Bracing for sacrifice

The president is "bracing US troops and the country for further sacrifice," according to a new AP report. Consoling families of military personnel killed in Iraq, Bush said, "These were sacrifices in a high calling: the defense of our nation and the peace of the world." The use of the word sacrifice--so biblical and metaphorically potent--has been slung with verve by Bush and fellow conservatives lately. Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska) suggested yesterday that New York police officers and firefighters should work overime without pay as a wartime sacrifice. "Those people overseas in the desert - they're not getting paid overtime... I don't know why the people working for the cities and counties ought to be paid overtime when they're responding to matters of national security," he said. The president, who never saw combat and never completed his military service with the Texas Air National Guard, is making sacrifices of his own: according to a glowing USA Today profile, "He's being hard on himself; he gave up sweets just before the war began."