Angry Thoughts: I heard parts of Condoleezza Rice’s testimony in Congress. Whenever I read in the press that a government official will be facing “tough” questioning on the Hill, I immediately expect kid-gloves treatment from the unimpressive bunch of the US senate. You see tough questioning in the Canadian parliament or the UK House of Commons, but never in the US Congress. The most you will hear: “I have tremendous respect for my friend across the isle, but….” But really, have you ever been impressed with the mind of one—not two, not three, but one—US senator? Except of course the brilliant mind of Dan Quayle when he served in that “prestigious” body years ago. And don’t you like the “bipartisanship” of US foreign policy? Whenever I hear the word “bipartisanship” I immediately assume that an American war or a US violation of human rights is about to be perpetrated somewhere around the world. And Rice talked about the Palestinian situation. She thinks that the image of the US in the Muslim world will improve once people there are told that Bush was the first president to recognize a Palestinian state. Really? Really! How dumb are those policy makers? They really think that it is a question of image? They still talk (as Rice did) about how “can we better articulate our message”? What do they mean by that? Like: "we will kindly bomb the hell out of Fallujah, please?" Or: "We support Israeli killing of Palestinians, but we do so compassionately?" Or: "we politely and kindly ask all Arabs to submit to the will of the US empire, please?" And let Rice and her “public diplomacy” (propaganda, but for the US government, you never use that word) team translate into Arabic, Urdu, Turkish and Persian George W. Bush’s words that “Ariel Sharon is a man of peace.” And maybe they can finally provide us with figures of the total number of bombs and missiles that were dropped on Afghanistan and Iraq, and the percentage of those bombs and missiles that missed their targets, please. That would really warm the hearts of Arabs/Muslims. And the Democratic senators offer some muted criticisms of the Republican nominees, only to vote for them later. Only two Democratic Senators voted against Rice in the Committee yesterday, and I have no respect for either of them. But then again: you have to protect the bipartisan spirits; American wars are always around the corner, and that is why Sen. Kerry wanted to add some 40,000 more soldiers to the US army. And by the way. Whatever happened to the US Marine who shot an unarmed Iraqi wounded man? Oh, I forgot. Was he not officially exhonorated by the legal department of Fox News? And they think that democratization will soften anti-Amercianism? Who told them that? Were they the same people who argue that the consumption of US products overseas will lead to democratization? It must be the ingredients of the Chicken McNuggets that lead to democratization, I think. Turkey is a functioning democracy, and yet according to the poll of the BBC it shares the opposition to the US wars and policies with governments like Saudi Arabis and Morocco. So much of the premises of US foreign policy are fallatious, and that will only gurarantee the continuation of the same. Brace yourself. Bush has 4 more years.