Iraqi Dinar – Iraqi Dinar Value, Iraqi Dinar Exchange Rate, Buying Iraqi Dinar, Iraqi Dinar Buying Guide

marky1dark asked:

Bush admits there were no weapons of mass destructions in Iraq and that Iraq had no ties with Al Qaida.

CaPsuLe asked:


Anyone have any articles or thoughts on investing in iraqi dinar?

prezjackie asked:

This video focuses on the soldiers in Iraq and their ordeal over there. It’s another video I made in spare time. Keep vulgar and hateful comments to yourself. This is tribute to the fallen men and women in uniform, not a political statement or debate about whether or not we should be there. Warning: there are some graphic pictures ! My Favorite poem that sums it up by Charles M. Province: It is the Soldier, not the minister Who has given us freedom of religion. It is the Soldier, not the …

m3ttt asked:

Rory Bremner gives a hilarious and historical look at the history of conflict in Iraq

 

Sapulpa, OK –Jun 26, 2008 – A 2007 survey of severely wounded troops from the War on Terror found that 92% have trouble sleeping due to nightmares, insomnia and pain. In order to combat this looming problem among the military, Craftmatic® Adjustable Beds has embarked on their CraftmaticCARES Program to donate one adjustable bed, free-of-charge to a severely wounded War on Terror veteran each week in 2008. SSG Shawn Green, U.S. Army (Ret.) of Sapulpa is this week’s winner.

 

Green first enlisted in the Army in January of 1983 and served proudly for 25 years until he was medically retired in 2007. He served two tours in Iraq with the 104th Training Division out of Washington state, his first in 2003 and second in 2007. Green honorably served under General Petraeus with the Multinational Transition Team.

 

“We were responsible for training the Iraqi people and the Iraqi Army to take over the country for themselves,” Green remembered. “We were under a constant enemy watch; every time we rolled out of the gate we knew they were watching our every move. We had to be on our toes for sure. Thank God we had helicopter cover.”

 

Although his unit was on the watch during his first tour Green was blown out of a Humvee in a mortar attack and severely damaged his neck, lower back and left shoulder.

 

But when his injuries weren’t treated properly in 2004, Green was deployed yet again in 2007 and was only there a month before his old injuries came back to haunt him.

 

“One day my entire left side went numb and the injuries finally shut me down after 25 years of service,” Green said.

 

He was flown back to the US in July of 2007 for physical therapy and back and neck surgeries at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX.

 

This week, Green learned that he would be receiving the Craftmatic bed because of his service to the military and his combat related injuries.

 

“Right now we just have a regular queen sized bed, with a standard mattress,” Green said. “Sometimes I sleep, sometimes I don’t. If my lower back isn’t getting the proper support, I wake up in pain and can’t go back to sleep. I guess I average about four to five hours of sleep a night.”

 

The Craftmatic Adjustable Beds are especially helpful to those with severe back injuries because the ‘S’ shape of the mattress mimics the curvature of the human spine, supporting the back in ways that flat mattresses cannot.

 

“Because Craftmatic beds adjust to fill the gaps created between a flat mattress and the spine, the entire back is fully supported,” said Eric Kraftsow, Elevation Bed, LLC owners of the Craftmatic trademark. “This is extremely helpful for those with back and neck injuries, such as SSG Green, who need to be properly supported in order to get a good night’s sleep and wake up fully rested. Craftmatic Adjustable Beds are proud to be an instrumental figure in these wounded heroes roads to recovery.”

For more information about the CraftmaticCARES Program, please visit http://www.craftmaticcares.com/.

 

# # #

About Craftmatic Adjustable Beds:

Craftmatic® Adjustable Beds first began marketing electrically adjustable beds specifically designed for use in the world’s bedrooms over 30 years ago. Today, Craftmatic is one of the world’s best known and respected trademarks for quality products. Craftmatic Adjustable beds are available in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.

 

Over 1,000,000 Craftmatic Adjustable Beds are now in use in customer bedrooms around the world and attest to the fact that our unique beds are as durable as they are attractive and comfortable.

 

For more information, please visit www.CraftmaticCares.com

CONTACT: Kristin Bostic, kbostic@919marketing.com, 919.459.8165



By: Kristin Bostic For Craftmatic Cares

About the Author:

There is much in the news these days about the 5 years the United States has been in the Iraq War. On March 20, 2003 we began an invasion of another country and we have occupied this country since then. This began my thinking of how we got there. I like to get the fact straight so I have researched information on net in order to get a clear picture of the events leading us to war. Clearly the catalyst to the Iraq war is the attacks on September 11, 2001.

I was looking at a few timelines of the events that occurred on September 11 and found some facts I found interesting. First of all it appears that my country’s leaders were quite (understandably) confused during the times proceeding the attacks. They occurred seemingly without warning. You could possibly argue that there was warning with this report or that report but hind sight is ALWAYS 20/20 and going there doesn’t do anyone any good.

I do remember the speech President Bush gave the evening after the crashes. Well I remember feeling something was missing. There were over 500 people from nearly 25 countries from around the world. As I was looking up information from this horrible day some particular information seemed to catch my attention. In the morning of September 11th Russia’s president Putin called our President Bush to tell him he noticed our military was on alert but understood why and would not raise his militaries alert level. This was at 11:15 on that morning. He reacted very quickly to a quickly growing situation. And President Bush did recognize that this was a clear sign that there was no more cold war. Later that very day President Putin sends a telegram to President Bush saying “The series of barbaric terrorist acts, directed against innocent people, has evoked our anger and indignation…. The whole international community must rally in the fight against terrorism.” Clearly he saw that it was an international event.

Later in the evening (8:30 p.m.) on September 11, President Bush addressed the nation on television. He was there to tell people of the United States that it was safe, things were under control and not to be afraid. This was pretty much accomplished but let me give you a quote from the very end of his speech: “This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day. Yet, we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world. Thank you. Good night and God bless America.” Apparently not recognizing how international the event was.

I remember feeling sad that he did not use this as a spring board for international unity. Had he taken the approach president Putin had reacted with, our “Global War on Terror” our governments is currently on would have been a lot easier, we may have gotten much more support for our actions in Afghanistan and we probably would not have attacked and later occupied Iraq for the last 5 years. But who knows, hind sight is always 20/20 and speculating on what might have happened doesn’t do anyone any good.

Yesterday, President Bush delivered a speech warning of “serious consequences for the world’s economy” if the United States were to withdraw from Iraq and Al Qaeda were to seize control of the country’s vast oil resources. Was Al Qaeda in Iraq before March 20, 2003? Probably not, Sadam’s Regime did not share power. Well at least it seems GW recognizes that the economy is global.



By: Christopher Snyder

About the Author:

The words China and Egypt, Athens and Rome, bring to most people’s mind a mysterious history and a respected culture. Rarely will the word Mesopotamia, ancient Iraq, do the same. You’ll probably receive confused or weird expressions from children, even most adults, at the mention of Mesopotamia. In regards to Iraq, images of Saddam, violence, terrorists, Islamic fundamentalists and war pop up all over. And that’s where the images usually end.

As for Iraq’s attributes, they are buried alive beneath lack of recognition. For whatever reason, history school books and TV programs fail to discuss the importance of ancient Iraq, even though it’s the mother of our current lifestyle and therefore, should not only be discussed but emphasized.

I stopped writing here, walked away from my computer and asked my niece, who was studying for a college course at the kitchen table, to call a couple of her friends, tell them she was doing a survey for her aunt and could they answer one question: “What is Mesopotamia?”

The people surveyed were in their mid-twenties to late thirties, and are either currently in college or have a college degree.

1st response is a first generation American, the daughter of Chaldean (Christian Iraqi) immigrants: “What the f_ _ _ is this for? I don’t know. I’m not good in geography. Are you kidding me right now? I can’t explain it like this. You caught me off guard. I don’t know. I have to think about it. You can’t do this. I wasn’t able to brain storm so go get your information from someplace else.”

Click. My niece laughed, knowing her friend overreacted having been put on the spot. She dialed the next number, this time putting a little twist in the question. “If an alien comes down from out of space and asks you what is Mesopotamia, what would you say?”

2nd response is also by the daughter of Chaldean immigrants: “Oh, my God! Well…. Long ago – long ago – okay, it’s an area of land in the Middle East. It’s our culture, where our people are from. Didn’t your aunt write a book on this? It’s a big spot and a war broke out there and everyone was separated to different areas.”

3rd response is by a Greek-American man: “I don’t know. Never heard of it. It’s a region. In Biblical times. That’s all I know.”

4th response is by an American woman: “It’s a country – an area – providence – an area in the Middle East. In an Arabic land. Where there’s King Tut and Egypt.”

5th response is by an Iranian woman: “It was an Eastern civilization that has something to do with the Ottoman Empire or Egypt.”

6th response is by a Jewish woman: “It’s a country or city.”

7th response is by an Irish-American woman: “Cancer.”

She must have mistaken the word for mesothelioma, I’m assuming?

The results of the survey did not surprise me. I knew from prior experience that people knew little if anything about the history of Iraq even though America has had political and media contact with that region for nearly two decades. I remember how after the Gulf War many people called Iraq Iran and after I corrected them, they explained, “Oh, I always get these two countries mixed up.”

Unless the person is highly or self educated, he or she will not likely know that civilization was born in Mesopotamia over 5,000 years ago. That is where writing, astronomy and science were invented. The first school, law, literature, map of the world, and the idea of dividing time and space into a multiple of 60’s started in this historic land.

The first writer in recorded history was Enheduanna, a woman from ancient Iraq. She lived, composed, and taught roughly 2,000 years before Aristotle and 1,700 years prior to Sappho. Before the “golden age” of Greece. Man’s most important invention, the wheel, was devised in Mesopotamia, as was plumbing, the plow and the sailboat.

If people were commonly aware of these facts, their image of Iraq will change and so will their opinion and behavior towards it. For instance, maybe Baghdad’s museum would have been better protected from looters after the American/British invasion. Instead, 300-400 looters were permitted to come and go as they please taking such antiques as the Varca vase, which goes back to 3,200 B.C. Found in a temple, it shows the philosophy of the Sumerians and the development and stages of life. Also missing was a headless statue for a Sumerian king, Antemena, and the famous Barzeki bronze statue, which dates back to early dynastic Sumerian periods and is more than 160 kilograms. It’s one of the earliest large examples of casting that was made by the “lost wax technique,” which is used until now.

Why didn’t the American Army help when Iraqis pleaded for one of its nearby tanks to help save the museum, by simply moving in front of it? Why was the Army’s response, “I’m sorry, it’s not our duty” when a list issued by the American Central Command stated which places the Army should protect during the 2003 war – and the museum was at Number 2, while the Ministry of Oil, which was urgently and efficiently protected, was at Number 16?

Much of the violence against US troops is triggered by the troops’ failure to understand culture-specific manners and practices in Iraq. It is beneficial for everyone to aid in cultures becoming better acquainted and as a result, lead individuals to stop the destructive acts that have terrorized both the East and the West. To do this one needs only encourage mainstream Western media to recognize the rewards and not just the conflicts regarding Arabs’ tribal ways, which operate on a foundation of honor, respect and a sense of community.

In California today there is a program for the military where Iraqi people are brought in to show how Iraqis think and behave, how they operate in their tribal system. It is a wonderful idea which really aught to have been implemented before the war so that the sons and daughters, fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers serving in Iraq would be equipped with understanding, not just weapons.

Through replacing stereotypes with accurate information, we are also able to transform America’s image which too has suffered in the world due to myths and misconceptions attained through media and some of our politicians’ bad decisions. For instance, when I was in Baghdad almost six years ago, many Iraqis assumed that in America all women had one night stands, using drugs was the cultural norm, and everyone walked around with guns.



By: Weam Namou

About the Author:

A patient of mine recently experienced an unusual problem. Apparently, she got out of bed in the middle of the night, walked outside into her garage and entered her sports car. She was changing her car clock when her partner, who was in a panic, located her in the car. My patient was awakened by her partner and was confused and bewildered as they left the garage to resume their evening’s sleep.

Sleep walking is not an unusual pattern. For many, it is an infrequent occurrence, but for others it is a lifelong experience. Recently, I have been wondering about the manner in which many of our citizens are “sleep walking” through the impact of our political landscape. As a society, we appear to be distracted and asleep at the wheel. It seems as if there is a chronic pathology among of our people characterized by naivety, indifference, and a lack of awareness to political and cultural issues.

I recall Jay Leno canvassing the streets of Los Angeles trying to find one American who could tell him how many Supreme Court justices serve on our highest bench and to identify one of their names. The responses were pathetic and called attention to the lack of political awareness of our citizenry. Recently, as my wife and I boarded a plane to return to Arizona, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was sitting in the third row of the plane. I was not aware of one on-coming passenger who seemed to recognize her or acknowledge her presence. When we deplaned and headed for the luggage area, while other passengers appeared to be oblivious to the relevance of the situation, I proceeded to introduce myself and carry on a brief conversation with her. As one of my 15 year old patients once said, “Why should I care about politics, I can’t change anything anyway.” Nevertheless, it is my belief that feeling powerless is never an excuse for sleeping through the political process.

Although I certainly respect and support our current troops deployed in Iraq and other locations, there is something quite disturbing about the false sense of patriotism displayed by Americans. For example, I believe many of us have trivialized the concept of war through the simplistic use of bumper stickers, ribbons and other insignias signifying troop support. What do these symbols really mean for most Americans? Are they true signs of patriotism by those who fully understand the impact and implications of our current war in Iraq? My brother, who was a Lieutenant and company commander in Viet Nam cringes at the naivety and lack of awareness that many Americans possess about the nature of terrorism, combat and military missions. Maybe if the military adopted a conscription policy, some Americans might rethink their form of patriotism? Maybe if they knew their own children would be subject to going off to Baghdad, they would reconsider the way they demonstrate their loyalty to our military efforts. You might recall what happened when the President tried to make nice with Congressman Jim Webb over the involvement of Mr. Webb’s son in the Iraq war. Congressman Webb bluntly told the President to mind his own business.

Americans tend to believe that if they project an image of patriotism, they are exempt from a deeper understanding of the implications of the war in Iraq. How many of our people are aware of how our wounded soldiers are being treated at Building #18 in Walter Reed Hospital? Do we understand that the hospital is under constant review for improper patient treatment and deplorable conditions? Are we aware that inpatient soldiers have complained about the unsanitary conditions at the hospital including rodents infesting the environment? How many in the Bush administration or Congress are aware of the conditions our soldiers are subjected to and do they care? Would any of us send our loved ones to heal in an environment like that? Is this how we support our troops? Shouldn’t we all be concerned about this issue? Instead we sleep walk through the military and political debate over the mission and purposes of the Iraq war. We believe that the political voices in Washington D.C. are more competent and convincing than our own. We take the easy way out from committing ourselves to being patriotic in the truest since of the word. We must walk the walk through political action, not words.

Will we sleep walk though the debate on global warming as our oil companies try to pay off researchers so they will reinterpret their findings to soften the implications of global warming? We minimize the problem by either ignoring it or by pretending to care by talking about minutiae such as using HOV lanes and not burning wood in our fireplaces as means of eradicating the problem of pollution. Is Al Gore’s documentary, Inconvenient Truth, really that inconvenient that we are willing to deny its truth? Our war in Iraq will continue to kill and maim many, but global warming has the potential to kill us all. Will we sleep walk through this problem by displaying our symbolic bumper stickers or will we attack the problem with action? It will not be the terrorists who do us in, for the enemy is at home.

Americans can no longer afford to sleep walk through the critical political issues that we face globally. Our indifference, lack of awareness, denial, shallowness, and lack of motivation will only serve to escalate the dangers that we confront. It will not be “the axis of evil” that consumes us but our own ignorance and laziness.



By: James P Krehbiel

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sabresfan4ever1981 asked:


Currency rate right now is $1=$1200 Dinar

Will people pay real dollars for in-game virtual money to help their virtual characters buy in-game goods?One gamer, who goes by the screen name Haylo, said he spent $10 to $20 real dollars a month on in-game platinum(all nonexistent, of course) to buy weapons and other goods in Dark Age of Camelot (DAOC), but would spend more if he could afford it.

Most video games have some form of currency. In many ways, the in-game economy is similar to a real world economy – goods and services are traded to mutual advantage and are mediated in currency (platinum, gold, credit,etc.). “With all the things you can buy in game,” a gamer said, “it’s hard not to want them, just like real-life stuff.”

The average Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game(MMORPG) player is 27-year-old — a demographic drooled over by marketers. Plus, nearly half of all players have jobs, which often means they have more money than time and are the perfect consumers of virtual assets. On the Internet, many gamers now buy virtual money that only exist as data files stored in a server run by a game company with real-world dollars, and the buying and selling of virtual currencies may be off most people’s radar, but it is truly big business.

An online broker, who goes by the screen name Rolala, was not a fan of online games until his 15-year-old son became interested in Final Fantasy XI. He then noticed that a large number of gils which are the currencies used in FFXI were for sale on eBay.

“I started hearing about players leaving the game who were selling their assets at cheap prices,” he said, “so I figured, buy low, sell high.”

But Rolala found his moneymaking options in FFXI “very limited”. He switched to World of Warcraft. There, he has leveraged his real-life experience into an online business. He converts his game profits into real money on sites like eBay and bankofwow ,etc. Earnings can be considerable. He said he was on track to earn about $120,000 in real money in his first year in this business.

Rolala’s business is just one example of how increasingly popular online role-playing games have created a shadow economy in which the lines between the real world and the virtual world are getting blurred.

“World of Warcraft”, the world’s largest MMORPG, boasts more than 1 million paying users in North America.There are many sites like wow gold free strategics, teaching gamers how to earn wow gold in game for free, however many players are still willing to buy gold and weapons to help their virtual characters get a higher virtual status more rapidly. Some virtual goods in World of Warcraft have been sold for thousands of dollars. It obviously creates a large real world market.

Edward Castronova, an economics professor at Indiana University who has written a book on the subject, calculated that if you took the real dollars spent within “EverQuest “as an index, its game world, called Norrath, would be the 77th richest nation on the planet, while annual player earnings surpass those of citizens of Bulgaria, India or China.

Go to GameUSD, an exchange-rate calculator for the virtual worlds, and do a search for the latest rates of virtual currencies against the U.S. dollar, and let your jaw drop open. The rates of some virtual world currencies are even better than that of the Iraqi Dinar! For instance, here is the recent exchange rate of several popular virtual currencies: Everquest Plat ($0.54/1K), EQ2 Gold ($0.17/gold), WOW Gold ( World of Warcraft Gold ) ($0.098/gold), SWG Credit ($4.40/1M), Lineage 2 adena ($2.80/1M), Guild Wars Gold ($0.12/1K), FFXI Gil ($17.89/1M), etc.

Right now, this business is one of the most hotly debated issues on the internet. Many game companies such as Blizzard who run World of Warcraft discourage profit from in-game properties, though none have found a way to stop it.

Sony Online Entertainment, on the other hand, encourages the practice (albeit within the confines of their own “Station Exchange”, their own forum for the sale of in-game properties). It recently announced the first month’s figures from “Station Exchange”. According to SOE, over 45,000 characters from “EverQuest 2″ have been active on the exchange and have spent over $180,000 USD in one month, half of which have been spent on in-game gold and platinum.

Despite of different attitudes towards virtual currency trade, the number of people who are getting into such business is rising, and the size of market has been expanding very rapidly.The market also creates a competitive environment. We could refer to sites like GameShopList, a price comparison site, to see the fierce price competition between different exchange sites.

For some ordinary gamers, however, such a capitalist approach spoils the experience. Nick Yee, a psychology researcher from Stanford University, believes many players dislike virtual currency traders because, by using real wealth to buy virtual power, “they’re breaking the fantasy-reality bubble, getting an advantage in a way that other players can’t”.

According to a recent survey by IGN, an internet media focused on the videogame markets, most gamers say they dislike and avoid this business, believing that it gives players with more discretionary income an unfair advantage.

But such attitudes are called into question by size estimates for the virtual asset trading market, which is seen having a value of $200 million to nearly $900 million in 2005.

One potential explanation for the disconnection between attitudes and money spent may be that gamers are unwilling to admit they use the services, IGN said.

In terms of the law’s concern, another issue is, who owns the virtual money? Many virtual world designers maintain that anything created in the world belong to the company. They refuse to recognise the rights of their players in the virtual property for fear of attracting liability for its maintenance or security.

But will this work in the long term? Players spend considerable time and/or money acquiring such assets. In many cases they are the creation of the player and even the intellectual property ownership is questionable. “As we spend more time in these worlds, it’s not enough for companies to say that ‘we own everything and we can turn it off at any time,’” said a gamer. “The question may soon be should we have recourse against a game company for obliterating virtual assets?”

With the rapid growth of virtual currency exchange market, should people accord virtual property the same protection as property in the real world?



By: Steven Golden

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