Too Late

From the Times of London:

President Bush has admitted to The Times that his gun-slinging rhetoric made the world believe that he was a “guy really anxious for war” in Iraq. He said that his aim now was to leave his successor a legacy of international diplomacy for tackling Iran.

In an exclusive interview, he expressed regret at the bitter divisions over the war and said that he was troubled about how his country had been misunderstood. “I think that in retrospect I could have used a different tone, a different rhetoric.”

Phrases such as “bring them on” or “dead or alive”, he said, “indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace”.

Well, yeah; that and the propaganda campaign, the manipulation of intelligence, and the demonization of anyone who expressed opposition to invading a country that had nothing to do with the attacks of September 11, 2001 might have something to do with it as well.

What you have here is a man who is suddenly realizing that his administration is going down in history as the worst in American history, and like the kid trying to frantically write a ten-page book report on the school bus, he knows he's screwed. If it wasn't so tragic, it would be laughingly pathetic.

(Cross-posted.)