My Monday Winds of War is up! Topics include:

Italy to stay in Iraq a spell; Palestinian civil war; PDB to merge with daily terror threat report; nuclear terrorism response simulation; Kenya arrests five; Clinton prods on Mugabe; Pak nuke worries; Euro arrest warrant made toothless; UK to act on imams; Zawahiri a KGB agent and more...

Because we have a small, poor country full of people with big hearts.
Because we never visit others empty handed.
Because there is no way to explain to foreigners what is "kapsoura" (burning desire for someone).
Because in Greece family is still something valuable.
Because we always make it, albeit in the last moment.
Because we were slaves for 400 years yet never bring that up as an excuse for our current state.
Because we are everywhere around the planet.
Because "filotimo" (friend of honour, helping someone because it is a shame not to) does not exist in any other language.
Because whenever foreigners cannot find a word, they use one of ours.
Because Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were Greek.
Because we invented theatre.
Because we gave birth to Democracy.
Because we discovered logic.
Because we jumpstarted science.
Because we have a distinction between Eros (falling in love) and Agapi (innocent love), while we feel both of them passionately.
Because Eros was a Greek God.
Because "Greeks do not fight as heroes, heroes fight like Greeks" (Winston Churchill,1941).
Because we gave our ancient alphabet to the Romans & our medieval alphabet to the Slavs.
Because we are not ashamed to cry.
Because we dance when we are sad.
Because we work to live and do not live to work.
Because 97% of the stars' names are Greek.
Because when you shout "brother or cousin " in the streets everyone turns around.
Because our parents do not forget that we exist when we reach 18.
Because we confront every difficulty with humor.
Because our sky is blue, not grey.
Because 40% of Oxford dictionary is made up with Greek words.
Because we know what "Kefi" (propensity to fun) means.
Because Homer wrote Iliad 3500 years ago and Hollywood turned it into a movie just recently.

Yahoo, Cisco, Microsoft

Michael Yon is in Iraq and has the story.

Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, were hanged publicly July 19 in the city of Mashhad on charges of raping younger boys. They said before their executions that they were not aware that homosexual acts were punishable by death.

Asgari had been accused of raping a 13-year-old boy. His lawyer, Rohollah Razaz Zadeh, said Iranian courts are supposed to commute death sentences handed to children to five years in jail.

"The judiciary has trampled its own laws," Razaz Zadeh told the AP.

But the lawyer said Iran's Supreme Court upheld the verdict and allowed the execution despite his objections.

Gay rights groups, such as the London-based Outrage!, and Iranian opposition groups suggested the rape allegations were trumped-up charges aimed to undermine public sympathy for the teenagers.

Laureate Condemns Hanging of Iranian Boys

Pictures in ISNA

The Human Rights Campaign's letter to Condoleezza Rice

Updates in Direland blog

Iran Focus has a story too.

I think we should make "Bandar" the official title of the Saudi ambassador to the US, in the wake of Bandar bin Sultan's 20-year career as the point-man between Saudi Arabia and the United States. His career was great for Saudi Arabia, and disastrous for the United States-he nurtured the sovereignty-destructive relationship between Saudi elites and greedy, weak-willed, out-of-power but influential US elites. The most disturbing aspect of this isn't the cooptation of our retired elites; it's the influence that this has on the actions of our leaders while they're still leading us. It's a form of meddling in US affairs, and the Saudis have to be told to stop it in no uncertain terms.

The new Bandar won't bring about a new way of doing things; he'll only maintain and extend the sinister edifice built by his predecessor. Call it Bandar's Banana Republic; it's that web of relationships, mutual back-scratching and implied rewards for favors that has poisoned this country's ability to behave seriously with the Saudis by coopting our venal political class. This has to stop, but the appointment of Bandar Bandar's replacement gives me little reason to believe it will. The Saudis will continue to corrupt our spineless politicians, apparently.

So now that Bandar Bandar has gone home, Bandar Turki bin Faisal, Osama bin Laden confidante and admirer, a lying torture-denier who claims Zionists are behind Islamic terrorism in the Arabian Peninsula and has been named in the trillion-dollar lawsuit over 9/11, has now replaced him (after having been Ambassador to London).

Why did the first Bandar, Bandar Bandar, leave? Probably to pursue a bigger job if his father becomes the Crown Prince, such as intel chief-he has even expressed the desire to be King himself. Fat chance in Saudi Arabia for the son of a slave-girl.

Bandar Turki seems like something of a downgrade. It's hard to understand why they would send such a tainted individual to replace Bandar Bandar (who himself became tainted when it emerged that his wife may have helped finance a couple of the 9/11 terrorists' US stay).

Mark Steyn has had some funny interactions with top Saudis like Turki. Being sent Turki after Bandar signifies that for the Saudis, nothing has changed, and we're getting more of the same. Meet the new Bandar, same as the old Bandar.

Down with the Bandar system!

So, comrades... Have you thought about how old is your inner you? Is your inner you old enough to enjoy a sugar crash perhaps?

(a sugar cube to floranista)

Read some letters to God after the jump and give a tomato to jlfintx who shared this very funny email with us.