I just listened to the Presidents latest major policy speech on the Iraq War. My president is completely under the ideological pull of the neo-con black hole. I have to let him go. And it is killing me.

I optimistically reasoned that maybe this speech would be different; possibly showing a slight crack in his blind obduracy. It wasnt. It never is going to be. Ive got to stop doing this to myself. The only thing remaining is the comic relief of Beltway Scott, as he entertains the press corps at todays White House briefing by doing that wacky word juggling thing he does.

I mean really, what did the President say that was so new, so revealing, so insightful? What? Instead I saw another hand picked military audience listen enthusiastically to another slick emotional repackaging of the same old line: stay the course. And I heard once again a stream of the same old flawed rhetoric: people who disagree are being political and undermining troop morale; an exit strategy is artificial and equivalent to turning our backs on our allies; and cut-and-run would embolden the enemy and lead to more attacks against Americans here and abroad.

Again, he is full of crap on every empty feel-good one liner (I couldnt come up with a softer way to put it).

If I learned one thing from the Vietnam fiasco, it was that I can be against a war and maintain an unyielding respect for the men and women soldiers who execute orders with their lives, not their politics. I did not understand that back in the late Sixties and Seventies. I was wrong, completely wrong, and finally, I have it right thankfully.

Regarding cut-and-run, who is suggesting that, certainly not congressman Murtha. He talked of a measured reduction in troops based on the real results at certain benchmarks. Its not cut-and-run and its not artificial. But it is the result of his unique access to honest military feedback. It is sensible and worthy of real consideration.

As far as tainting our reputation with our allies is concerned, what reputation Mr. President? You took care of that when you paraded our most respected voice, Colin Powell, in front of the UN to proclaim one falsehood after another.

The sad fact is that the only time Mr. Powell spoke a truth, Dubya chose not to listen: you break it, you buy it. And boy did we break it, into at least three big pieces as far as I can tell.

Finally, anyand I mean anyfuture predictions of terror the president boldly barks out as certainties are suspect. I have no faith that the intelligence and processes Georgie uses today to reach these dark revelations are any better or any less scrubbed than the intelligence and processes that got us into this fine mess in the first place.

Here is what I think. Once the Iraqis vote their government into place in mid December, their very first piece of business should be a referendum about foreign presence in Iraq. Let them determine their needs, and let their needs determine their request for support. If they choose for us to leave, so be it. Let freedom ring. If they choose for us to stay the course, at least we will know we are wanted and why.

I could live with that.

What I cant live with, is a bunch of hackling neo-cons knowing what is best for America and the world, arrogantly casting the lives of many into harms waynone of those lives being theirs or the lives of their loved ones.