Shlonkom Bakazay?

In the land between two rivers, there is a blossoming theocracy thanks to the effects of American foreign policy. Today Barry Posen, professor of political science at MIT, pours cold water onto people concerning the insurgency in Iraq via the NY Times. I suggest you read this article. He has some keen observations.

SOME hold out hope that Iraqi police and soldiers can take on this task [of quelling the insurgency], but this too is improbable. Even if all 160,000 members of these forces were sent to known areas of insurgent activity - which cannot be done, since many are local police officers and militia members from other parts of Iraq - the total would be insufficient. Besides, relatively few Sunni Arabs have enlisted, so these predominantly Shiite and Kurdish security forces are as likely as the Americans to antagonize the populations of the restive areas.

And in the land between two oceans there is a blossoming theocracy thanks to religion's influence in politics. Andrew Buncombe with the London Independent writes about one of my greatest concerns in his article, In God we Trust: America's rising religious zealotry.

Despite the separation of church and state being enshrined in the US constitution, more than 40 per cent of US citizens said religious leaders should use their influence to try to sway policy-makers. In France, by contrast, 85 per cent of people said they opposed such "activism" by the clergy.

"These numbers are not surprising," Daniel Conkle, who teaches law and religion at Indiana University, told The Independent. "The US, in separating church and state, has not followed with the notion that it includes a separation of religion and politics."

...

Gregg Easterbrook, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank, said: "By a lot of measures, the US is the most religious of the industrialised nations."

...

[T]he US appears to be exceptional among industrialised nations because of the numbers who believe religion should influence policy-makers.

I wish America could learn from the French people. But alas, NO! Too busy ridiculing them for not supporting the war and too concerned about changing the name of fries, breakfast food, and salad dressing French people don't eat. The irony of such stupidity...And doesn't the separation of church and state mean there should be a separation of religion and policy-making? Again, the rule of American unreality prevails.

Moving on, are you sick of incessantly whining Iraqi bloggers like yours truly? Well fine then. Listen to Mr al-Mufti, Omar Abdulkader, Dr Faisal Haba, Maysoon al-Damluji, Um Mustafa, Sa'ad al-Izzi, Saad Yousif, Yasmin, Dr Essam al Rawi via Real Audio and read numerous other opinions from other Iraqis thanks to a special day BBC News had on 7 June called "One Day in Iraq." They interviewed people about their daily lives, which of course includes thoughts about current conditions in Iraq. It's well worth your time to visit this page of audio and written interviews especially to get a better idea of what life is like for Iraqis living inside Iraq. Click here to go directly to a list of interviews conducted in the convenient BBC News Player. Also visit here to read and hear a larger variety of opinions of people inside Iraq. Here is the day in pictures as well. I was impressed with the breadth of this special day the BBC reported Iraq, so I hope you take some time to peruse these links.

I'll include more interesting things you may find on the internets a bit later. Same bat place.