pHow do soldiers come to terms with having taken a life in combat? Research has suggested that when people consider themselves to be ldquo;goodrdquo; but are forced to do something ldquo;badrdquo; to others, they adopt negative opinions about their victims to rationalize their actions. But according to a new study, this tendency may not apply to soldiers or at least not to those who have served in the Iraq War. American soldiers who have killed in Iraq do not think more poorly of Iraqis than Iraq War soldiers who have not killed--they do, however, think worse of Americans who speak out against the war./ppWayne Klug, a psychologist at Berkshire Community College, asked 68 Iraq War veterans about their experiences, their thoughts on the war and their opinions about Iraqis and Americans. Compared with soldiers who never saw combat and those who witnessed a death but were not involved, veterans who ldquo;were directly involved in an Iraqi fatalityrdquo; were much more likely to consider the war to be beneficial to both countries. The finding is consistent with prior evidence that people tend to value outcomes that require great effort or distress. But although previous research predicts that these soldiers might disparage their victims, investigators were surprised to find that these veterans instead resented Americans whose opinions about the war suggest that their killings may have been unjustified./p a href=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=soldiers-who-have-taken-a-life[More]/a

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lKZCHYuSLg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytnYQHlsv1c The whole documentary pt 1 n 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DVhUcld4oY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcpjan6kZ4E don,t take it personal,u think u know life ,goggle Depleted uranium , did u know the U.S. has blasted 4.3 million atoms bombs worth of depleted uranium all over this planet , the whole world get outraged when a country sets off a nuclear weapon but u don,t blink a eye when they blast depleted uranium every where,that will kill 80 % of humans with cancer,thats a fact !!, instead u play video games and worry about tattoos,while u and everyone u know will die of cancer because ur too smart to be told anything,u have no priority's u think attacking people who piss u off is great but u know nothing, watch terror storm or end game on goggle video so u can actually have a purpose in life don,t worry about tattoos and what people think ,u have to wake up someday and face reality i have to say to people if u ever wake up don,t forget to take ur Prozac i have rectal cancer from sitting on boxes of depleted uranium ammunition i live in a hospital bed for 8 years my time is almost finished i,m ashamed of the lies the gov told me and sent me to war doped up on gov pills blasting depleted uranium that will infect the earth for at least 10,000 years giving everything cancer insects,birds,plants,water,air ,every house in Iraq is full of depleted uranium they all have cancer and u have ur video games best wishes to you and your loved onesAirplane, Auto, Boat, Motorcycle, Motor Sport, Train, Animation, Blooper, Improv, Parody, Pranks, Series, Short Film, Sketch, Spoof, Stand-up, Video Blog, Athletics, Business, Communications, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, Health, Humanities, Language, Math, Media, Medicine, Performing Arts, Physical Science, Social Science, Visual Arts, Advertising, Commercials, Entertainment News, Performing Arts, Short Film, Trailer, TV, Video Game, Web Series, Animation, Anime, Art, Documentary, Experimental, Filmmaker Reel, Interview, Manga, Short Film, Trailer, Tutorial, Federal Government, Grassroots Outreach, Local Government, Nonprofit, Public Service Announcements, Regional Government, State Government, Arts & Crafts, Beauty, Dance, Drink, Finance, Fitness, Fashion, Food, Gardening, Health, Home, Music, Sports, Technology

Author: InTheShapeOfHell Keywords: nonprofit public service announcements Added: November 30, 2008

Dead Iraqi and Iranian soldiers from the 1980-88 war are exchanged, in the first such move since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Dead Iraqi and Iranian soldiers from the 1980-88 war are exchanged, in the first such move since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The Iraq war deserter is taking advantage of a law that grants defectors asylum if the conflicts they are fleeing from are being conducted in an unlawful manner

An expected thaw in relations between the US and Germany following the election of Barack Obama faces an unexpected obstacle after an Iraq war deserter asked for...

A soldier who served his country in Iraq and Afghanistan was allegedly attacked and violently beaten by police officers in the street. nbsp; nbsp; Lance Corporal Mark Aspinall, 24, was thrown to the ground by three uniformed police officers after enjoying a night out with friends. nbsp; nbsp; With Video

Iraqi police recovered at least 38 bodies from a mass grave Saturday and Sunday, and expect to find more as they continue digging, police officials said.img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~4/YQHrbJIa6pQ" height="1" width="1"/

Iraqi police recovered at least 38 bodies from a mass grave Saturday and Sunday, and expect to find more as they continue digging, police officials said.

Iraqi police recovered at least 38 bodies from a mass grave Saturday and Sunday, and expect to find more as they continue digging, police officials said.div class="feedflare" a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=eJPWLGCe"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=pTzdYBiN"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=50" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=MyaC5S7A"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=MyaC5S7A" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=p3853o9z"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=OtHYIaq8"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=OtHYIaq8" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~4/wRgtk-4Arlk" height="1" width="1"/

Iraqi police recovered at least 38 bodies from a mass grave Saturday and Sunday, and expect to find more as they continue digging, police officials said.div class="feedflare" a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=RshDJZXt"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=60lC5xoW"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?d=50" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=wWl9M4hQ"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?i=wWl9M4hQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=2CSmgjgT"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=PnoEygbt"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?i=PnoEygbt" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~4/AGMjsq-g2nM" height="1" width="1"/

SHALAMCHA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iran and Iraq on Sunday exchanged the remains of a total of 241 soldiers killed in their 1980-88 war, resuming a swap that had been suspended since shortly after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=xMOVLh9y"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=g5b1iKAP"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=g5b1iKAP" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=PEudv8qM"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=PEudv8qM" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~4/CrBEwU23X7g" height="1" width="1"/

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's government tried to quell criticism on Sunday of a security pact which sets deadlines for U.S. military withdrawals, saying opponents could wait to judge how Washington honors commitments to pull back its troops.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=tICCGWLH"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=O9cYxTBD"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=O9cYxTBD" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=89P4Syh3"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=89P4Syh3" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~4/7v3l6f5fQGY" height="1" width="1"/

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/25095?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Mumbai%3A+Behind+the+attacks+lies+a+story+of+youth+twisted+by+hatech=World+newsc3=The+Observerc4=Mumbai+terror+attacks+%28News%29%2CIndia+%28News%29%2CTerrorism+-+international%2CWorld+news%2CObserverc5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Jason+Burkec7=2008_11_30c8=1126474c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Mumbai+terror+attacksc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FMumbai+terror+attacks" width="1" height="1" //divpThe pitted roads around Multan, the city of saints, stretch flat across the fields. They lead past rundown factories, workshops, shabby roadside teashops and mile after mile of flat fields broken only by the mud and brick houses of the villages of Pakistan's rural poor. One road leads south-east to the nearby city of Bahawalpur, the biggest recruiting base of the militant groups currently being blamed by India for the Mumbai attack; another leads north-west to Faridkot, the home village of Mohammad Ajmal Mohammad Amin Kasab, a 21-year-old Pakistan national named yesterday in the Indian media as the only gunman involved in last week's atrocity now alive and in custody./ppAlready a picture claimed by the Indian media to be Kasab, showing a young man dressed in combat trousers, carrying a backpack and an AK47, on his way to to Mumbai's main station to carry out his deadly work, has become an iconic image of the assault on the city./ppTwo other militants have been named. Like Kasab, according to the Indian media reports, they are said to be from the Multan region, southern Punjab. They, too, are said to be members of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure) and to have followed a five-month training period to prepare them for the attack. The charge of the group's involvement, denied by its spokesmen, has explosive political consequences for the volatile region and must be treated with caution. In the long-running contest between India and its neighbour, propaganda and misinformation is far from rare. But if the details now emerging are confirmed, the link to Pakistan may spark war./ppFor though it is widely acknowledged that Pakistan's civilian government has limited control over local militant groups, it is clear that Pakistan's military and security establishment does./ppLashkar-e-Taiba was originally founded with the support of the Pakistani military intelligence service, the ISI, to fight as 'deniable' proxies in the contested territory of Kashmir, part of a decades-old strategy by the militarily weaker Pakistan to 'bleed' its bigger rival. The ISI also has connections with Jaish-e-Mohammed, the second group that New Delhi security officials has accused of involvement in the Mumbai attacks./ppFor the moment little is known about the three men named yesterday or their accomplices. But their place of origin comes as no surprise to experts. Both Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed draw the majority of their recruits from the southern Punjab. Last week The Observer travelled to the twin towns of Multan and Bahawalpur, the centres of the region, to investigate the reality of the groups' power on the ground, their relations with the Pakistani intelligence services and the factors which drive young men, possibly including the Mumbai gunmen, to join them./ppTrace a line from where US special forces battle Taliban fighters in the corner of empty desert where the Afghan, Pakistani and Iranian frontiers meet, follow it through the badlands of the Pakistani North West Frontier and on through the bomb-blasted cities of northern Pakistan and down through Delhi, attacked in September, to shell-shocked Mumbai, and one thing becomes clear: this zone has displaced the Middle East as the new central front in the struggle against Islamic militancy. The southern Punjab falls on the line's centre point. There may be doubt over the identity of the attackers, but there is none that Multan and Bahawalpur and villages such as Faridkot are in the Indians' sights./ppFor most militants in the region the story - and that of Azam Amir Kasab is unlikely to be very different - starts at school. The southern Punjab has one of the highest concentrations of religious schools or madrassas in south Asia. Most teach the ultra-conservative Deobandi strand of Islam that is also followed by the Afghan Taliban and, crucially in this desperately poor land, offers free classes, board and lodging to students./ppIn Bahawalpur the Jaish-e-Mohammed group, believed responsible for a string of brutal attacks across south Asia, including the murder of Jewish American journalist Daniel Pearl, has been linked to two such madrassas. One is the headquarters of the group - a semi-fortified and forbidding complex in the centre of the town. The other is the Dar-ul-Uloom Medina, where the brother-in-law of Rashid Rauf, the Bahawalpur-based suspected British militant thought to have been killed in an American missile attack eight days ago, is a teacher. Surrounded by some of the 700 students, he told The Observer that 'jihad' was the duty of all his young charges./ppThe pupils at the more radical Bahawalpur and Multan schools grow up soaked in extremist ideology. The most senior cleric in Bahawalpur, Maulana Riaz Chugti, said his students could only go 'for training or to fight' after their studies or when the schools were shut for the holy month of Ramadan./pp'To fight in Afghanistan or Kashmir and to struggle against the forces who are against Islam is our religious duty,' Chugti, who oversees the education of 40,000 students, told The Observer./ppIn Bahawalpur both the effects and the limits of the recent reversal of policy by the ISI, the powerful Pakistani military intelligence service, are evident. A crackdown on the militant groups was launched after they were blamed for a bloody attack on the Indian parliament in 2001 which almost brought India and Pakistan to open war. The groups, previously seen as a strategic asset, were suddenly seen as, at least for the moment, a liability. When their operatives were linked to plots to assassinate the then President, and evidence of collusion with al-Qaeda itself became clear, the pressure mounted on the ISI to rein in their former proteacute;geacute;s./pp'The militants have had to lower their profile,' said one local security official. 'They are no longer recruiting or preaching or raising funds openly. Things are much more difficult for them. If they recruit at all they do it individual by individual, not en masse like before. There is no production line.'/ppBut the groups - along with break-away outfits with their roots in sectarian Shia-Sunni violence in the region - still have a significant presence in the region, particularly in remote villages such as that of Azam Amir Kasab. 'They may be semi-retired, but in my village there are 300 men who have fought in Afghanistan and have training and can be activated with one phone call,' one local former militant said. That fighters for one operation should come from the same place was not surprising. 'When I went to Afghanistan I went with five guys who I knew from school,' he said./ppThe young men of the southern Punjab have been found across a broad swath of south Asia and even further afield. In Kabul in August, The Observer interviewed Abit, a 23-year-old from Bahawalpur who had surrendered to Afghan police seconds before he was supposed to blow himself up in a huge truck bomb. Other militants from the town have been found as far away as Bangladesh. Lashkar-e-Taiba members have even been located in Iraq./ppThe groups are also of great interest to British intelligence services, who fear their key role as intermediaries between young volunteers from the UK's Muslim community - such as Rauf - and al-Qaeda leaders based in the volatile tribal zones along Pakistan's western frontier. The groups, the sources say, have a UK support network to supply funding./ppThe groups' relationship with the intelligence services is complex. Front organisations for the groups have even put up candidates in recent elections and travel without fear throughout Pakistan. Earlier this year The Observer interviewed a representative of one group alleged to be linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba in the foyer of a luxury Lahore hotel./ppLocal politicians said groups in the region were still powerful enough to intimidate the local government and security forces and even to collect tax or mediate in legal disputes in some areas. Roshan Gilani, a Shia community leader in Bahawalpur, said music shops had received Taliban-style threats, telling them to close or risk violence. Prominent Shias have been told they are on a hit list./ppUntil the Mumbai attacks, the recent series of bombings in India had been attributed by most analysts to a home-grown militant outfit: the Indian Mujahideen. With many highly educated and middle-class recruits among its ranks, and led by a 36-year-old computer engineer, the group's members have a very different profile from the Pakistani groups' recruits. But though their paths may be very different, the militants' eventual destination - fanaticism, violence and hate - are the same./ppIntelligence agencies have done much research since 9/11 into how individuals become terrorist killers. Dehumanising the enemy is seen as key. Civilians are no longer seen as innocent but as complicit in a war waged by their governments against Islam. Group dynamics also play a huge role, particularly when teams of militants are isolated from normal society for long periods of time. Training camps - such as those in which Azam Amir Kasab is said to have spent months - are the perfect way of reinforcing solidarity and the new 'world view' which will allow them to execute murderous operations, such as killing diners in a hotel restaurant in cold blood./ppIndian authorities believe local members of the Indian Mujahideen may have acted as scouts to prepare the ground and gather intelligence before the attack. Security services now recognise that militant groups looking to prepare attacks seek out resources and often enter into temporary coalitions with other outfits when necessary. Though criminal links to Islamic militants are rare, they are not unknown, and there are some suggestions that local underworld networks may have been exploited to get the attackers to the targets by sea./ph2India's terror groups/h2pstrongLashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure)/strong/ppBattling to end Indian rule in Kashmir, this Pakistan-based group is routinely blamed by Indian security forces for attacks. The surviving gunman arrested in Mumbai is said to be a member./ppstrongMaoists, also known as Naxalites/strong/ppPrime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the Maoists are the most serious threat to national security. Their battles with police cause a steady death toll./ppstrongLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam/strong/ppThe violence caused by this Sri Lankabased separatist group spilled into India in 1991 when a suicide bomber killed Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi./ppstrongSikh separatists /strong/ppPresident Indira Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards shot her in 1984 in revenge for the hundreds killed when the military, aiming to suppress separatist militants, stormed a temple in Amritsar. Riots followed./ppstrongStudents Islamic Movement of India/strong/ppAn Islamist fundamentalist organisation. Indian police suspect involvement in the attack on Jaipur this summer./ppstrongUnited Liberation Front of Asom/strong/ppFormed in 1979 to establish a 'socialist Assam' through armed struggle. One of many such groups in north-east India./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/mumbai-terror-attacks"Mumbai terror attacks/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/india"India/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/terrorism"Global terrorism/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/YnQwp2uwPLyJJSlMjRfONd_p5SY/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/YnQwp2uwPLyJJSlMjRfONd_p5SY/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

Frequency: GS850/GSM900/DCS1800/PCS1900MHz(Four Frequences)br / br / Style: Straight Boardbr / br / Screen: 3.2 inch TFT touch QVGA-screen/High strength Integral Steely Plastic Screenbr / br / Standard Accessary: Original Li-battery/battery charger/Earphone/Data Linebr / br / Call time: 150-240 minsbr / br / Standby time: 300-350 hoursbr / br / Color: Goldenbr / br / Shell material: Alloy Steel, High Strength, Wear-resisting,Unvaried, Unfadeblebr / br / Side: 116*61*11.9br / br / Weight: 220 Gramsbr / br / Lithiumion Battery: 1200MAHbr / br / Basic functionbr / br / Sound: 64 Polyphonic Ring Tonebr / br / Phone book: 500 Stripbr / br / Messages: SMS/MMSbr / br / Language: English/Chinese/Tradition Chinese/MULTI-language support more than 10 languagesbr / br / Game: Optional java gamesbr / br / Main Function: Alarm, TO Do list,Caculation, Calender, World Clockbr / br / Extra function: Name card manager, java gamesbr / br / Data applicationbr / br / Bluetooth: support bluetooth 2.0br / br / Explore: WAP/GPRSbr / br / Data line: supportbr / br / Support T-Flash expansion card: 1GB memorybr / br / Other data function: USBbr / br / Multi-media entertainmentbr / br / MP3/MP4: MP3 with Active function,support mp4br / br / Camera: 130 milion pixels high-definition digitalbr / br / FM-radio: supportbr / br / Picture display: Zoom out/in/Revolving/Picture freelybr / br / 2-D Accelerator: Changing picture/Music function by shakingbr / br / Game simulator: Multi-games simulatores insertbr / br / Game handle: Optionalbr / br / This phone will work with any SIM card on any GSM network around the World! Just insert your sim and start making phone calls and surfing the web.br / br / This iPhone is BRAND NEW! (Not Refurbished!!) It was only opened in order to be unlocked by a qualified technician! It comes in the original retail packaging with all paperwork and accessories! br / br / In the box:ŸiPhone br / ŸStereo Headset br / ŸDock br / ŸDock Connector to USB Cable br / ŸUSB Power Adapter br / ŸDocumentationbr / br / br / br / br / America Movil(MexicoÂAArgentinaÂABrazilÂAColombiaÂACentral AmericaÂAChileÂADominica Republic) br / br / ÂyTony168`s research about supported carriers Âz br / Mobile TeleSystems(MTS)-Russiabr / ATT,VerizonWireless,Sprint,Cingular(USA),br / Bharti Airtel(India),br / China Mobile(China Mainland),br / China Unicom(China Mainland and Macao etc.),br / Globe Telecom(Philippine),br / O2(UK and Ireland,German),Virgin Mobile(UK),UK3 and MM0(UK),br / Telstra(Australia),Optus(Australia and New zealand),br / Orange(AustriaÂAPortugueseÂASwissÂAFranceÂAEgyptÂAJordanÂALuxemburgÂABelgiumÂAPolandÂARomaniaÂASlovakÂARepublic of DominicaÂAAfrica.), Mobilcom(Austria)br / H3G(Italy),E-Plus(German),SFR(France),br / Rogers Communications(Canada),br / SingTel,MobileOne,StarHub(Singapore),br / Swisscom(Switzerland),Sonera(Finland),Safaricom,Celtel(Kenya),Asiacell(Iraq),Investcom(Lebanon),br / Telecom Italia SpA (=TIM),Vodafone Italy(Italy),br / Telefonica,Retevision, Uni2(Spain),br / T-Mobile International(GermanÂAHolland/NerthlandsÂAAustriaÂACroatiaÂACzech RepublicÂAHungaryÂAPolandÂASlovak),br / TeliaSonera,Vodafone(AustraliaÂAItalyÂANew ZealandÂAPortugueÂACzech RepublicÂAEgyptÂAGreeceÂAIndiaÂASouth AfricaÂATurkey), China Taiwan(HiNetÂATaiwanMobileÂAFar Eastone Telecommunications ),br / VNPTÂA MobifoneÂA VinaPhone (Viet Nam), PTCL, NTC Âj,SCO(Pakistan);br / AIS ÂA TelecomAsia ÂA CAT ÂATOT ÂA TTT Public (Thailand),PT Telkomsel (Indonesia),br / HutchisonTelecommunications,CTM(China Hongkong,China Macao),SundayÂCPeople(HongKong)br / SK telecom,LG Telecom,KTF,KT(Korea),br / KDDI/AU, NTT-DoCoMo,Softbank(Japan).br / br / br / For more info and to buy this real cool cellphone please visit or website or email use, our website is www.electronicaworks.com We accept credit card, and certapay payments also thanks.

Auteur : dahou26039
Tags : islam irak iraq algeria news usa sweden france
Envoyé : 30 novembre 2008
Note :5.0
Votes :1

With the economy tumbling and American troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush has promised to cooperate with Mr. Obama to make the transition ”as smooth as possible.” But that has not stopped his administration from trying, in its final days, to cement in place a diverse array of new regulations. nbsp; nbsp; The Labor Department proposal is one of about 20 highly contentious rules the Bush administration is planning to issue in its final weeks. The rules deal with issues as diverse as abortion, auto safety and the environment. One rule would make it easier to build power plants near national parks and wilderness areas. Another would reduce the role of federal wildlife scientists in deciding whether dams, highways and other projects pose a threat to endangered species.

Back in September or so I blogged in favor of the $700 billion stimulus package. In those days, now so long ago, I thought, against my otherwise better judgement, that we needed to do something.

Now I don’t.

Now I think we need to let the train wreck finish happening before we “stimulate” anything. If we even bother at all.

I say that for two reasons.

First is that nobody knows wtf to do, really. If we do anything.

Second is that “doing something” is overrated. For that insight I thank this excellent piece in the Washington Post, by Shankar Vedantam. And to Russ Nelson for pointing to it.

The gist:

  The action bias, or the desire to do something rather than nothing when you have just been through a terrible experience, plays a powerful role in our lives. It influences individuals and companies, investors and leaders. You can see the action bias on display in current thinking on the housing and economic crises, in the bitter debates over the war in Iraq — even in discussions about how to fix a football team that’s a perennial loser.

  When people suffer losses and confront the possibility of even greater reverses — it doesn’t matter if you are talking about a terrorist attack or a meltdown in retirement savings — it is psychologically difficult to do nothing, to hold course. This is true even when the action you contemplate produces an outcome that leaves you demonstrably worse than you were in the first place...

  When things are going well, there is a tendency to stagnate, rather than innovate and make things even better. When things are going poorly, on the other hand, our bias is to flail.

We’re flailing, and we’re doing it with trillions of non-existent dollars. Spending them risks making them even more worthless than they already are.

BESMAYA RANGE COMPLEX, Iraq (AP) -- Two Iraqi soldiers acting as insurgents hook up a cellular phone detonator to a 155mm artillery shell with a coiled red wire, bury the mock bomb in a pile of dirt next to a rusty electricity pole and then disappear down the street....

In a stunning turn of fortune for the Hempstead 15, the Nassau County District Attorney’s office has agreed to drop the charges of “disorderly conduct” and “failure to obey a lawful order” against 10 Iraq War veterans and 5 of their supporters when what is known as a six-month “Adjournment to Contemplate Dismissal (ACD)” is finished. br /br /The charges brought forth will be completely dropped after the “ACD” period is over, meaning that no criminal action related to the Oct. 15 anti-war demonstration in Hempstead, NY will be taken against members of the group for six-months as long as none of the protesters get arrested again. br /br /The news is being hailed as a victory for the Hempstead 15 and comes after over a month’s worth of grassroots pressure on Nassau County that included a torrent of phone calls and emails, petitions and court support for the defendants. The 15 protesters were arrested as they tried to enter the campus of Hofstra University during the final presidential debate, in which they planned on asking Barack Obama and John McCain questions about the Iraq War, military resisters and veterans’ treatment. br /br /After the first court date, in which the Nassau County DA split up the individual trial dates for the defendants, a long string of arraignments were planned that would have stretched to January. However, along with the succesful decision for the Hempstead 15, “[the Nassau County DA] agreed to consolidate all of our court cases on one date (TBD) so that we and our supporters may be seen and heard together,” according to Matthis Chiroux of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). IVAW is an organization of military members who are calling for an immediate withdrawal of all troops from Iraq. br /br /Chiroux, who along with Kristofer Goldsmith of IVAW organized the action outside the Hofstra campus, said, “this is a decisive victory for activists and veterans everywhere, and for the Constitution.” In a Facebook message to supporters of the Hempstead 15, Chiroux wrote, “what happened at Hofstra will forever remain with all in attendance and those who suffered most. May it be burned into America’s conscience as well, but let it be a turning point.” br /br /A CONTINUED