Imagine this: You're tied to a stake and savages are about to light the logs under your feet.

So, class, what do you do?

Cut and run!

How about this one? Evil-doers have tied you to the railroad tracks and the Teheran Express is bearing down on you. If you have any brains at all, whatcha gonna do?

Cut and run!

President George Bush has been accusing Democrats of having a reasonable, coherent Iraq policy: getting out alive. "Cut and run" for short.

Of course, most Democrats have denied having a "clear-cut" program on Iraq, preferring, "setting a firm date for phased withdrawal." We don't know what that date is, but if it's anything later than Thursday, the policy is a fudge. Sorry, but "gnaw and wiggle" won't do. Cut and run gets the job done. Gets you the heck out of harm's way. When that runaway truck is careening down the jogging track, you don't Stay the Course.

Try it yourself: Cut and run can be fun!

If pirates tie a boulder to your neck, what should you do, kids? Cut and run!

Or, let's say you've got the wires to Dick Cheney's pacemaker in your hand. What should you do? (No, no, no! Be kind.)

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Greg Palast is the author of the recently-released New York Times bestseller, "ARMED MADHOUSE: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks, the Scheme to Steal '08, No Child's Behind Left and other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War." Go to www.GregPalast.com