On Monday, Iran and Iraq signed a Memorandum of Understanding on bilateral defense cooperation. The agreement lays out the basis for an "expansion of defense cooperation between the two countries,"  according to Iran's official IRNA news agency. The agreement is expected to play a role in influencing Baghdad to refuse an American request that US troops be allowed to remain in Iraq past the end of 2008.

n addition to its defense pact with Iraq, Iran signed a similar Memorandum of Understanding with Syria in 2006. Iran and Syria cooperate in supplying and supporting the Hizbullah terrorist organization endeavoring to take over Lebanon, on Israel's northern border.

According to an official study, Egypt's six million government employees are estimated to spend an average of only 27 minutes per day actually working, reflecting a real problem with productivity.

Qaradawi's fatwa is aimed at removing prayer as a pretext for not producing.

Religious beliefs in Egypt are very overt, from the headscarf covering the majority of women's heads to the bruise on many a man's forehead showing how piously and how often he has touched his head to the ground in prostration.

The Sahwa Councils were first created in Anbar after some Iraqi tribes agreed to work together with the US forces against the actions of Al-Qa’eda, and in order to wipe out all the elements of Al-Qa’eda in their areas.

After the murder of Al-Samarra’ie Abu Al-Abed was took the place of A-Samarra’ie as the leader of the Sahwa Council in Adhamiya, some families claimthat the situation calmed down in Adhamiya after the creation of the Sahwa council.

The Baghdadis caught between these extremes know that the only thing standing in the way of another sectarian conflagration is the U.S. military. This may explain why every Iraqi who offers me a view on American politics seems to be praying for a McCain victory. A 100-year American military presence, of which McCain once spoke, may seem a bit much; I suspect most Iraqis would be happy with five.

Now, says Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, all the credit for the decline in violence is going to the U.S. military: "People think the Americans are like Superman, who can do anything."

Many are former insurgents who are happy to accept salaries ($300 per month, paid by the U.S., not the Iraqi government)

Our common security is challenged by regional conflicts -- ethnic and religious strife that is ancient, but not inevitable. In the Middle East, there can be no peace for either side without freedom for both sides

Had Saddam Hussein been appeased instead of stopped, he would have endangered the peace and stability of the world. Yet this aggression was stopped -- by the might of coalition forces and the will of the United Nations. To suspend hostilities, to spare himself, Iraq's dictator accepted a series of commitments. The terms were clear, to him and to all. And he agreed to prove he is complying with every one of those obligations. He has proven instead only his contempt for the United Nations, and for all his pledges. By breaking every pledge -- by his deceptions, and by his cruelties -- Saddam Hussein has made the case against himself.

n 1991, Security Council Resolution 688 demanded that the Iraqi regime cease at once the repression of its own people, including the systematic repression of minorities -- which the Council said, threatened international peace and security in the region. This demand goes ignored.