I like Jack Ryan’s approach in Clear and Present Danger. Give people nowhere to go. Take even more responsibility than is strictly yours. It’s hard to effectively beat up on someone who owns up to his faults, especially if the apology is coupled with a plan to fix it.

I suppose there is a _chance_, although I do not believe this is the case, that Bush is not apologizing based on principle. He may be saying to himself, “I’m not going to apologize for something I didn’t do or authorize”.

I have been very disappointed with Bush in the aftermath of Iraq – not because we’re having a bit of trouble, but because he doesn’t seem to be willing to own up. “We thought there were WMDs. _I_ thought there were WMDs. That was a big part of the case we made. There don’t seem to be WMDs. Here’s some of what we thought we knew, here’s the mistakes we made. But also, here are a lot of other things that were true that also justified the war.” We don’t get that from him. And I don’t know why. But I am disappointed.

I also think he’s not handling it in a politically expedient way. I think people would react well to a “the buck stops here”, plain spoken leader. I know I would. It’s the image he portrayed during the campaign, and I think it is the man we saw in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Maybe it’s his political handlers. Beats me. I just expect more of him than what we seem to be getting.

Seriously, I’ve wondered the same things that Robert is saying. Why not apologize for what the soldiers did. Why not say the buck stops here and as Commander and Chief I feel a grave responsibility for the inappropriate and unsanctioned actions of these men. He’s not admitting fault but he would be apologizing. I believe (at least I pray that is is the reason) as Jared does that his handlers fear what the Dems would do with an apology and are refraining him from doing so.
As for the WMD I still think there is a lot more going on there than most of us know. You don’t spend the countless resources that Saddam spent and then just destroy them, but you may give them to someone else for safe keeping…

I wish I knew if they did it because they thought it was the right thing to do, or for political reasons. I guess there’s no way to know, so we’ll have to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Messy Christian tackles the subject of Iraqi prisoners abused and Robert of Dead Man Blogging asks “Why Won’t They Apologize?”…