Please note that this request is addressed ONLY to the MandrakeSoft people, and is NOT an invitation to drown the list in offtopic chatter.
An American on another list spoke of cancelling his Mandrake orders based on the French not supporting America with the war in Iraq. The question I asked him was: have you asked the MandrakeSoft people how they feel about the war? Or are you condemning them based on where they were born and live? If any of the MandrakeSoft people have an opinion that you feel safe in sharing, please either whack it on the list or send it to me privately. To start the ball rolling (wouldn't ask you to do something I wouldn't do myself), my own opinion is that Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party (NOT the rest of Iraq) did need dealing with, but the Americans (while powerful) were not the best choice as leaders since they seem to be too willing to dabble in everyone else's politics while defending their own double-but if it had been anybody else they'd be hamstrung for years to come over what to do (if anything) while Iraqis continued to be murdered and imprisoned by their dictator and his fellow travellers. In short, an ugly situation that I'm glad is being dealt with even if the result is going to be complicated and thousands of people have been and will be hurt and killed. I realise that is is an extremely naive view, but assert that anyone who knows exactly what's going on here is only fooling themselves. The American military don't seem to be telling the truth about a lot of things, including their own casualties. This is going to make the long-term outcome far messier than it needs to be. I'm also not so sanguine about the long-term response of a number of other large players such as China (who seem to be taking the opportunity to test some of their weapons by proxy) and Russia (who are also helping Saddam, but OTOH also rescuing the ISS). I say again: I put my point only to make the first move, break the ice; I am looking for replies from MandrakeSoft people only, replies from others will almost certainly hinder, not help, the results. We really need a `cooker-off-topic' list. (-: Cheers; Leon
