Regrets? I've got a few

It's a bit late for regrets, but George Bush never was known for his timing or his sincerity. Regardless, in his farewell tour of Europe, he seems to think the UK was a safe place to let down his Frat Boy in Chief bravado. Introspection is good for the soul and indeed a sign of leadership, which explains why Bush is the person he is.

In an exclusive interview with the TimesOnline out of the UK, Bush

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”. He said that he found it very painful “to put youngsters in harm’s way”. He added: “I try to meet with as many of the families as I can. And I have an obligation to comfort and console as best as I possibly can. I also have an obligation to make sure that those lives were not lost in vain.”

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.

George Bush told People Magazine "I'm sleeping a lot better than people would assume", so it's highly unlikely that he found it very painful “to put youngsters in harm’s way”, and anyway as long as it wasn't his youngsters, it will never be that painful enough.

Bush has met with approximately 10% of families of the fallen, which I would not consider meeting "as many families as he can". You don't need to dig too deeply to find that the majority of families of the fallen that he meets continue to support his failed policies even while support among military families is falling (six out of every 10 military families disapprove of Bush's job performance and the way he has run the war, rating him only slightly better than the general population does.) . These families of the fallen, think the war needs to continue in some misplaced attempt to allow their loved ones to "not die in vain". I couldn't disagree more. How can more bloodshed in this endless occupation honor the life and death of my son, 1Lt Ken Ballard?

Bush has already left his successor a legacy that will require diplomacy, creativity, curiosity, tenacity and intelligence, all traits that he lacks, to undo all the wrongs of his administration. He should not do one more thing to "tackle Iran". He should just sit in a corner quietly and do nothing for the next 222 days. We could do worse than that.

Bush should save his regrets and see if they get him through the Pearly Gates, because they are wasted on me. As for my regrets? I've got a few.....

• That 4094 US casualties, including my son and will never come home to their families because of George Bush's war.
• That 30,000 US wounded will bear the scars of war forever and the government who sent them to war can't seem to care less about them once they return home.
• That we will never know the number of suicides of Iraq war vets and that Ira Katz and Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon Mansfield still hold their jobs at the VA.
  
• That it took this country 7+ years to really understand how bad of a president #43 is.
• That 28% of this country still approves of the job Bush is doing. Who are these people?
• That Bush thinks in any way that he is a "man of peace". Not in this lifetime, not in any lifetime will that describe him.

need I continue?