Iraq: what have we done?

The Iraqis are using what amounts to "explosives divining rods" to find bombs.

NY Times:

The Iraqis, however, believe passionately in them. “Whether it’s magic or scientific, what I care about is it detects bombs,” said Maj. Gen. Jehad al-Jabiri, head of the Ministry of the Interior’s General Directorate for Combating Explosives.

Dale Murray, head of the National Explosive Engineering Sciences Security Center at Sandia Labs, which does testing for the Department of Defense, said the center had “tested several devices in this category, and none have ever performed better than random chance.”

A culture that rejects science is stupid and dangerous. How much money have we spent over there, and how many lives?