What's Bush up to on Iraq?

Sen. Pat Roberts is a Marine veteran, a knowledgeable member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a loyal conservative Republican. Accordingly, it is hard for him to take issue with what Bush said last week. But as a blunt-spoken Kansan and a patriotic American, Roberts feels constrained to express concern.

''Why are we rattling the cage so much?'' asked Roberts, posing a question that might be asked at the Dodge City ''coffee klatch'' in his hometown. He was stunned by President Bush's remarkable Wednesday news conference, which included threats of imminent attack against Iraq and did not rule out using tactical nuclear weapons. As a senior GOP member of the Emerging Threats and Capabilities subcommittee, Roberts knows of no change in Saddam Hussein's military posture to warrant the president's stance. ''I have a lot of questions,'' he told me.

Roberts is not alone, though few other senators dare speak out. One who does is Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, another conservative Republican and a veteran of combat in Vietnam. As a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, he has listened to foreign leaders alarmed by Bush's comments. ''This kind of rhetoric, I think, is dangerous,'' Hagel told me, ''because it does put us in a position where you have to take action or you're going to look like you're bluffing and lose your credibility.''

When Bush faced reporters in a formal news conference for the first time in five months Wednesday afternoon, Vice President Cheney was on a whirlwind international mission, presumably testing allied reaction to U.S. military action against Saddam. Still, nobody expected the president's remarkable posture.

Asked about published reports that the United States is considering the use of low-yield nuclear weapons against rogue nations, Bush replied that ''we've got all our options on the table.'' In political talk, that is a ''yes.'' When he was later asked about military action, the president used identical language: ''All options are on the table.'' That raised the possibility of a nuclear attack on Baghdad.