
Steven DenBeste, writer of USS Clueless, has died - cagey
http://brickmuppet.mee.nu/steven_denbeste_1952-2016
======
erbo
Back when Steven first stopped writing _USS Clueless,_ I was concerned that
the content would go away. He sent me, at my request, an archive of the site,
which I hosted at Electric Minds for a time. That archive is now available on
my site [0].

He was a great influence on everyone who read him, including me. He will be
sorely missed.

[0] [https://erbosoft.com/ussclueless/](https://erbosoft.com/ussclueless/)

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notacoward
I remember SDB from the old days. He was smart and passionate and a good
writer. Many of his posts provided good starting points for many of my own -
usually in vociferous and even caustic disagreement, but even an enemy can be
missed. If there is an afterlife, I hope he has found happiness there.

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gadders
That's a shame. I remember I started reading USS Clueless around the time of
the second Iraq invasion. He's probably too "neocon" for current tastes, but a
great writer with an interesting take on current events.

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erikb
Would be nice if the title would suggest what he did. He was an important
blogger in the early days? What did he write about?

~~~
pjc50
Very prominent and _hugely_ prolific blogger, back in the Cambrian explosion
of 2000-2001. If you wanted to read several thousand word blog posts on why it
was right - no, _a moral obligation_ \- for the US to go to war with Iraq,
several times a day, he was one of the people to follow in your RSS reader. He
also posted on pop-sci and engineering topics. Eventually he wearied of the
controversy of war and retreated to blogging about anime.

Actually, the blog hosting this obituary is quite similar to and probably
inspired by DenBeste.

~~~
hga
It _was_ our _moral_ obligation to go to war with Saddam, ask for an outline
of details as I and as I recall Steve saw them if you want, but the moral case
starts with "you broke it, you fix it" ... and come to think of it we followed
the same pattern with Vietnam, except for our unprovoked breaking of that
country vs. our responding to Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. And that war was
very successful and improved things in general, if for no other reasons than
removing Saddam from power and blowing open the Khan nuclear production
network (for which we rewarded Qaddafi with death...).

It was also our moral obligation to properly handle the aftermath, after we'd
finished completely breaking the country, and _that 's_ where the horrible
failures started, with e.g. the appointment of the clueless proconsul Paul
Bremer (although killing zillions of jihadists on ground of our choosing was
one good result).

------
edem
What happened to him exactly?

~~~
teh_klev
Second sentence in the post:

 _" I did not inquire as to specifics, but Steven had been in very poor health
of late, having had a stroke just under four years ago."_

Not sure we really need specifics.

~~~
edem
I somehow missed that line, thanks!

