When President Bush spoke to the City Club of Cleveland yesterday about the third anniversary of the war in Iraq, he should have been wearing a leather jacket.

After all – leather is the gift for a third anniversary.

It’s also an appropriate item to analyze different facets of the war.

As we enter the fourth year of the war, the public’s support is as worn as a pair of leather shoes that went to Baghdad and back – and for good reason.

The American people were repeatedly told that the war would be short and the troops would be home soon during the march to war in 2002 and 2003.

Three years later, troop levels are still high and some divisions are on their third rotation through the conflict.

Additionally, if you only listened to the Bush administration, only recently would you know that things haven’t been going so well. The constant positive spin on the situation on the ground doesn’t do anyone good.

It’s a disservice to the troops because people at home assume that it must not be that bad and also to the American people who are footing the bill for this. If we’re paying for it – we would like to know the truth.

The truth – probably the biggest issue about the war in Iraq.

The public has been whipped (a leather whip – of course) by the constant change in stories put out by the administration.

From going to war under completely false pretenses – three years is enough time to find some WMDs – to the reassurances that troop levels will be reduced soon, to the now infamous “Mission Accomplished” sign, the American public is pretty tired of the spin.

The reality on the ground is American troops aren’t going anywhere for a very long time.

The past few weeks have shown that Iraq isn’t close to functioning on its own.

After the bombing of the Golden Dome, American troops had to shut down major cities to restore calm. A recent military report stated the number of self-functioning Iraqi military units went from one to none.

Iraq is a mess – and despite all of the elections held since the fall of Baghdad, it’s not yet ready to be fully functioning.

Which leads us to our final leather item – a wallet.

Because it’s going to take a lot of money to make this mistake turn out right.