And even though everyone was far more at the effect of natural forces (a couple of dry years, or a run of the black death, and it was all over), there was still a fairly direct correlation between working hard and doing well.

FORBES: End the 19th Century! Treating Employees Like Owners

The company of Marines that was actually ahead of ours a couple of hours ago came under heavy fire from Iraqi forces just outside the town of Nasiriya.

CNN: Alessio Vinci: Marines come under fire

General Odierno also reported that the security situation has retained the significant improvements made over the last couple of years and that Iraqi security forces are fully prepared to be in the lead when we end our combat mission later this month.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

Senator Snowe introduced a bill a couple of weeks ago that would require the commander of forces in Iraq to report in four months that six benchmarks - and spelled out by President Bush, in fact - in January have been achieved.

NPR: Snowe Looks for Bipartisan Support on Iraq Bill

Over the past couple of years he has sought to take control over the PA's security forces not to fight terror, but to prevent Israel from fighting terror.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: When rhetoric rules the roost

And on a couple of occasions during this conflict when I had in fact been detained temporarily by the security forces, I have been hit by Serbian police.

BBC: Quiz our correspondent in Kosovo

The Pentagon estimates that about 26, 000 people in the armed forces might have been the victims of sexual abuse the last fiscal year and just in the past couple of weeks, there have been three now high profile cases where military leaders who were in charge of sexual abuse prevention programs were arrested for crimes against women.

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