Sarah Palin's Ammo for Al Qaeda

The recent ABC News interview of Sarah Palin by Charlie Gibson really took me by surprise. She said going to Iraq was part of God's plan. Now first and foremost it is an established fact that this war was based on misleading (or cooked up) intelligence report about WMD in possession of Iraq. Earlier even George Bush had termed this war as a "crusade"

All these statements and rhetoric would surely be transformed by the Al Qaeda propaganda experts to their advantage in the Islamic world. Already there is huge military resistance against the invasion in Iraq and Afghanistan (which in my opinion was the correct response unlike Iraq) but now there is a new train of thought in resisting the American way of life which they fear is infiltrating socially and culturally.

Ten years back when I was in India at that time Bill Clinton's visit was labeled as the World Leader's visit to India and the whole world was looking towards emulating the American dream. I came to US as a student following the same dream of liberty and American prosperity. But this year when I was in India people felt Americans are arrogant and don't care about anyone except themselves and all the talk(liberty, democracy...) is only superficial with the real agenda of world domination.

I tried explaining that 49% of Americans actually voted against George Bush and the policies of US government which don't echo of what the average American is.... I have had such wonderful personal experiences both as a student and later at work place with the kindness, cordiality and helpful nature of the so called "arrogant" Americans that it would take a separate blog to list them.

But then I hit the road block of American invasion in Iraq and the sudden decrease in Oil prices just before the elections. Still trying to understand all this talk about God's plan is it really about Oil wealth and impending US elections.

In USA majority of the people can discern the election hype from truth using their own intelligence. But in most parts of the world where the average person doesn't discern but believes in spin doctors who twist these sound bytes to raise more people to take up arms against the so called "invaders"

I have kept a small poll to identify whether more Americans feel safer to travel to Asian countries now than before 2000. If there are people who have actually travelled post and pre 2000 year than I would certainly like to hear their experiences.