Earlier today, (yesterday now, since it's 3:30am here) I read in a local newspaper that the day before some foreign English teachers had been passing out leaflets stating that the US war in Iraq was illegal out in front of the building that the American Institute in Taiwan is based (the psuedo-consolute of the US in Taiwan). There were two Australians and an American as I recall. They could not speak Chinese according to the report and were trying to communicate their opposition to the war with body language. Promoting opposition to a war or policy of your own country in your own country is completely acceptable, in my opinion promoting opposition to your own country in a foreign country is totally unacceptable. I immediately caught a cab to the AIT to see if they were there again. Based on the cease-fire agreement with Iraq of 1991 and UN resolution 687 which both state that we may commence hostilities if the Saddam regime does not disarm their WMD, this conflict is completely legitimate and legal. I was planning on making their activities in front of the AIT very difficult, and communicating in Chinese to the people they were trying to pass leaflets to that they did not represent the public opinion of the people of the US and this war was completely legal by international law. When I arrived at #2 Zhengshan Street 3, there were no foreigners outside the building, but there was a Taiwanese SWAT team deployed at the entrance of the building with sub-machineguns and heavy body armor. I approached them in a friendly way and chatted with them for a few minutes. They said that the protesters were not there that day but they had heard there were protesters at the AIT in Taipei. I asked them if I could take a picture with them, but the man in charge of the team said it was not permitted. After going in and checking out the AIT I left and headed over to the Kaohsiung Museum of History. There were a few interesting things there, including a exhibition on the 2-28 incident massacre and its effect on Kaohsiung, as well as some displays of items from the "Japanese Period" of Taiwan (1895-1945).  ¶ 3/21/2003 12:09:00 PM