THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

From the AP:

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up next to a police patrol in southern Afghanistan on Sunday killing 24 people, while a two-day battle sparked by an insurgent attack killed at least 40 militants, officials said.

The bomb attack on a police patrol at a busy intersection of the Deh Rawood district in the southern province of Uruzgan killed five police officers and 19 civilians, wounding more than 30 others, said Juma Gul Himat, the province's police chief. Most of those killed and wounded were shopkeepers and young boys selling goods in the street, he said.

Afghan civilians have suffered from a rash of bombings this month. About 55 civilians were killed in a massive bomb attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul Monday, while a government commission said this week that U.S. airstrikes killed 47 civilians in eastern Nangarhar province on July 6.

Elsewhere, Taliban militants executed two women in central Afghanistan late Saturday after accusing them of working as prostitutes on a U.S. base.

This and other actions has been given as the reason why the Bushoviks have actually considered speeding up withdrawals from Iraq.

The Bush administration is considering the withdrawal of additional combat forces from Iraq beginning in September, according to administration and military officials, raising the prospect of a far more ambitious plan than expected only months ago.

Such a withdrawal would be a striking reversal from the nadir of the war in 2006 and 2007.

One factor in the consideration is the pressing need for additional American troops in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other fighters have intensified their insurgency and inflicted a growing number of casualties on Afghans and American-led forces there.

Only another war could tempt the Bushoviks.

UPDATE: Events took a turn for the worst over there.