Instead, he waited for a question about it, and then treated it as though it were principally a PR problem, which may have been the entire reason for the press conference in the first place—to deflect attention away from the bloody morass in Iraq.

Said Bush: “The story today is going to be very discouraging to the American people. I understand that.”

And then he went on: “We value life. And we weep and mourn when soldiers lose their life. But it is the long-term objective that is vital, and that is to spread freedom,” blah, blah, blah.

I wonder just how much weeping and mourning Bush actually is doing.

And I wonder how many U.S. lives and Iraqi lives he’s willing to sacrifice in his messianic zeal, and in Cheney’s and Rumsfeld's imperial overreach.

Already, he has cost the lives of more than 1,400 U.S. soldiers.

Already, he has caused the wounds of more than 10,000 U.S. soldiers.

Already, his illegal war has killed between 15,000 and 100,000 Iraqi civilians.

But Bush seems almost serenely indifferent to this toll. And that’s because he believes, as he said at the National Prayer Service on January 21, “We have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom.”

(At that same prayer service, the Reverend Billy Graham said, “Our Father, we acknowledge your divine help in the selection of our nation’s leaders throughout our history. And we believe that in your providence, you’ve granted a second term of office to our President George W. Bush, and our Vice President Richard Cheney.”)

I guess when you believe you’re driving God’s car, and when you believe He’s giving you global positioning, and when you believe He’s right there in the back seat blurting out directions, you don’t care so much if you run people over in the process, lots of people, even your own people.

You’re just doing what He wants, and He is all knowing.

It’s all for the greater good, or as Bush put it, “the long-term objective.”

This is the callousness at the heart of Bush’s war policy.

© 2005 The Progressive