The More You Know

The Bush administration agreed last month to provide India with nuclear technology, a country which has never signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

-IHT

Study fails to show healing power of prayer

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A study of more than 1,800 patients who underwent heart bypass surgery has failed to show that prayers specially organized for their recovery had any impact, researchers said Thursday.

In fact, the study found some of the patients who knew they were being prayed for did worse than others who were only told they might be prayed for -- though those who did the study said they could not explain why.

hrmm.

This isn't good. Note that these come from Aljazeera, the Middle Eastern News Organization.

Iraqi civil war threatens region

As the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq approaches, the country continues to face challenges in overcoming political instability, rampant violence, and persistent water and power outages.

Two weeks ago, the sectarian violence following the partial destruction of the Askariya mosque in Sammara, north of Baghdad, pushed Iraqis closer to civil war.

Failures to form and convene a government after the 15 December elections, and disagreement over who should be the next prime minister have further complicated the situation.

Regional analysts say a civil war in Iraq could tear it apart and spill over into a wider conflict throughout the Middle East.

Why do you say the US manipulated Iraqi divisions for its own sake?

When the US entered Iraq, it took advantage of the sectarian divisions in the country. These divisions had already been aggravated by the rule of Saddam Hussein, but now it was being aggravated again by the US.

The US exploited these divisions by making promises to the Shia community to have a larger share of the pie - of the oil shares.

This is a policy to produce a more divided country.

The US administration hoped that by averting the rise of national unity among Iraqis, they could play one faction against another.

This policy has worked. For example, the Kurds, for all practical purposes, can be considered independent.

However, whenever we see any Shia-Sunni alliance, the US immediately considers this a threat.

So, they sometimes appease the Shia. And other times they appease the Sunnis, but never both together.

Muqtada al-Sadr, though, is a danger to the US because he appeals for national Iraqi unity across the Sunni-Shia divide.

Should the US military withdraw its forces from Iraq?

The US has, strategically speaking, lost Iraq ... there is no option of victory. They lose if they stay, they lose if they leave.

Politically and strategically, Iraq has become an untenable situation.

...
Also, the mess in Iraq has permitted Arab governments to justify their rule by pointing out the model of Iraqi blood and destruction as being the result of democratic construction.

How's this for good timing... while we're busy wondering what in the world to do with the mess we've created in Iraq, we have other issues to think about:

Iran test-fires another torpedo

Iran has successfully test-fired its second new torpedo in as many days, and a military spokesman suggests it is more powerful and capable of going deeper than previous ones in its arsenal.

...
Iran said on Monday that its ongoing war games in the Gulf aim to prepare its defences against American threats amid mounting tensions over its nuclear programme.

...
But the United States said that while Iranians may have made "some strides" in its military, they have also been known to "boast and exaggerate their statements about greater technical and tactical capabilities".

Real nice, fuel their fire. Give them a reason to really test it out.

My question is... who put these idiots in charge of our country?

in case you had any doubts...

please excuse the large size on your LJ friends page, just this once.