We ask for doctors and they send us soldiers

42 US Marines landed in Sri Lanka yesterday and not a soul said a word. As they got out of the plane that brought them to Colombo they posed for the cameras, and smiled. Looks like they'd done the one week(!) crash course on how to smile in a miss world show.

They say 1500 are on their way.

read Sri Lanka tsunami aid becomes geopolitical game
on AlertNet
and
Foreign troops in Sri Lanka only for relief work: Lanka Govt
on newindpress.com

We ask for doctors and they send us soldiers. How many people here think they're really here to help Sri Lanka? Can I see a show of hands? No one? Only the bloody Sri Lankan Government thinks they're here to help. (Maybe they're here to help the Sri Lankan Government! They did ask for access to LTTE areas!)

Send them in boys! With their setup-in-less-than-a-minute tents and their fancy GPS-bleep-bleep-thingies. Frankly, I consider this an invasion. Nothing less. Diego Garcia just wasn't big enough (Maybe it doesn't exist anymore. Has anyone checked?) for all the operations they're planning in the South Asian region. And they really didn't like the Indians making a move on the Trincomalee harbour either. Well, neither did the Sri Lankans, but DAMMIT if we gotta give it to someone we'd rather give it to the Indians than to the Americans.

And brilliant timing for Dixit to kick it don't you think? The one guy who could've (whatever his shortcomings were) done wonders for India-Sri Lanka relations and defense ties has to call it quits just when he's most needed. And the Indo-Sri Lanka defense pact which was due to be signed is down the drain I guess. (Not that I backed it, but I do think there needs to be more cooperation of EVERY kind in the South Asian region. If it has to begin with defense, then so be it) Bloody hell it just couldn't get better for the Americans.

Bye bye rest of the world. I'm going to be a unwilling secondary American citizen soon. Like the Afghans and the Iraqis.