Of mice and men.

I'm usually a really patient person, but recently I received an e-mail from my girlfriend which is actually in favor of U.S. troops in Iraq. I loved the e-mail, but then I saw one picture which really, really pissed me off. You can see it right here belowSeriously, how ridiculous and fucking retarded can you possibly be? "Thank God for Dead Soldiers"? "Thank God for IEDs"? What planet are you from? Now, don't get me wrong, every citizen has a right to disagree and oppose a government's policy, such as the U.S. policy on Iraq. Personally, although I don't consider myself to be as right-wing as President Bush and his advisors, I feel that the troops will be needed in Iraq for quite some time to come, because if they pull out, the results would be pretty damn bad. Counterinsurgency operations are intensive and often very long, even up to 15 years. But despite what some Democrats might tell you, the counterinsurgency strategy that General Petraeus has put into place when he took over is doing quite well for the most part. And if any Democrat would like to argue this point, I invite them to do their own personal analysis as I have been doing for my own University dissertation. Yeah, sure, there is still violence between the government and the Mahdi Army which belongs to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr, but this was bound to happen eventually.

Now, back to the point. You can disagree with the government and its policies, but saying things like those (insert expletive here) girls are saying in that picture is beyond wrong. These soldiers are instruments of policy. If you play the flute, and you're really bad at it, you don't blame the flute - you just suck at playing the flute. Soldiers, of any country, have the courage to step up to the plate, and defend their country for their comrades and countrymen. They deserve more respect than that. They are the real men and women who make their countries secure from potential attack. If you wish to disagree with the war in Iraq, do so. But don't bad-mouth soldiers for doing their jobs. If I eat a burger at McDonalds that gives me Mad Cow disease or something, I don't go beat up a McDonalds employee - I sue the company.

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To local stuff. The race for the MLP leadership post is getting interesting with no less than 5 candidates. Personally, I'm rooting for Dr. Joseph Muscat. Why? He's young, a moderate, open-minded, charismatic, and has enough self-confidence to portray his vision, but not too much to make him seem arrogant. Once again, my opinion. The way I see it, he's Malta's Barack Obama - a progressive politician that wants to go beyond partisan politics, which we have more than enough of in this little country.

I've seen and read people saying Dr. Muscat is arrogant because he portrays what they see to be excessive self confidence and not enough humility. I don't really see him that way. If you're running for a position, you have to portray confidence in yourself to show you strongly believe in yourself and your ideals. You don't go to a job interview saying "I think I'm good for this job, but I'm not sure." Come on, when people go to job interviews, they display confidence in their abilities and talents. Its what employers want to see. So why is politics any different? Because you just hate the other party, regardless if its jesus christ himself leading? We've really got to go beyond that mentality, and it seems that the younger generations are doing so, ever so slowly.
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Am I closed minded? Not really. I like the way Chris Rock described politics in the U.S. It really applies to Maltese politics too. Check out the video here.