A brief geopolitical interlude

The 11 o'clock news today spent about 20 minutes on this story:

Worried families of Japanese hostages wait and pray

The Japanese peace movement has latched onto this story something fierce, although I think that's a little unrealistic. Of course, I do sympathize with the movement, in general, on other grounds. Apart from the basic foolishness of Gulf War II, Japan in particular has arguably violated its own constitution by participating.

Included in the news broadcast was a shot of Rumsfeld's reaction to information that Japan had decided to stay put despite the ultimatum. It went something like this: "Oh, they've decided not to pull out? Well, I haven't heard that report. But, uh, it's a good thing." Not only did Rummy need some reporter to tell him about this official decision of the Japanese government, but he sounded ever so excited about it, too. It just goes to show how much Japan's presence is appreciated by the GWII ringleaders.

And about the headline in the Reuter's article up above. I only see one praying dude mentioned in the body of the story, and I saw no praying or prayer accessories in evidence at any time during the 20 minute TV news piece. So how exactly is it appropriate to characterize the "families", in general, as praying? Prayer may be a compulsory response to tragedy in the USA (and even in Canada I saw some letters post 9/11 criticizing Chretien for not "leading the country in prayer" or some such), and it's fine if prayer's your thing, but it's not everybody's thing, OK?