Tug on Superman's cape?

Talk about stupid... Nepal, January 15, 2005 (via Jerry Pournelle's "Current Mail" ) "Maoists kidnapped 14 Gurkha soldiers, who were home on leave from their service in the Indian army." Ohhh, bad move. Nepal has about 100,000 retired Gurkha soldiers. Soldiers that slite forces worldwide hold in either the highest respect or downright fear (depending upon whose side they are on). The exploits of the professionals produced by the Gurkhas over the past couple of centuries for (mostly) British conflicts are the stuff of legend. I would not want to get on their bad side... Indeed, it ocurred to me some time ago that the U.S. ought to hire Gurkha troops for Afganistan and Iraq... It wouldn't take many confrontations to a.) send one huge buncha terrorist goatlovers to their afterlife reward b.) convince a whole bunch more that shutting up and moving on would be a very good thing. And here the Maoists thought it was a good idea to kidnap some Gurkha soldiers on leave from the Indian army. Oh, very smart move, idiots. Result? January 16, 2005 "The Maoists said they would free the Gurkha soldiers they kidnapped yesterday, as they mistakenly thought the men belonged to the Nepalese army... " [heh] Smoothe move, Exlax... (Hey, I wonder if we could get the DNC to kidnap a coupla Gurkhas? It seems to me that all it'd take would be some "survey" that told 'em it was a good idea. :-)