MIDDLE EAST : Kuwait Prepares to Receive Bush the Liberator : The man who forged the 32-nation military force that freed the emirate can expect the ego boost of his post-presidential lifetime.

The emir sent one of his best Boeing 747 passenger jets out for alterations this week--a royal bedroom suite, a formal dining room, several posh guest rooms and decor fit for a king. It was standard travel fare for the leader of one of the world’s richest nations.

But the jumbo jet that Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah took out of service from the Kuwait Airlines fleet was not for the emir.

It was for the man that he and his 650,000 fellow Kuwaitis credit with the liberation of their oil-rich emirate, a singular national hero here: former President George Bush.

The emir has arranged royal round-trip transportation for private citizen Bush, his wife and sons and a host of former Bush Administration officials, including former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and his wife and former White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater. They all are scheduled to arrive Tuesday in Kuwait city for a three-day “personal” visit.

In this land, where one Kuwaiti intellectual said, “We still believe God is No. 1 and President Bush is No. 2,” the whole country is making intense preparations for a national veneration.

The former President, who forged and commanded the 32-nation military coalition that drove Iraq from Kuwait two years ago, will be awarded degrees and national titles. He will be honored by the emirate’s new, freely elected National Assembly and lavished with gifts.

In his first high-profile trip since leaving the Oval Office--and his first visit to Kuwait since he helped free it from Iraqi occupation in 1991--Bush can expect the ego boost of a post-presidential lifetime.

Public proposals in Kuwait this week included: declaring a national holiday in Bush’s honor; closing Kuwait city’s main, eight-lane highway for a parade of the hundreds of thousands of Kuwaitis who wish to show their gratitude to the former President, and a public appeal for the emir to designate a building where people can leave gifts for Bush.

The current Kuwaiti ebullience has contrasted sharply with the mood of national mourning that prevailed when their man lost to his presidential rival last November.

But it isn’t as if this small, strategic oil-rich land has totally lost track of reality. Throughout the heady preparations for the Bush bash, the emir also has taken pains to remind his people--and officials in Washington--that Kuwait is well aware there is a new President.

The state-run Kuwait News Agency, for example, announced Tuesday that the emir sent President Clinton an invitation to visit soon; the invitation stressed Kuwait’s “deep appreciation to the United States” for leading the war that ended seven months of occupation.

Kuwait’s English-language daily, the Arab Times, which dedicated its main headline to Bush’s visit, also did its part to drum up a royal welcome for the former President, saying: “The entire Kuwaiti nation is requested to take a stance of gratitude and loyalty when Bush arrives in Kuwait. We clearly remember this man, and his firm stand and superior stance. He stood tall at the helm of his great nation and stood up to the Tyrant of the 20th Century.”

But not everyone in the emirate was as jubilant. U.S. Embassy officials, while publicly refusing to confirm or deny the former President’s trip, were frantically preparing for his arrival. Officially, the embassy staff has no role in sponsoring or sanctioning the visit. Legally, though, Bush and some former Administration officials in his delegation are entitled to Secret Service protection--a daunting task in a nation that still sits in the shadow of Bush’s sworn personal enemy, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Most Western diplomats in the capital sought to distance their governments from what all bill as an intensely personal visit among old friends. When asked why Bush is coming to Kuwait, one diplomat replied, “Because the emir invited him.” Reminded that the invitation was two years old, the diplomat added: “You mean, why now? Well, why not? It was a busy couple of years for President Bush. Now, he’s not so busy.”