Interrupting his golf game six years ago to field questions about possible U.S. military action against Iraq, President Bush addressed the matter with the sensitiv ity of a shot off the tee.

"We're in the process of consulting not only with Congress . . . but with our friends and allies," he said on Aug. 10, 2002. "And the consultation process is a positive part of really allowing people to fully understand our deep concerns about this man, his regime and his desires to have weapons of mass destruction.

"Last question, and then I've got to go chip and putt for a birdie. (Laughter.) It was a good drive."

The response typified Bush's cocksure and cavalier manner before going to war, a gravely serious matter under any circumstances. If the gravity of his decision weighed on him, he wasn't showing.

Bill "I feel your pain" Clinton gushed a level of empathy that bordered on theatric. But Bush operates as if guided by stolid man-law. He may have run as a compassionate conservative, but he's averse to touchy-feely gestures.

So it was with no small amount of amazement that I read that Bush -- during an interview Tuesday -- said that he quit playing golf in 2003 out of respect for the families of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.

"I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal," he said in an interview for Yahoo! News and the Politico newspaper.

"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf," he said. "I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them."

Bush traced his decision to the Aug. 19, 2003, bombing death in Baghdad of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights. "And I was playing golf -- I think I was in central Texas -- and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, 'It's just not worth it anymore to do.'"

Mr. President, here's a news flash: No one has died because you spent a day out on the links.

If this shallow gesture is the best you can do to display solidarity with bereaved families, you should have kept hacking away. It's yet another insult to those who have sacrificed the most in Iraq.

It's doubtful that the families of the 4,077 U.S. troops who have been confirmed dead in Iraq take any solace from your abstaining from golf.

Upon leaving office, you can hop back in the golf cart while your successor attempts to pull this nation out of the quagmire you so willingly plunged us into. But some 30,000 wounded troops may no longer have the physical, mental or emotional dexterity to play golf. Some have lost an arm or a leg or are no longer ambulatory. Others are waging inner wars with traumatic stress or depression. The last thing on their minds is a pitching wedge or a putter.

"Solidarity" suggests a unity of purpose, interest and feeling. Do you think giving up golf is the same as a family sacrificing a loved one or an enlisted man or woman losing life or limb?

The sand trap at the country club is a day at the beach compared with the desert storm in Iraq. Surrendering golf is a poor excuse for wartime sacrifice. But it's a fitting metaphor for a nation off course.
Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or mwilliams@timesdispatch.com.