by James Glaser
June 28, 2005

Tuesday night, George Bush will address the nation from Fort Bragg, N.C. with the troops there to cheer him on. According to White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, President Bush will emphasize there is a "clear path to victory" in Iraq. Every President we have ever had, claimed they knew some sort of path to victory, but those paths are always covered in blood.

George Bush now claims we have already won one war, in Afghanistan. I don't think so. We went to Afghanistan to get Osama bin Laden and we never did. He is still out there someplace, calling the shots against our troops in Iraq with some of the foreign fighters who claim loyalty to him, but Bush never talks about Osama. Osama tarnishes any talk of victory, so he talks about winning in Iraq.

President Bush will tell us of some plan to bring victory, but we have already lost this war. First off we have lost over 1,700 fine young Soldiers, Sailors, Air Men, and Marines. On top of that, some 12,000+ have been wounded, with thousands suffering life long debilitating injuries.

Today, Monday, a US Apache attack helicopter was shot down north of Baghdad with two pilots being killed. No matter how "clear" George's path to victory is, Deaths like these will continue until we remove all of our troops from Iraq. George can talk of victory, but then George has never once gone to the funeral of a fallen soldier. George doesn't know what happens when an American Soldier or Marine is killed. George doesn't know, because when George was a young man, he never went to war, in fact he deserted. Without attending any funeral services, Bush has insulated himself from seeing what his war is doing to so many American families and with the grief those families suffer, out of sight and out of mind, Bush can talk about victory, but victory against a pitiful third world country like Iraq in meaningless after the losses we have suffered

George Bush will wave the flag tonight and talk of victory and honor and how really splendid our troops are, but at the same time he will send more of them off to die like the two pilots who died today.

Anytime one nation starts killing people from another nation, both nations lose. There are no winners in war, both sides lose. We have already lost the respect of the world with the lies used to start this war, the photos of the torture of prisoners in American hands, and the FBI reports of Americans kicking to death prisoners chained to ceilings and helpless. How do we salvage a victory after this? The world has heard the lies, seen the photos, and read the reports.

No matter what George Bush says tonight, more and more American troops will die and every day some will lose limbs, others their sight. Maybe as Commander in Chief he can someday claim some sort of a victory, but to sacrifice so many on both sides so George can make that claim is a crime.