Laura Bush has handled her role as First Lady with a quiet strength.

It has been consistently obvious the love she has for her family and for those who have served both her and the President.

She has never put herself in a position of embarrassing or appearing to usurp her husband and has always had a clear understanding that the voters did not elect Laura but rather George Bush.

This has been evidenced once again in Mrs. Bush’s recent trip to Afghanistan, and this subsequent piece the First Lady wrote for the Wall Street Journal:

This week has been a study in contrasts. On Sunday, I was in one of the most remote areas of Afghanistan – where unpaved roads are lined by tin-roofed shanties, and most people live without running water or electricity.

Today, I am in the City of Light. Yet while the circumstances of these visits could not be more different, their purpose is the same: to reaffirm the world’s commitment to the people of Afghanistan.

This morning, a delegation representing 80 countries and multilateral organizations will gather here for the International Conference in Support of Afghanistan. This event is a chance for developed nations to learn more about the challenges facing Afghanistan – and to offer the political and economic assistance it needs to recover from decades of war and oppression.

There was no fanfare, no constant photo-ops. Just a woman who is very comfortable in her own skin working for a cause in which she truly believes.

Courtesy of Soldiers Angels Germany, comes this compelling video.

Dramatic and moving images of US Army Paratroopers and Afghan Army soldiers being evacuated after a November 2007 ambush near Forward Operating Base Bella, home of Chosen Company, 2-503rd PIR, 173rd ABCT in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan.

The troops were on their way back from a meeting in a nearby village just two miles from OP Bella when they were attacked on 9 November. Five Soldiers from the 173rd ABCT and one Marine were killed. Eight more Sky Soldiers and 11 ANA were wounded.

Eight separate air crews subsequently conducted what was to become a 31-hour medevac mission involving multiple lifts.

The balance of the story of this heroic rescue may be found here.

This is indeed good news from Afghanistan.

Six years after the Taliban’s ouster, medical care in Afghanistan has improved such that nearly 90,000 children who would have died before age 5 in 2001 will survive this year, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday.

Saddled for years with one of the world’s worst records on child health, Afghanistan has seen access to health care rise dramatically since the U.S.-led invasion.

Thousands of health clinics have been built across the country, and the Afghan government and aid agencies have trained tens of thousands of doctors, vaccinators and health volunteers who now reach into some of the country’s most remote areas.

Access to health care for Afghans has jumped from 8 percent of the population in the 1990s to close to 85 percent today, thanks in large part to efforts by USAID, the World Bank and the European Commission.

The under-5 child mortality rate in Afghanistan has declined from an estimated 257 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2001 to about 191 per 1,000 in 2006, a 25-percent drop, the Ministry of Public Health said, relying on a new study from Johns Hopkins University.

There is still a long way to go for the citizens in Afghanistan with regard to their health care system but if the statistics in this article are any indication, they are certainly moving in the right direction.

The United States has launched a new assault on Tora Bora.

A US military spokeswoman, Captain Vanessa Bowman, said the assault was launched against targeted positions:

“The targets were carefully chosen to pinpoint enemy positions and eliminate the likelihood of harming innocent civilians.”

“This region has provided an ideal environment to conceal enemy support bases and training sites, as well as plan and launch attacks aimed at terrorizing innocent civilians, both inside and outside the region,” she said.

She did not say how long the operation would continue for.

The Tora Bora region, a complex of caves, is known as the last stronghold of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Maybe they have some intelligence that there is a gathering of Al Qaeda and/or Taliban there again.

The United States has decided to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a “specially designated global terrorist,” according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group’s business operations and finances.

The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran, as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran’s nuclear program, officials said.

The designation of the Revolutionary Guard will be made under Executive Order 13224, which President Bush signed two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to obstruct terrorist funding. It authorizes the United States to identify individuals, businesses, charities and extremist groups engaged in terrorist activities. The Revolutionary Guard would be the first national military branch included on the list, U.S. officials said — a highly unusual move because it is part of a government, rather than a typical non-state terrorist organization.

The order allows the United States to block the assets of terrorists and to disrupt operations by foreign businesses that “provide support, services or assistance to, or otherwise associate with, terrorists.”

The situation between the United States and Iran can’t get much worse and we know the Revolutionary Guard is supplying, training and acting as terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The main goal of the new designation is to clamp down on the Revolutionary Guard’s vast business network, as well as on foreign companies conducting business linked to the military unit and its personnel. The administration plans to list many of the Revolutionary Guard’s financial operations.

“Anyone doing business with these people will have to reevaluate their actions immediately,” said a U.S. official familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced. “It increases the risks of people who have until now ignored the growing list of sanctions against the Iranians. It makes clear to everyone who the IRGC and their related businesses really are. It removes the excuses for doing business with these people.”

Read the rest of the story here.

A very sad story that speaks for itself.

Just outside the main gate to Bagram airfield, a U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, sits a series of small makeshift shops known by locals as the Bagram Bazaar. For Afghans, it is the place to buy American goods, but the stalls that make up the heart of the bazaar are also well known for what they provide American soldiers stationed at Bagram. Walking through the bazaar it takes less than 10 minutes for a vendor in his early 20s to step out and ask, “You want whiskey?” “No, heroin,” I tell him. He ushers me into his store with a smile.

The shop is small, 9 feet wide by 14 feet deep, and dark. The walls at the front are lined with dusty cans of soda, padlocks and miscellaneous beauty supplies. As we enter, a teenager is visible at the back, seated in a chair next to a collection of American military knives and flashlights. The shopkeeper speaks to him in Dari. The teen stands and heads for the door, where he stops and asks my Afghan driver a question. My driver translates, “He wants to know how much you want? Twenty, 30, 50 dollars’ worth?” From past experience, for I have arranged this same transaction a dozen times in a dozen different Bagram Bazaar shops, I know that the $30 bag will contain enough pure to bring hundreds of dollars on the streets of any American city. Afghanistan, after all, is the source of 90 percent of the world’s heroin. I say 30 and the teen jogs off.

The true extent of the heroin problem among American soldiers now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan is unknown. At Bagram, according to a written statement provided by a spokesperson for the base, Army Maj. Chris Belcher, the “Military Police receive few reports of alcohol or drug issues.” The military has statistics on how many troops failed drug tests, but the best information on long-term addiction comes from the U.S. Veterans Administration. The VA is the world’s largest provider of substance abuse services, caring for more than 350,000 veterans per year, of whom about 30,000 are being treated for opiate addiction. Only preliminary information for Iraq and Afghanistan is available, however, and veterans of those conflicts are not yet showing up in the stats. According to the VA’s annual “Yellowbook” report on substance abuse, during Fiscal Year 2006, fewer than 9,000 veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) sought treatment for substance abuse of all kinds at the VA; the report did not specify how many were treated for opiate abuse.

Story

In a land where human life has no meaning the Taliban has executed a second South Korean, who had gone into Afghanistan as part of a church group to help the people of Afghanistan. The Taliban has promised to kill more if their deadlines for concessions are not met.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AP) — Police discovered the body of a second South Korean hostage in central Afghanistan, and the Taliban threatened Tuesday to kill more captives if their demands were not met by a new deadline.

South Korea pleaded with the international community to set aside the normal practice of refusing to cave into hostage-takers’ demands, urging a peaceful resolution to the standoff. Relatives of some of the 21 remaining hostages appealed for U.S. help in freeing their loved ones.

South Korea ”is well aware of how the international community deals with these kinds of abduction cases,” said a statement from the president’s office. ”But it also believes that it would be worthwhile to use flexibility in the cause of saving the precious lives of those still in captivity and is appealing (to) the international community to do so.”

The comments came after Afghan officials found the body of Shim Sung-min, 29, a former information technology worker who was volunteering with the South Korean church group on an aid mission to Afghanistan.

He was killed Monday after two deadlines given by the Taliban demanding the release of insurgent prisoners passed with no action. Last week, the church group’s leader, Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, was fatally shot in unclear circumstances.

They were killed for being Christian volunteers in a country that has a segment of its population that wants no help for their people. They especially want no help from Christians.

These people truly died for Jesus. May their families find peace knowing their loved ones are now reaping the rewards they earned on earth.

More good news from Afghanistan via The Jawa Report.

A senior Taliban leader, Qari Faiz Mohammad, was killed by Afghan National Security Forces and ISAF security operation July 23 in southern Afghanistan.

“The Taliban leadership has suffered another severe setback,” said Lt. Col. Claudia Foss, ISAF spokesperson. “Each successful operation ensures insurgent disruption that gives way for stability operations to take place.”

The Jawa Report post has links which define in detail the significance of the demise of this “leader.”

Have we forgotten those serving in Afghanistan (both our forces and those of other nations)?

I know I am guilty of focusing primarily on Iraq, as that is where the news seems mired daily.

Via, US Central Command one of those feel good stories we seldom see.

THE REAL KITE RUNNERS FLYING THE AFGHAN SKIES

Even though best-selling books have painted pictures of Afghan children flying colorful kites high in blue skies against backdrops of snow-capped mountains that tower over quaint villages, not all Afghan children are fortunate enough to own such simple, yet wonderful toys.

However, when the Polish Battle Group arrived in Ghazni province’s Andar district near the end of June, the local children were finally able to take part in an activity shared by children in almost all countries in the world: flying kites.

Please take a few minutes to read the entire press release. If you have children or grandchildren, it is sure to put a smile on your face especially when you read how the simplest things we take for granted are cherished by these youngsters.

Everywhere they went, children crowded around the vehicles as the smiling soldiers pulled out boxes of shoes, clothes, school supplies and toys. But the biggest hit of all were the multi-colored kites that the soldiers unfolded for them.

With big grins and excited chattering, the children jumped up and down shouting, “Patang! Patang!” (the Pashto word for kite.)

Soon the sky had several of the yellow, green and red kites with International Security Assitance Forces logos flying, much to the delight of the children dancing around below.

“These kites are so much fun,” said Mahmad-Amid Hahn, a 12-year- old boy, as he made whooping sounds while his kite dipped and swerved in the air. “The Taliban would never give us these things.”

Thanks to the troops who gave these children a little bit of sunshine..that should be a basic right of every child.

Despite other stories on this site this morning I am going to attempt to not Bush-Cheney bash, but tell something else of what’s going on in the world.

A six-year old boy (estimated age because birthdays are not kept track of in Afghanistan) was told by the taliban to put on a belt and when he pushed a button the vest would “spray flowers” and when he saw American soldiers he should throw his body at them.

The boy figured something was wrong so he went to the nearest Afghan military checkpoint and asked for help.

Juma said that sometime last month, Taliban fighters forced him to wear a vest they said would spray flowers when he touched a button. He said they told him that when he saw U.S. soldiers, “throw your body at them.”

The militants cornered Juma in a Taliban-controlled district in southern Afghanistan’s Ghazni province. Although he is but an impoverished youngster being raised by an older sister — he proved too street-smart for their plan.

“When they first put the vest on my body, I didn’t know what to think, but then I felt the bomb,” Juma told the Associated Press as he ate lamb and rice after being introduced to the elders at the joint U.S.-Afghan base in Ghazni. “After I figured out it was a bomb, I went to the Afghan soldiers for help.”

While Juma’s story could not be independently verified, local government leaders backed his account and the U.S. and NATO military missions said they believe his story.

Abdul Rahim Deciwal, chief administrator for Juma’s village of Athul, brought the boy and an older brother, Dad Gul, to a weekend meeting between Afghan elders and U.S. Army Col. Martin P. Schweitzer.

Fidgety but smiling during all of the attention, Juma told the AP that he was scared when he was surrounded by Taliban fighters. He cupped his hands together to show the size of the bomb, then ran his hands along his waist to show where it was on his body.

Raised in a country where birthdays are not always carefully tracked, Juma said he is 4. But he looks older and Afghan officials said he is about 6. His brother appears to be a year or so older.

Their village lies in Ghazni province’s Andar district, a Taliban stronghold targeted this month in a joint Afghan-U.S. operation. The region remains dangerous, and Afghan elders worry for Juma’s safety.

The Taliban denies it uses children for these missions, but just last month had a video going around showing a twelve-year old boy severing someone’s head with a sword. Perhaps twelve-year old boys are considered men there.

That peaceful Islamic religion has issued a warning to Christians on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan to convert to Islam by yesterday or be bombed.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Christians in a Pakistani town beset by pro-Taliban militants sought government protection Wednesday, the eve of a deadline for them to convert to Islam or face violence.

About 500 Pakistani Christians in Charsadda, a town in the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, received letters earlier this month telling them to close their churches and convert by Thursday or be the target of “bomb explosions.”

Several Christians, a tiny minority in the predominantly Muslim country, have fled town and others are living in fear, community leaders said.

Some complained that police were not taking the threat seriously.

“Police say someone is joking with us by writing these letters,” Chaudhry Salim, a Charsadda Christian leader, said during a news conference in Islamabad. “They have deployed only two policemen at our churches … this is the kind of security we are getting now.”

Christians everywhere need to unite in prayer for our Christian brothers and sisters who are in danger of losing their lives. But if it is God’s will that they die may they be strong in their faith and ushered into Heaven by the angels.

Mullah Dadullah, the right-hand man of Taliban leader Mullah Omar has been killed by NATO forces in Afghanistan.