Scheduled entertainment will move from men trying to annihilate each other on the gridiron to a pep rally to annihilate Saddam Hussein on the oil field of Iraq. Oh, in-between there will be some insignificant word from the umpires who want us to play the game differently.

That's my prediction. Tampa Bay on Sunday. War on Tuesday. With feigned disbelief and astonishment from CNN and Fox News who have been pumping up this conflict 24/7 for the last four to six months with the only valid question still being why the hate mongering ever started in the first place.

President George W. Bush will lead the pep rally from a well insulated and protected podium surrounded by his congressional team while the rest of the world listens intently and waves NO WAR and Yankee-Go-Home placards and banners.

Unavoidably, the president will be forced to make some small mention of the condition of the country, the shortest and shallowest recession we're experiencing, the number of unemployed, lack of consumer confidence, and the lack of investor confidence. But there's no need to dwell on things like the balance of trade, deficits, or the huge debt we're running up when we've got real problems to face. Cheer up, things could be worse.

The President will tell us that he understands why people are working harder to keep their jobs, not spending as much because they've got big bills to pay and debt to pay down before things get any worse. He appreciates all that even though it causes shortfalls in tax revenue. But don't worry, he's not going to raise taxes. Not when he can borrow us into oblivion.

Instead, his administrative team is working hard to come up with more Keynesian trickle-down tricks to make the economy healthy once more. He's got tax breaks for everyone, but helping big business means that at least some of those savings will be invested here at home instead of building more facilities overseas or bigger houses on the Riviera.

Periodically, or after almost every sentence, this will be met with thunderous applause and standing cheers from the team.

Now the flag waving begins in earnest.

Since 9/11, our lives have been changed forever and we've known what must be done. Whatever those evil-doers thought when they attacked us, that maybe we would sue them or something, they were certainly wrong weren't they? (And so on, and so on, the usual speech delivered almost daily for well over a year)

Saddam Hussein is an evil dictator. We know he has used weapons of mass destruction against his own people. We know that he still has weapons of mass destruction. We know he is a tyrant who has made life miserable for his own people. We know that his own people and the rest of the world want to be rid of him. We know that he blew the second chance we gave him after the Gulf War. And now we know he's been tricking and deceiving the United Nations for months in the most recent attempt to get him to divulge and destroy his weapons of mass destruction.

I am a peaceful man. I've given him every chance to come forth with an honest attempt to join the world community. God knows, I don't want to kill anyone, especially our own brave boys willing to lay down their lives for the protection and freedom of our homeland. I've been patient and willing to let the United Nations take its course.

But now the inspection team has reported that they've found nothing when we know Saddam has many weapons of mass destructions. We just know it. So he has been able to trick and deceive us again. It's the same old story.

I know that there are those who believe that he deserves another chance, that it's the wrong time to attack Saddam, that we have too many problems here at home, and that there are other trouble spots such as North Korea that we should be dealing with first.

But we cannot allow, and I will not allow, Saddam Hussein to get the upper hand, to trick us again, to continue harming his own people, and most of all to become a threat to our national security either by attacking us or our allies or by developing weapons of mass destruction for terrorists.

We've had our troops in the region for months now with more on the way. These brave men have been patiently waiting for the UN inspectors to uncover the smoking gun we know is there. They've been patient long enough.

Our brave forces are ready. In the immortal words of one of our greatest military leaders, General Dwight D. Eisenhower; "I don't want any of our men needlessly risking their lives until I give the order." So I've given the order.

I have already given General Tommy Frank the order to attack. As I speak, American forces are launching the attack on Iraq. You are either with us and those of us who love freedom or you're with the enemy. Operation Enduring Freedom is underway. Friends of freedom will now fall in line behind us and disarm Saddam Hussein.

Thank you all. Good night and God Bless America.