a whole game are long gone. I'll stick to writing computer AI.

Before I get email, you can get Galactic Civilizations at https://www.galciv.com

 

Believe it or not, there is an entire website dedicated to debunking Michael Moore. Even more unbelievable, I am very glad it exists.

Michael Moore is the master of plausible falsehoods. When you read one of his books or watch one of his "documentaries", you are left with the impression of "Well, I may not agree with his politics but he makes some good points..."

Except he doesn't because he twists, exaggerates or outright fabricates his "facts". There's usually just enough truth in there to make his lie believable.

Michael Moore's works have something in common with another Moore -- Demi Moore.  Demi Moore started in the 1988 move "The Seventh Sign" The movie got a low rating on IMDB but while you're actually watching it, the story is quite compelling. The story is about 7 signs that occur before the end of the world. In it, the well of souls, the "Guff" (or something like that), has to be refilled. Various bible passages are read from that establish the guff and how it needs to be filled. It talks about how the end of the world would come with the birth of the first child without a soul.

It's all quite chilling. I remember thinking, "Wow, the bible has all this?" When I got home, I looked into it and it turned out it was complete bullshit. They just made it all up to make the story more compelling. But while watching it I I was enthralled.

Moore's books such as "Stupid White Men" and his documentary such as "Bowling for Columbine" are a lot like that. When you read them or watch them, you think "Wow, I never knew that." His arguments are quite compelling to those ignorant on the facts. Liars always have a significant advantage because they are not bound by the truth.

He also is a master of putting his opponents in the no-win situation.  For example, he has argued at various times on how the Bush Administration brought 9/11 on us by paying for the training of people who would end up flying jetliners into the WTC. At first though you think, "Hey yea, those stupid CIA bozos trained these guys and now they're attacking us!" 

But think about that for a minute. What really happened? The United States funded the rebels in Afghanistan who were fighting the Soviet Union. Oh shame on us.  But why stop there? After all, for much of the cold war the Soviet military machine ran on American trucks supplied to them during World War II. Many wore uniforms made in the USA.  Or go even further back and point out that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor with planes manufactured with iron from the United States and were powered with fuel from the United States.

Essentially if you are cynical and dishonest enough, you can always find some sort of "irony" in any situation.  What would Moore and his ilk suggest? Do nothing? Remain paralyzed out of fear that some action may in some distant and obscure way come back to haunt us? Oh no, that food to Somalia was stolen by warlords and used to fund terrorists! Don't send food. Sheesh.

Moore is a creation of the media. He happened to hit on something at the right time and his lack of principles in truth telling have enabled him to build up an impressive resume.  Luckily for us, the Internet is full of people who are willing to put time and effort to fight back with facts.  There is another site called Michael Moore Hates America to go along with MooreWatch. What's really interesting is just how wrong Moore gets it. Whether that be the statistical reasons why there is so much gun violence in the United States to why economic differences exist in society, Moore gets it wrong and there are people to set the record straight.

Gotta love the net!

Tomorrow (Tuesday, September 16) we're goign to have a live chat at 8pm Eastern Standard Time in the #galciv channel on irc.stardock.com.

Here's the way we currently plan on doing it.

There will be two channels:
#galciv
and
#galcivQA

In #galciv, no one but ops will be able to speak. I will answer questions posted in #galcivQA.

From 8:00pm to 8:15pm I will answer questions from #galcivQA in the #galciv channel.

Then at 8:16pm we'll open it up so that everyone can talk in #galciv and I'll answer questions and participate in dsicussions as fast as my little hands can take me.

You can get onto those channels from either an IRC client like mIRC or from Stardock Central and clicking on chat and then joining #galciv by typine "/join #galciv" and "/join #galcivQA".

The nights are getting cooler. The days shorter. The trees are starting to show some color. Summer is almost over.

Lots of people say they like the Fall. They think it's a ball. But not me. In the Fall I just don't feel free.

Just another month. Just a little more time. I just want to run a bit more in the sun. Then I would really feel fine.

I had wanted to go on a holiday. A trip, a jaunt, some time for fun. Just a little more time to be in the sun. Take me back to May.

Summer is almost over. Another year has passed. A time that I'll never recover. The nights are getting cooler.

Steven Den Beste has an interesting article that responds to some of the statements that the German Foreign Minister put out this week. But it got me thinking about how much the world has changed in just the past 50 years.

50 years ago, we expected strategies to play out over decades. Now, we have the German Foreign Minister claiming that the domino strategy in the middle east has failed. Huh? We've only been over there a few months. Germany of all countries should know that it's not wise to underestimate the time it will take for something to work.

But it speaks a lot about how expectations have changed.  The United States lost something like 480,000 troops in World War II.  Around 60,000 in Vietnam. But we have people talking about how badly things are going in Iraq because something like 190 or so troops have been lost since major action ended at the end of April. 

We live in a much faster paced world. Wars are expected to take days rather than years. Remember during the Iraq campaign some reporters were using the word quagmire because US forces had paused (one division paused due to a sand storm).  From the day the US went to war against Germany it took three YEARS for US forces to get into Germany. 

And US forces are still there in Germany 60 years later. Which brings up today's ironic moment -- the German foreign minister talking about how it would be a good thing for US forces to not stay in Iraq even as US forces have continuously been in Germany for the past 60 years.

 

Chicago Boyz has an article that outlines the continuing problems between the French and the UK. The French perspective seems to be "How can you Brits side with the Americans?" the British view tends to be "How can you not?" 

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw thinks the problem comes from differing experiences from the second world war. IT was a watershed moment for the French.  As the Chicago Boyz blog points out, the French capitulated quite easily. As I've pointed out previously, the French lost more soldiers fighting for the Nazis than the "Free French" lost.  French "help" against the Third Reich was negligible.

So what's the deal? The French seem to define themselves as the "Un-American".  Sort of like how 7-up tries to promote itself as the Un-Cola.  The difference though is that 7-Up has a lot of things going for it in addition to being the Un-Cola.  I mean, heck, swamp water  could be considered the Un-Cola too but I wouldn't want to drink it.  I deal with the French regularly on the game side and have never had any problems. So I'm not sure how anti-American the average Frenchman is.  But their government has been amazingly consistent in its attempts to demonstrate its willingness to be a pain in the ass.