Bush: "My bad"

You know, you know how it is with me baby
You know, you know I just can't stand myself
Takes a whole lot a medicine
For me to pretend that I'm somebody else.

--Randy Newman, "Guilty"


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, beset by public doubts about his leadership, has opted for a more humble tone in discussing the Iraq war, including admitting mistakes, as a way to rebuild his credibility, analysts said on Friday . . .

Bush was unusually frank in discussing his mistakes in a war that has killed more than 2,400 Americans and thousands of Iraqis, saying he regretted the "Bring 'em on" challenge he issued to Iraqi insurgents in July 2003.

He said the remark was the "kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong message to people."

Bush went on to apologize for the years he spent "completely zonked out on cocaine and drunker than a fiddler's bitch. That was a bad one on me. Sorry, Mom and Pop. I learned my lesson."

Bush's change in tone did not signal a change in policies, however. He and Blair refused to set a timetable for withdrawing troops and Bush said conditions on the ground would dictate future decisions about troop levels and commitments in Iraq.

******************

He apologizes for the cowboy rhetoric but not the actions that rhetoric was used to cover and justify. As if things would be different if he'd used a more diplomatic, more civilized tone as he led us into an unjust war. As if democracy would be in full flower in Iraq today if only he'd minded his Ps and Qs.

How long will it take for him to apologize for the war? To apologize to the families of the thousands killed? To apologize to the tens of thousands maimed, physically and or psychologically?

Well, perhaps that will be best left to future administrations.