War room is no place for Bible study

THAT Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld supplied President Bush with Bible-laced Pentagon intelligence briefings might only seem like more Bush-era loopiness, but wait a minute. The deeper, and still current, question is: What in heaven (or, what the hell) is going on inside the US military?

A Robert Draper article in Gentleman's Quarterly revealed that some of the top-secret "World Wide Intelligence Briefings" that Rumsfeld provided to Bush were covered with photographs of Americans at war, and captions taken from Scripture. In one, above a huddle of GIs apparently at prayer, is the question famously put by God, "Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?" Over the soldiers is the answer from Isaiah: "Here I am, Lord. Send me."

Sent by God. Protected by God. Sure to succeed. The righteous nation. A war defined not merely as just, but as holy.