August 21, 2005 - You remember the chant. We heard it at the Republican Convention and at well orchestrated rallies across the television landscape of the United States. “Four more years!” it ran. That refrain interrupted speeches and drowned out the band as “Ruffles and Flourishes” gave way to “Hail to the Chief” as the President strode to the rostrum. Well, folks, the U.S. Army has taken up the refrain. It is planning for its continued engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan and the planning is for four more years’ commitment; four more years of low level combat tying up America’s combat ready forces in a seemingly endless war with shadows.

August 2005 has been the bloodiest month of the continuing conflict for National Guard and Reserve units and there is a third of the month to go. Our forgotten war in Afghanistan is heating up. The Taliban – you remember them – has claimed the lives of six soldiers last week. The President told us yesterday that our sons and daughters are dying a half a world away so that 19 men won’t fly airliners into buildings here while the Army plans for four more years.

In twenty more days it will be four years since those four planes flew into infamy. One hundred thirty eight thousand American troops patrol the deserts and cities of Iraq. Another thirteen thousand scour the Afghan passes while the Pentagon plans for four more years of new pledges for the exclusive sorority of Gold Star Mothers.

In four more years George W. Bush will have gone back to the mountain bike trails on his Texas ranch to bask in his Rovian legacy as a former President. Thousands more American men and women will have rotated through the killing zones and come home again; some with the scars both seen and unseen; some in the silence of unseen, unacknowledged coffins. Hundreds and perhaps thousands will have joined Cindy Sheehan’s sorority sharing their private grief and their public anguish.

In four more years our supply of energy will be no more secure; the Mid East will be nearer to theocracy than to democracy; and the 1300 year struggle between West and East will be no nearer a solution for George’s crusade than when Richard Coeur d’ Lion led his. Having learned no history our President has doomed us to repeat it – year after year; for four more years and beyond while Mohammed waits.