What Caught My Eye Today

Iraq - The Pentagon's top military officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that he expects to be able to recommend further troop reductions in Iraq this fall saying said that on his recent trip to Iraq, he found conditions had improved more than he expected. There's something I thought I would never hear. Officials have been hoping that if security continues to improve in Iraq, they may be able to send more units to Afghanistan, where they say violence is increasing because of the flow of militants from neighboring Pakistan. the timing for this drawdown is rather serendipitous if you think about it. Violence is down, U.S. public support for ongoing troop deployments in Iraq is almost non-existent, the U.N. mandate for U.S. troop actions in Iraq is expiring at the end of the year, and...what else? Oh yeah, the Iraqis don't want us there anymore. So, yes, a troop drawdown does indeed seem like a reasonable course of action.

Afghanistan - Seeing as we touched on the possibility or redeploying some U.S. troops to Afghanistan, let's see how well things are going on that front. U.S. troops abandoned a remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan where militants killed nine of their comrades this week in another sign of the struggle facing foreign and Afghan security forces strung out along the mountainous border. Apparently not very well. The violence is another indication of the growing strength of the Taliban-led insurgency, especially in Afghanistan's east, where the outpost near the village of Wanat was breached by militants. Nine Americans were killed in the deadliest incident for U.S. forces in three years. NATO confirmed that the post, which lies amid precipitous mountains close to the Pakistan border, had been vacated while insisting that international and Afghan troops will "retain a strong presence in that area with patrolling and other means." One wonders just how NATO plans to achieve this "strong presence", seeing as they evacuated from the joint. The retreat from the eastern outpost will be considered a victory by the insurgents, and comes after a spate of security setbacks for President Hamid Karzai's government, including a spectacular Taliban jail break in the southern Kandahar province in June that freed about 900 inmates, and a spike in attacks alongside the border with Pakistan. Yeah, this is going well. Nothing better than giving hope to the insurgent forces. That certainly won't encourage them to incite more violence. But enough about Afghanistan. Let's talk about our successes in Iraq!

Pope - While he didn't expect to travel much, Pope Benedict XVI is actually keeping pace with his globe-trotting predecessor John Paul II. John Paul, only 58 when he assumed the papacy, made extensive tours of the developing world, with stops in Catholic strongholds and some of the world's poorest countries among his first nine pilgrimages. Benedict, now 81, has stayed mainly in the affluent West. The German-born pope has made no secret of his interest in Catholicism in the West, particularly Europe, where Mass attendance is very low and many churches are empty. On the plane taking him from Rome to Sydney, Benedict said the church in the West was in "crisis" because people believe they no longer need God. I don't want to come off sounding too jaded (yeah, right), but do you think it has occurred to anyone in the Holy See that those considered to be haves (in the material sense of the word) are generally rather content, while those in the have-not group have little but their religion to offer them hope and solace? I'm not saying that folks aren't in need of spiritual guidance...especially those who live in privilege. I'm merely suggesting that when you aren't wondering where your next meal is going to come from, those prayers may not appear very high on your to-do list...if at all. Funny how few folks think that it is appropriate to give much thought as to how fortunate they are for the opulent lifestyles that they have. I bet you if those same folks lost everything tomorrow, that they would find God in a hurry.

Chessboxing - Seriously, I don't make this stuff up. I merely report it. Nikolay Sazhin almost knocked out his opponent with a blow to the chin in the second round. But he had to take the queen to win the match. In front of 1,000 cheering fans, Sazhin moved his bishop to go in for the kill and won the world championship of chess boxing, a weird hybrid sport that combines as many as five rounds of pugilism with a game of chess. The combatants switch back and forth between boxing and chess — repeatedly putting their gloves on and taking them off, so that they can move the pieces around the board without clumsily knocking them over — in a sort of brains-and-brawn biathlon. a chessboard is brought into the ring on a table and the combatants play four minutes, after which the board is wheeled off very carefully so that the pieces don't fall over. Then the fighters put on the gloves and trade punches for a round, after which the board is brought back. The pattern is repeated over and over. The chess game can last up to 24 minutes. If you knock your opponent out, the chess is over, too, and you win the match. If you beat your opponent at chess, then the boxing is over, and you are the victor. In the case of a draw at the chessboard, the boxer with more points in the ring is declared the winner. Don't worry, I already checked--chessboxing is not an demonstration sport at upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing. Though if you are interested, there is a web site (click here) where you can find out more on how to achieve your dream of becoming the next chessboxing world champion

Snails - Sacrebleu, the French are running out of snails. A slow-motion crisis threatens the French way of life - the great snail shortage of 2008. Shell-shocked French food processors have warned that they can no longer obtain sufficient quantities of snails from eastern Europe, their principal source. In a glum statement, the French food processing industry announced that snail-collecting was now the object of "growing disaffection" among eastern Europeans. People were no longer keen to leave home before dawn on wet days, armed with a torch, to search the Polish forests or Hungarian scrubland for the "burgundy snail" Imagine that. I would have thought that snail-collecting would have an endless labor supply. As an added bonus, here are a couple of morsels of snail trivial to dazzle your friends and family with...

• The French eat 25,000 tons of snails a year.
• The amount is equivalent to 700 million individual snails.
• Two in every three snails eaten in the world are consumed in France.
• Two-thirds of all the snails eaten in France come from eastern Europe and the Balkans.