The war in Iraq has been one of the most disastrous wars ever fought by Britain. It has been small but we achieved nothing. It will stand with Crimea and the Boer War as conflicts which could have been avoided and were demonstrations of incompetence from start to finish. The British failure in the Iraq war has been even more gross because it has not ended with a costly military victory but a humiliating scuttle. The victors in Basra and southern Iraq have been the local Shia militias masquerading as government security forces. Britain should immediately hold a full inquiry into the mistakes made before and during the war in Iraq out of pure self-interest. Gordon Brown’s suggestion that holding such an inquiry now would somehow threaten the stability of Iraq is either a piece of obvious prevarication or, if taken at face value, a sign of absurd vanity. Iraqis show not the slightest interest in British policy and assume it will simply be an echo of decisions made in Washington. I have watched this war being fought over the last five years and I never for a moment felt that the Government in London had the […]
Today’s edition of SR is focused on Iraq. The war seems largely to have left the public conversation, which I find unacceptable, given that young Americans and many Iraqis continue to die because of this conflict. Also whomever is the next President, this issue is going to haunt them, and us, until reality enters our evaluation of what to do.
British researchers are calling on doctors to cut back on prescribing antibiotics to patients with common sinus infections because the drugs don’t work. An analysis of nine trials published in the journal The Lancet found antibiotics were ineffective treatments even in people who had been ill for more seven days. Sinusitis is an infection of the sinuses, small air pockets inside the cheekbones and forehead. Infected sinuses can cause blocked and runny noses, sinus pain, and high temperature. It is a very common occurrence, and often follows a cold or flu. According to BBC News, 1-5% of adults are diagnosed every with a sinus infection, around 90 percent of which are given antibiotic prescriptions. Current guidelines advise doctors to prescribe antibiotics only when the patient has been ill for seven to ten days, since an illness of this length was thought to indicate a bacterial rather than viral infection. But the latest research, which examined how long 2,600 patients were ill before receiving treatment, found the time duration of the illness is not a good predictor of whether antibiotics will be effective. Based on their work, the researchers concluded that […]
BAIJI, Iraq — The Baiji refinery, with its distillation towers rising against the Hamrin Mountains, may be the most important industrial site in the Sunni Arab-dominated regions of Iraq. On a good day, 500 tanker trucks will leave the refinery filled with fuel with a street value of $10 million. The sea of oil under Iraq is supposed to rebuild the nation, then make it prosper. But at least one-third, and possibly much more, of the fuel from Iraq’s largest refinery here is diverted to the black market, according to American military officials. Tankers are hijacked, drivers are bribed, papers are forged and meters are manipulated – and some of the earnings go to insurgents who are still killing more than 100 Iraqis a week. ‘It’s the money pit of the insurgency,’ said Capt. Joe Da Silva, who commands several platoons stationed at the refinery. Five years after the war in Iraq began, the insurgency remains a lethal force. The steady flow of cash is one reason, even as the American troop buildup and the recruitment of former insurgents to American-backed militias have helped push the number of attacks down to 2005 levels. In fact, money, […]
WASHINGTON — A new report from a health care advocacy group estimates that nearly two people in Michigan die every day because they don’t have health insurance. Families USA estimated Thursday that about 650 people in Michigan between the ages of 25 and 64 died in 2006 because they lacked health insurance. The report was based on an earlier study by the Institute of Medicine which estimated that uninsured adults are 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than adults with private health insurance. More than 1.1 million people in Michigan have no health insurance. Senator Debbie Stabenow says the report should serve as a ‘wake-up call’ on the need for universal health care coverage in the United States.
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
