Since Bush announced he'd speak to the nation tonight to shore up support on the Iraq debacle, I've been thinking about what bothers me most about the war, the public's reponse to it and the current administration.

For me, it comes down to ideology. It's not about facts, it's not about quotes, it's not even about right and wrong. Since the beginning its been about ideology and the idea that America can and should police the world and promote freedom where it seems best by whatever means seem best.

Now that the smoking gun has been revealed, the world knows the Bush administration fixed the facts to build the case to go to war. But a lot of us don't care because if we buy into his ideology it doesn't matter that he took the moral low-ground there. The country can and should do what it wants to protect its interests abroad. We don't need an excuse.

It's the same reason his administration can paint those who oppose the war as anti-American. Those people clearly don't buy into the adminsitration's ideology and thus don't buy into the administration's America (nevermind that essentially what makes us American is the ability to question our government's actions and motives).

And clearly the Iraq invasion was supposed to fit under the war on terror. But that doesn't hold water anymore because we know Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11, didn't have WMDs, nor did he sanction al Qada within his borders. So the administration has gone on to use the excuse that reform in the Middle East will turn the tide on the war on terror and has to start somewhere so what better place than a free and democratic Iraq. I won't argue with that.

But. Like Tom Friedman has argued time and again, if the U.S. was really interested in reforming the Middle East, on Sept. 12 Bush should have created an energy policy that completely reduced our dependency on foriegn oil. Where do you think these people get their money? I mean really. Even Billy Madison could figure that out. But on Sept. 12 Bush was instead talking about invading Iraq.

So, now we find ourselves in a mess clearly of our own making. If we don't stay and see that it gets cleaned up then we really do have a threat to our national security. But look at what our misguided, fumbling attempt to exert our power and authority in the world has done and what it will almost certainly continue to do: weaken our country's economy, Army and national unity -- the three things that really do make us vulnerable to outside attacks.