Australian news item (some bits cut out, but I've kept a copy as an MsWord doc if anyone wants to see it after it falls off the edge of the News Archive page)

ABC News - Bush mourns loss of life in Iraq
http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/nat/newsnat-20apr2003-5.htm]

[And I thought, when I read that that he was mourning Iraqi and non-Iraqi loss of life - silly me! Helen]

Posted: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 2:06 AEST

US President George W Bush, whose public expressions of faith have raised eyebrows in Europe, has mourned the loss of American lives in Iraq, saying God's purposes were "not always clear".

Marking the religious holidays of Easter and Passover in his weekly radio address, Mr Bush said the holy season had "special meaning" this year and welcomed the release of seven US prisoners of war rescued north of Baghdad.

...

He said the United States "continues to pray for all who serve in our military and those who remain in harm's way".

...

"This year, Easter and Passover have special meaning for the families of our men and women in uniform who feel so intensely the absence of their loved ones during these days," Mr Bush said.

"This holy season reminds us of the value of freedom, and the power of a love stronger than death."

[**** This is the bit you might have trouble finding on the front pages of the major US newspapers. Helen]

Mr Bush's evangelical Protestantism, which he embraced about 16 years ago when he gave up alcohol, has prompted questions abroad and in mainstream US media about how much it colors his presidency, his stand on Iraq and the war on terror.

Aides say Mr Bush reads the Bible every day, opens Cabinet meetings with a prayer and sometimes prays in the Oval Office.

During the 2000 presidential campaign, he declared Jesus Christ the political philosopher or thinker he most admired "because he changed my heart".

Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, Mr Bush has painted the world in stark terms of good and evil.

He told reporters last month he sought guidance from God in making the decision to send US troops into Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein and rid the country of suspected weapons of mass destruction.

Commentators in Britain, where Prime Minister Tony Blair's firm but discreet Christian beliefs have also aroused attention, have described Mr Bush as "chaplain in chief" and analysed his use of religious phrases and images in detail.

German and French leaders have joined religious figures in voicing concern about religion's prominent political role in the United States, where conservative Christians are an important constituency of Mr Bush's Republican Party.

"America mourns those who have been called home and we pray that their families will find God's comfort and God's grace," Mr Bush said.

"His purposes are not always clear to us, yet this season brings a promise: that good can come out of evil, that hope can arise from despair."

Mr Bush, who speaks of the power of prayer and has hinted at God's "divine plan," recalled the battlefield loss of Corporal Henry Brown, a 22-year-old soldier from Mississippi, and the words of the soldier's best friend Frank Woods.

"He believed God was working through him and he was part of the plan. I guess part of the plan now is God calling his soldier home," Mr Bush quoted Mr Woods as saying.

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Helen