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and is to participate in talks with the Iraqi government about what, if any, American force might beyond that deadline.

the American military mission was to help the Iraqis build “an internal defense capability and a foundation for an external defense capability.”

He praised the capabilities of Iraq’s security forces, particularly in the aftermath of the country’s inconclusive election in March.

The focus of American assistance to Iraqi forces between now and the planned 2011 withdrawal was on their ability to sustain troops in the field and build “an intelligence architecture” able to collect, share and exploit information about threats.

Ultimately, General Austin said, defeating Al Qaeda and other terrorist networks in Iraq would not be solely a military solution, but rather the establishment of the rule of law and the maturation of the country’s government and its ability to oversee even mundane things like issuing license plates and identity cards, which would narrow the space in which terrorists operate.

Improve Governance Raise Educational Achievement Increase Quality and Quantity of Universities Control Inflation Introduce a Credible Fiscal Policy Liberalize Financial Markets Increase Trade with Neighbours Increase Agricultural Productivity Improve Infrastructure Improve Environmental Quality.

And yet others say Western foreign assistance is focused more on "giving a man a fish" than on "teaching a man to fish."

The full report (215 pages, PDF) is available here.

while thin women and pumped-up men are the successful, popular, sexy and powerful ones. How can we tell our children that it's what's inside that counts, when the media continuously contradicts this message?

Super models in all the popular magazines have continued to get thinner and thinner.

Modeling agencies have been reported to actively pursue Anorexic models.

he average woman model weighs up to 25% less

han the typical woman and maintains a weight at about 15 to 20 percent below what is considered healthy for her age and height.

By far, these body types and images are not the norm and unobtainable

Diet advertisements are another problem.

hese images are fake.

the ideal body" combined with the diet industry's drive to make more money, creates a never-ending cycle of ad upon ad that try to convince us

Pop-culture's imposed definition of

Barbie-type dolls have often been blamed on playing a role in the development of body-image problems and Eating Disorders.

Not only do these dolls have fictionally proportioned, small body sizes, but they lean towards escalating the belief that materialistic possessions, beauty and thinness equate happiness.

Barbie has more accessories available to purchase than can be believed, including Ken, her attractive boyfriend.

personally do NOT believe every girl that has a Barbie-type doll is at risk of disordered eating,

We need to remind ourselves and each other constantly (especially children) that

With an increased population of children who spend a lot of time in front of television, there are more of them coming up with a superficial sense of who they are.

we are continually exposed to the notion that losing weight will make us happier and it will be through "THIS diet plan".

if you lose weight, your life will be good."

These images may not help, and for those already open to the possibility of negative coping mechanisms and/or mental illness, the media may play a small contributing role -- but ultimately, if a young man or woman's life situation, environment, and/or genetics leave them open to an Eating Disorder (or alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, OCD, etc.), they will still end up in the same place regardless of television or magazines.

it helps to perpetuate an ideal of materialism, beauty, and being thin as important elements to happiness in one's life.

this would delay a young person's entry into the labor force

If an older worker is forced to work an extra couple of years

youth unemployment already absurdly high

over 20 percent

young people need to realize they will live longer

reduce benefits.

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n many

laces, it was legal for people as young as 18 to purchase and drink alcohol.

The in

roduction of a

constitutional amendment lowering the U.S.'s voting age to 18 in 1971 ushered in a further wave of lowered

drinking ages in many states.

However, that tide was swiftly reversed beginning in the late 1970s.

federal law was passed in

984 that effectively established a national minimum drinking age of 21

Is the current minimum drinking age of 21 a good idea, promoting safety and responsibility among American teenagers? Or has it backfired, causing an increasingly dangerous drinking culture among U.S. youth?

Critics, however, argue that the 21-and-over drinking laws have actually made for a more dangerous environment for American teenagers by prompting them to do their drinking in private, unsupervised environments

Supporters of the current minimum drinking age say that the higher age limit has reduced drunk driving deaths substantially, and generally makes for a safer environment. Teenagers and alcohol make for a potentially hazardous mix, supporters maintain, and any steps taken to separate those two elements should be welcomed. Additionally, the human body does not fully develop until around the age of 21, proponents say; the intake of alcohol can cause grave mental and physical damage to a still-developing body.

98% have never been in trouble with a college administrator because of behavior resulting from drinking too much 93% have never received a lower grade because of drinking too much 93% have never come to class after having had several drinks 90% have never damaged property, pulled a false alarm, or engaged in similar inappropriate behavior because of drinking

However, violent games do affect children, as the studies show, especially early teens, and I feel that there needs to be a stricter regulation regarding the availability of these games to young children.

wants to maintain a strong commitment to overseas assistance and global health.

budget request includes strategic

structural shifts to reach those goals, including aligning foreign assistance more closely with foreign policy objectives, demanding greater accountability from recipient governments, and delivering more "bang for the buck" by increasing cross-agency cooperation, streamlining delivery of goods and services, and reducing U.S. government redundancies.

accept that extreme thinness is anorexia.

norexia is the desire to maintain a lower body weight than is normal and healthy.

If a little girl sees a variety of thin/anorexic celebrities on TV, in magazines, decides with her friends that they are beautiful, that she'd like to look like them and, in an attempt to do so, she proceeds to lose 20 kilos, she's anorexic!

The danger is that the numbers of women who have uncomfortable thoughts about their bodies are far, far higher than those suffering from full blown anorexia

once these thoughts have first sprung into existence, all they need is a little nourishment to make them sprout roots...and grow.

First into a diet, often into an eating disorder such as anorexia.

she just feels inadequate and guilty because she can't bring herself to starve her body to the same extent as the models and celebrities do.

it's impossible to find a magazine without at least one spread on some amazing diet and exercise regime, always with the implicit message that we are 'wrong/lazy' if we don't follow it.

not only does media influence on anorexia exist, anorexia is deliberately being perpetuated by the media and the mixed messages it portrays

he media, especially ads and commercials for appearance-related items, suggest that we can avoid the hard character work by making our bodies into copies of the icons of success.

ads reveals a not-so-subtle message ? ‘You are not acceptable the way you are. The only way you can become acceptable is to buy our product and try to look like our model, who is six feet tall and wears size four jeans - and is probably anorexic’

To underestimate media influence on anorexia is to underestimate the power it has to influence the self esteem of us all.

Women are portrayed as perfect models. Although very often "Photoshop-edited",

hile stressing the importance of being slim. This leads in consequence to "promotion of anorexia", which is clearly undesirable.

Many girls idolize models and feel the need to mirror their thinness.

Models of a very low weight are setting bad examples to these girls

can be held responsible for the increasing number of girls with eating disorders

The fashion industry is not to blame for eating disorders. Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses and are not simply triggered by models and images of thin people.

“Based on our results, I think parents should be aware of the relationship between violent video-game playing and brain function.”

he scans showed a negative effect on the brains of the teens who played “Medal of Honor” for 30 minutes. That same effect was not present in the kids who played “Need for Speed.”

And it’s also not known what effect longer play times might have. The scope of this study was 30 minutes of play, and one brain scan per kid

But what about violent TV shows? Or violent films? Has anyone ever done a brain scan of kids that have just watched a violent movie?

Kids in his study experienced increased emotional arousal when watching short clips from the boxing movie “Rocky IV.”

Larry Ley, the director and coordinator of research for the Center for Successful Parenting, which funded Mathews’ study, says the purpose of the research was to help parents make informed decisions. “There’s enough data that clearly indicates that [game violence] is a problem,” he says. “And it’s not just a problem for kids with behavior disorders.”

But not everyone is convinced that this latest research adds much to the debate – particularly the game development community. One such naysayer is Doug Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association.

“We've seen other studies in this field that have made dramatic claims but turn out to be less persuasive when objectively analyzed.”

And they’ve got plenty of answers at the ready for the critics who want to lay school shootings or teen aggression at the feet of the game industry. Several studies cited by the ESA point to games’ potential benefits for developing decision-making skills or bettering reaction times. Ley, however, argues such studies aren’t credible because they were produced by “hired guns” funded by the multi-billion-dollar game industry.

Increasingly parents are more accepting of video game violence, chalking it up to being a part of growing up. “I was dead-set against violent video games,” says Kelley Windfield, a Sammamish, Wa.-based mother of two. “But my husband told me I had to start loosening up.” Laura Best, a mother of three from Clovis, Calif., says she looks for age-appropriate games for her 14 year-old son, Kyle. And although he doesn’t play a lot of games, he does tend to gravitate towards shooters like “Medal of Honor.” &nbsp;But she isn’t concerned that Kyle will become aggressive as a result. “That’s like saying a soccer game or a football game will make a kid more aggressive,” she says. “It’s about self-control, and you’ve got to learn it.”

“Let’s quit using various Xboxes as babysitters instead of doing healthful activities,” says Ley, citing the growing epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States. And who, really, can argue with that?