I turned the TV because I planned to watch The Holiday on DVD. A breaking news report was being run on FOX...a presidential speech.

I just want people to know that the president, and the Army commanders, and the political pundits, and congress DO NOT SPEAK FOR ME.

When they tell you what makes it "easier on our troops and their families" and when they tell you what "we owe to our troops and their families"...it is SPIN.

When they announced the across-the-board deployment extensions, they had been holding on to it and it leaked and got put on the news. The families found out from THE NEWS. My Soldier didn't know about it until he called me that night. And after that they didn't announce it officially to the troops that day, either.

The contention was that the new deployment extensions will make things more predictable for the families. I call bullshit. All it means is that the deployments will now be a MINIMUM of 15 months. They can still be LONGER!! Standard is 15 months.

When my husband joined, deployments were six months. The recruiter told us deployments would NEVER be longer than six months because the Army felt that was as long a separation as the Army felt was proper to ask of military families. Yeah, I know, stupid, don't believe the recruiter. But standard deployment used to be six months.

Then it was 12. Now it's 15. Watch carefully. It will soon be 18 months.

One of the lame excuses for the extension was the fact that some units were going to have to stay 18 months otherwise. Guess what people? 18 month deployments ALREADY HAPPEN. Ask the families in Alaska. But now all of the sudden making everyone suffer is a kindness.

This is supposed to make things more predictable. Bullshit. There is still no predictability. All we know is definitely 15 months, might be longer.

And then it was spun to make it seem like it would give Soldiers more time at home between deployments. Guaranteed 12 months. Well, they can't guarantee that. Maybe for units, but not for individuals. We are set to PCS when my husband returns from Iraq. He has 90 days here and then we move and if his new unit is deploying, he GOES AGAIN. That's 15 months gone, and 3 months home, then 15 more months gone.

He might as well not be a human being. He's just a government owned robot with no life and no family.

The deployment extensions are NOT a good thing for military families. They may be a good thing for the Army, but don't buy the bullshit that this is a courtesy and a kindness to us. It's not. It's a slap in the face.

And the thousand extra dollars a month? Woohoo. It's really only $800 more, and it doesn't start until a Soldier has been deployed for a full year. So, for $2400 my husband gets to miss those last few months before his only daughter begins walking and talking and is no longer a little baby. Ask him which he'd rather have: $800 or a month with the baby girl he tearfully left when she was 5 days old.

Then today Bush tells me what is owed to me. That his agenda is owed to me. That his agenda is what is good for me. That it's what I want.

He does not speak for me. He does not understand AT ALL what the Soldiers and their families are going through. He doesn't understand.

Don't buy the spin, people. Understand this: military families are getting SCREWED.