Last year, First Lady Laura Bush said of the costs of the Iraq war for the American people, "no one suffers more than their President and I do." Now we know why. While U.S. troops were sacrificing life and limb in the battlefields of Baghdad, President Bush sacrificed...golf.
In an interview today, George W. Bush made it clear that avoiding the links now was the least he could do after avoiding combat 40 years ago. As the Politico reported, the man who easily set the record for presidential vacation days didn't want to send the "wrong signal" to military families:

"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. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."
Bush said he made that decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. official in Iraq and the organization's high commissioner for human rights.
"I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man's life," he said. "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.'"

Of course, Bush didn't need to wait for the de Mello tragedy to hang up his clubs. After a particularly violent terrorist attack killed 9 in Israel in August 2002, Bush was quick to issue words of condemnation - and to start swinging his irons. As the Washington Post recounted:

Bush, wearing khakis and a knit shirt, was holding a driver in his gloved left hand. The rest of his foursome, including his father, former president George H.W. Bush, was waiting. However incongruous the setting, the president plunged ahead. "There are a few killers who want to stop the peace process that we have started, and we must not let them," he said. "I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers."
His business out of the way, Bush barely paused for breath before saying, "Thank you. Now watch this drive."

(The video is available here.)
Unfortunately, Bush's golf abstinence sends mixed messages to the nation. After all, President Bush in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks urged the American people to mobilize for war by going shopping.
In March, President Bush offered a hint of the sacrifices he detailed today. Speaking to U.S. military and civilian personnel, Bush said of their service in the Afghanistan and Iraq war zones, "I must say, I'm a little envious."
No doubt, he heard about the greens in Tikrit, the sand traps in Fallujah, and those nasty bunkers in Tora Bora.