STANK

I keep returning to thoughts of Bush's face and voice during that extraordinary press conference. He said he was convinced he was doing the right thing, but I sensed no enthusiasm for the task. He was not trying to persuade us, excite us, convert us or lead us. He was simply telling us what he had to do.

The pope sent a cardinal from the Vatican to have an hour's discussion with Bush--not about politics, but about theology. The cardinal told the president that the pope disagrees that God supports an invasion of Iraq. ''God does not intervene in the affairs of man,'' the papal emissary said.

This is sound Catholic theology--going back to Aquinas, according to a friend of mine who is informed on such things. It proceeds from the belief that God granted man free will, so that man could choose for himself between good and evil, heaven and hell. If God were to intervene, that would deprive man of the freedom to choose for himself, and thus take back from man the opportunity of deserving grace and attaining heaven.

Bush did not precisely tell the Vatican envoy that the pope was wrong. But he did think the pope was wrong, because Bush's theology depends upon partnership with a God who is directly involved in the affairs of man--a God who lets us know His will, who speaks to us, who takes sides. Bush has not an atom of doubt, I believe, that he knows God's will, that God wants regime change in Iraq, and that God approves of Bush's decision to bring that about, by war if necessary.

Now it may be that invading Iraq is the right thing to do. Saddam Hussein is an evil man. Iraqis have suffered under Saddam, hate him, and will not grieve if he is fatally regime-changed. If there is to be a war, I hope it is short and swift, does not claim many lives, and leads to a free and democratic Iraq. I hope it does not lead to a tragic toll of American and Iraqi dead, Middle East chaos,