WHY AREN'T THE BUSHES AT WAR?

George W is the kind of guy who'll gladly sacrifice your life for his country.

Not only was he a cheerleader when he was in college at Yale, but he also was an energetic cheerleader for the war that was raging in Vietnam at the time. Of course, he cheered from a safe distance, using family connections to make certain that he personally would not have to do any fighting.

Now that he's in the White House, Bush is cheerleader-in-chief for his own war. In a recent speech designed to shore-up sagging public support for his misadventure in Iraq, he referred to the terrible fact that nearly 2000 Americans have already died there. Of these dead troops, Bush said, "We owe them something," by which he meant continuing the war. What a callous payback: Many have died, so many more must die to pay tribute to those who've died. That's a war rationale chasing its own tail.

But when he says that "we" must war on, he certainly does not mean that any of his own family members should be among those Americans who'll face death. Neither of his twin daughters, who are of primo enlistment age, have signed up for what their Daddy tells others is a "noble cause." Nor will you find any of his eight enlistment- age nieces and nephews anywhere near his war. Apparently, the cause is not quite noble enough for the Bushes to join it.