Scott Ritter: The Hardest Word

[Dudley_DUright]

One has to wonder as to what must have been going through the minds of those who were advising George W Bush and Tony Blair to "come clean", so to speak, about their respective shortcomings regarding the conduct of the war in Iraq. With over 2,460 American and 106 UK soldiers killed in Iraq (not to mention untold thousands of dead Iraqis), the two people in the world most responsible for the ongoing debacle in Iraq displayed the combination of indifference and ignorance that got them neck deep in a quagmire of their own making to begin with.

President Bush kicked himself for "talking too tough", while the British prime minister ruminated on the decision to disband the Ba'athist infrastructure that held Iraq together in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein. Neither expressed any regret over the decision to invade Iraq in the first place.

Bush made no reference to the exaggerated and falsified claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction he and his loyal ally bandied about so freely in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Blair, recently returned from a visit to Baghdad where he met with the newly appointed prime minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, did not reflect on the reality that the Iraq of Saddam Hussein was a more peaceful and prosperous land before British and American troops overthrew the Iraqi president and condemned Iraq to the horrific reality of insurgent-fed civil strife.

<snip>

Perhaps the advisors of Bush and Blair thought they were going to put a human face on two leaders who had been so vilified over the Iraq debacle. If so they failed. The joint press conference was little more than a pathetic show where two failed politicians voiced their continued support of failed policies, which had gotten their respective nations embroiled in a failed war. To quote Blair: "What more can I say? Probably not wise to say anything more at all."

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0527-29.htm

[badgerpup]

1. Enlighten me on something...

No TV and couldn't face the transcript. Was the tense active or passive?
Did Bush say "I shouldn't have said 'Bring it on'"?
Or was this like the Katrina so-called 'apology' where 'mistakes were made'?
Amazing, isn't it...how nobody is really responsible for all the shit going down. Apparently it just kinda seems to happen all on its own. :sarcasm:
:banghead: :grr: :nuke:

[Dudley_DUright]

4. Here is what he said

QUESTION: Mr. President, you spoke about missteps and mistakes in Iraq. Could I ask both of you which missteps and mistakes of your own you most regret?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Sounds like kind of a familiar refrain here -- saying "bring it on," kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong signal to people. I learned some lessons about expressing myself maybe in a little more sophisticated manner -- you know, "wanted dead or alive," that kind of talk. I think in certain parts of the world it was misinterpreted, and so I learned from that. And I think the biggest mistake that's happened so far, at least from our country's involvement in Iraq is Abu Ghraib. We've been paying for that for a long period of time. And it's -- unlike Iraq, however, under Saddam, the people who committed those acts were brought to justice. They've been given a fair trial and tried and convicted.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/05/bush_blair_on_t.html

Note this is the usual non-apology apology. I was misinterpreted and Abu Ghraib was someone else's fault.

[global1]

2. Continued Support Of Failed Policies ........

this should be our talking point - it just rolls of the tongue.

[FloridaPat]

3. They were discussing this on MTP. About how this will turn the public

in support of the war with * admiting all these "mistakes".