by Christine Smith

Today Bush told us that 'August is considered a slow news month...' and that 'we've had some encouraging news from both Afghanistan and Iraq.'

As for being 'a slow news month,' I wonder if the families of the 28 U.S. soldiers who died in just the first 8 days of August felt it was a slow news month.

What we heard from Bush today was just more of his usual propaganda again claiming his occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are making progress. His words meant to make Americans feel good about his wars, but the facts show otherwise.

Need we be reminded that it was approximately 4 1/2 years ago that Bush stood on that aircraft carrier for his photo-op declaring mission accomplished and then today he says 'the surge is still in its early stages.' It's obvious that for Bush his wars will never cease; he and his gang thrive on war while tens of thousands die as a result.

Bush interprets President Karzai's words regarding the Taliban in Afghanistan to mean the Taliban fighters 'cannot stop the march of democracy in Afghanistan.'

'March of democracy'? From what I've read, it appears there's a resurge of the Taliban, continued civilian deaths at the hands of insurgents, a huge opium trade, government corruption, and a serious threat of an Al-Qaeda comeback. There is enormous civilian suffering and death. With more than 500 Afghan civilian deaths reported this year, eroding support for Pres. Karzei, and widespread poverty, despair is mounting. Of course, we must also consider the thousands of innocents who died from the U.S. air strikes upon populated areas (towns & villages) of Afghanistan in the past several years and the resulting destruction and collapse of the Afghan hospital system. Brutality is the word for what Afghan civilians endure...brutality from the rule of warlords, militia commanders, and a continued oppression of the people.

I am reminded also of the terrible suffering of the women in Afghanistan...women so oppressed that they commit suicide to escape their circumstances. Women who set fire to themselves to escape domestic violence, forced marriages often between young teen girls and older men, and dire economic situations. And though the Karzei government recently banned underage marriages and indicates other plans to improve women's conditions are underway, domestic violence and rapes occur, and it appears according to reports from human rights and women's agencies to have had only a marginal affect on women's suicide rates.

And what does the U.S. government care about democracy and the lives of people in Afghanistan anyway? Afterall they ignored the Taliban's egregious human rights abuses on civilians there for years...but now it's suddenly a convenient reason to cite for maintaining their occupation. Obviously, it has nothing to do with human rights, we can rule out fighting al-Qaeda or the search for Osama bin laden as the reason now, we can also rule out eradicating the opium production which has grown under our occupation...and I can't accept it was even about bringing the terrorist who trained in Afghanistan and who attacked us to justice since Bush ignored Saudi Arabia (from whence several came.) No, I believe Bush wants to gain and maintain geopolitical control over the largest petroleum pipeline on the Eurasian continent...and for Bush, that's reason enough to send American soldiers to their death and for more Afghan civilians to suffer and die.

Further, Bush neglected to quote President Karzei's remarks from a CNN interview program the 'Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer' in which Karzei said regarding apprehending Osama bin Laden, 'We are not closer, we are not further away from it. We are where we were a few years ago.' Sounds like more 'encouraging news' Bush overlooked sharing with us.

As for Bush's 'encouraging news' from Iraq, yes an al Qaeda leader was killed, but at what cost? Bush conveniently never mentions the 3,632 American military deaths nor the thousands who have returned with horrible life-changing injuries, nor does he inform of us what happens when our soldiers leave areas. Neither does he speak about the thousands of Iraqi civilians who have died and approximately two million who have fled the country into Syria and Jordan. Add to this that the Iraqi parliament is far from bringing stability to the nation; instead according to 'Iraq Body Count' there have been more than 2,500 civilians killed in Iraq during July 2007, but Bush assures 'our surge is seizing the initiative from the enemy and handing it to the Iraqi people.'

I believe the U.S. government will eventually pull our troops from Iraq due to total collapse of the country's infrastructure. Sectarian violence and insurgent attacks will escalate. Peace and security will not be achieved by our occupation. Meanwhile, we can expect to hear more propaganda from Bush like we heard today, nearly the identical words we've been hearing from him since this began...and nearly the identical words since his surge in January.

Nothing changes in Bush's world: his wars and the service and deaths of our military men and women bring peace, spread democracy, and as he said today 'They are accomplishing great things for the future of our Nation...'

No. The result of Bush's wars on the future of our nation is dismal. Rather than focusing on our defense, he enrages more and more people against us worldwide and thereby weakens our defense at home...billions of your dollars are spent, thousands die, and we as a nation become, I believe, far more vulnerable to another murderous terrorist attack on our soil because of Bush's continued occupation of both Iraq and Afghanistan.