From a tear-soaked Associated Press:

Female, single, over 30: Iraqis count cost of war

By Hamza Hendawi [sic], Associated Press Writer Mon Sep 6, 2010

BAGHDAD – …. The war has had any number of hidden costs for Iraqis. One that few outside Iraq might notice or even consider a significant problem: More women are finding themselves over 30 and single after seven years of bloody turmoil that made marriage more difficult, killing many young men and blowing apart social networks.

In Iraq’s conservative society, women are expected to be married in their teens or early 20s. Women who cross the 30-year threshold and are single face powerful social stigmas and live under heavy limitations.

Generally, they must continue living with their parents or other family. If they are not wealthy, educated or employed, they are often reduced by relatives to servitude — cleaning, washing, cooking and watching over small children.

Work opportunities are limited. At jobs or in public, unmarried women are sometimes seen as vulnerable, without the protection of a husband. Some almost never leave their houses…

Being female, single and over 30 was already common because of Iraq’s decades of conflict, including the bloody Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. But their number is believed to have significantly grown since 2003…

Also, suicide bombings, sectarian slayings, death squads and gunbattles disrupted social networks for marriage. People feared leaving their homes, so young people had little chance to meet potential spouses…

Maybe the Iraqis will eventually realize that teaching their young men (and women) to blow up themselves and others is not good for their society.

And a few more American women might have husbands, too.

Still, if the Iraqis haven’t learned after six hundred years of this insanity, they probably never will.

From an unfazed Associated Press:

NATO asks for more troops for Afghanistan

By Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press Writer
September 6, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan – The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan is asking for 2,000 more soldiers to join the 140,000-strong international force here, NATO officials said Monday. It was unclear how many would be Americans…

Given NATO’s track record, they will almost all be American.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to talk about the issue with media, said the NATO-led command had been asking for the troops even before Gen. David Petraeus assumed command here in July.

Funny how this is the first we have heard about it.

Petraeus recently renewed that request with the NATO command in Brussels. The alliance has had trouble raising more troops for the war effort, with at least 450 training slots still unfilled after more than a year…

Lest we forget, it was the left who demanded that we get NATO involved. This is the kind of war they wanted. And this is exactly why.