Dampening the morale of the troops??

Many, who are pro Iraq war, say that any suggestion of USA withdrawing from Iraq will ‘dampen the morale of our brave soldiers fighting there’. I just cannot understand this. Why should a soldier who is risking his life in a foreign country, where everyone (at least 80% of the population) wants you to leave, mind being called back? Do the soldiers have a death wish? Or do they want to stay away from their nagging wives and family as long as possible? This does not make any sense to me. I feel that instead of feeling depressed, our soldiers must be cheering, “Thank God Almighty, finally they are talking about us getting out of this hell hole! Please hurry!’

‘Show me the money!’

Hear that the Indian tennis star, Sonia Mirza, has gotten into hot water for her remarks about ‘safe sex’ at a conference in New Delhi. What is this 19 year old girl doing at a summit attended by world leaders? That too, to speak about sex! Can you imagine Tiger Woods or Maria Sharapova doing anything like that? I think the problem is that Sonia does not have a good PR firm advising her where to go and what to do. She is still using her tennis mentor, Mahesh Bhupati, as her agent. It is time to fire him, and get a top notch sports agency -- preferably from USA.

Victory is near

There is good news about the Iraq war. United States is going to declare victory, and leave Iraq within the next few months – definitely before the 2006 mid-term elections. U.S. Congress Representative John Murtha’s speech last week urging the pull-out of the U.S. troops, was a crystallizing event. Suddenly, it has become O.K. for politicians to condemn the war without being labeled unpatriotic or weak -- as no one can accuse Rep. Murtha of the same. The American public had soured on the war long time ago. But it took months for the selfish politicians to get the ‘backbone’ to protest the war. I am waiting for Presidential hopefuls like Hilary Clinton and John McCain to change their stand on ‘continuing the course’ in Iraq. Of course, they will do it in such way to imply that they were always against the war in Iraq!

Slap the face first, and then ask a favor!

I heard over the radio the excerpts of a speech President Bush is going to give in China tomorrow. He is going urge China to become more democratic*. The neighboring nation Taiwan is going to be praised as a country where democracy thrives. These careless remarks are going anger the Chinese Leaders immensely – especially the comparison with Taiwan. They will lose face before their own people, which they will never forgive. (The Chinese are still sore about Hillary Clinton who made a speech in there, a few years ago, criticizing their treatment of women) The most amazing thing is that the primary goal of President Bush’s trip to China is to convince the Chinese to open up their market for US exporters. This speech should start off matters nicely! I wonder who in the State Department approved this speech. (I see that ‘Condi’ is in the Middle East giving similar meaningless speeches -- urging everyone to strive for peace!).

* I hope nobody questions President Bush about the Year 2000 election in USA, where the candidate with over half a million votes of majority did not win the office!

Me, the Superman!

Every second week of the month, my wife and I serve as ushers at the Sunday service of our church. It is a task I do not like particularly; but my wife loves it as it gives her a sense of ‘serving’. Anyway, today I was doing my usual routine of releasing the worshippers at each pew to go for the communion at the altar. A frail elderly lady, in her eighties, got up slowly and suddenly tripped over the kneel bar of the pew. She was on her way to falling to the floor when I caught her -- like a ‘catch’ in a cricket match. She was light as a feather in my arms, and I had no difficulty in putting her back on her feet. I felt like a superman saving a damsel from imminent danger.
One more good deed for my guardian angel to remind me about. Like it is in the movie ‘It is a wonderful life’ (‘There, it is Mrs. Smith in the hospital bed with a broken hip, because you were not born!’).

A refresher class would do it!

Heard that President Bush has ordered a refresher class on ethics for his staff, in reaction to the ‘Plamegate’ revelations. Now I get it. Karl Rove and 'Scooter’ Libby outed a CIA agent, because they forgot that it was not ‘ethical’ to publicize classified information. Just like a pedophile who forgot about the ‘age of consent’. All that is needed is a ‘refresher’ course to get these criminals back in the right path.

(Last weeks ‘60 Minutes’ TV show had an eye-opening story about the impact of revealing the identity of a covert CIA agent)