By JACK NEWFIELD

Why are Americans dying in Iraq every day?

I have watched President Bush’s press conferences carefully. I still can’t see the justification for all those flag-draped coffins arriving at Dover Air Force base.

Bush offered three reasons for starting this war. One was that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction — but he hasn’t found any.

The second was to fight terrorism — but our occupation has only created more terrorists who hate America. Al Queda killed thousands on 9/11, but we are fighting Iraqis and neglecting homeland security. The third was to liberate Iraq from the grip of torture. But he has only imported our own torture methods into Iraq. We became what we came to stop.

Instead, this pre-emptive war has created a rift between America and our allies and cost us billions that we need for schools, housing, health care and jobs.

Vice President Dick (five draft deferments) Cheney promised we would be greeted with flowers as liberators. Instead, we have been greeted as invaders with suicide bombers and roadside ambushes.

Why are we in Iraq?

We know that Bush decided on war much earlier than he has ever acknowledged. He assigned Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to draw up attack plans on Nov. 21, 200l — in secret and apparently for reasons that had nothing to do with 9/11, terrorism or WMDs.

In his bestseller, “Plan of Attack,” Bob Woodward reports that Colin Powell believes Cheney was in the grip of a “fever” for war. When Woodward asked Bush if he had consulted with his father before invading, Bush said he had consulted with “a higher father,” meaning God (which is probably the same thing that Osama Bin Laden might have said).

Bush thinks God is on his side. But he has it backwards. We should be on God’s side. We marched into the quicksand for no good reason. By butchering the truth and surrendering to war fever and his own messianic militarism, Bush has trapped us in another Vietnam.