We Don't Need No Education...

I have to agree with the Chinese protesters in their cause. It's messy, but they are right. If Japan cannot create honest textbooks that confess their wartime atrocities from World War Two, the history books should not be published. Unless Japan can admit to their crimes (which are in the past and no longer involve current Japanese citizens), the books will be misleading of facts.

Iraq has a newly elected president and he predicts magically American troops will be out of Iraq within two years. I just can't wait. I will celebrate Iraq's democracy as it happens and be critical of the current nation building every step of the way. Too much needs to be fixed at home as far as health care, income disparity, and economic conditions go. Two years for American troops feels like forever and yet it is relatively soon compared to some estimates of complete soldier returns.

The bottom line is we need Iraqi soldiers. Iraqi citizens who are willing to defend their country in a more technologically advanced and (god let's hope) safer Iraq. I've heard things about soldiers being trained that are only part time and are usually farmers. While farmers are an absolute critical necessity, career soldiers are needed for security. Permanent defense.

In some lighter news, this is fantastic. Apparently, an Australian citizen had recently come to the United States, and the first thing he decided to do was to stand outside the capitol building with two suitcases. Police suspected he was a terrorist, possibly a suicide bomber. They tried negotiating with him, but he refused to tell police what was inside his suitcases. He said only that he wanted to talk to the president. The standoff ended with the man being tackled and nobody getting injured.

When the police obtained his bags, the bomb squad blew one up and found that the probably contained a CD player or "a watch or something". I can't help but find that amusing.

Okay, maybe that wasn't "lighter" news, due to the fact he could've been a real terrorist! Our congressman could all be dead right now! As I hope you can tell, I do not seriously mean the previous two sentences in the slightest. The man just wanted to have a chat with W, that's all.