It was a mistake, but I'd do it all over again

I love it when his handlers let Bush take questions from the audience, first because it provides some "writes-itself" blogging material, but also because you never know what kind of logical and rhetorical contortions the preznit will undertake. Today's installment goes back to the tried and true "resolute, even in the face of colossal failure" meme.

President Bush today said mistakes were made in planning for the Iraq invasion, but he defended the troop level he ordered in the initial strike, saying he would have committed the same number if given a second chance.

Recalling his pre-war conversations with Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the invasion and is now retired, Bush told a business group in Irvine, Calif.: "The level that he suggested was the troop level necessary to do the job, and I support it strongly."

>snip<

Bush said the United States erred in attempting large reconstruction projects soon after the invasion was completed.

"It didn't make any sense" undertaking these projects because "they became convenient targets for the enemy," he said. " . . . I'm getting down in minutiae. But there are some tactics that, when I look back, that would have done differently."

So let me get this straight - Bush's big fuck-up wasn't ordering this misguided misadventure in the first place, nor was it failing to commit sufficient numbers of military personnel to secure the country. The big mistake was trying to re-build what his little temper tantrum had destroyed. There's winning hearts and minds for you: "I don't regret destroying your infrastructure, but I think I made a mistake in trying to fix it! My bad!"

He went on to say: "I also want to let you know that before you commit troops that you must do everything that you can to solve the problem diplomatically. And I can look you in the eye and tell you I feel I tried to solve the problem diplomatically to the max and would have committed troops both in Afghanistan and Iraq, knowing what I know today."

Let's count the blatant errors in this statement, shall we?

1. Exhausted every diplomatic option, eh? Bullshit. Sounds to the rest of us like you were hellbent on war with Iraq from the get-go and you and your cabal cherry-picked information to bolster your case, ignoring the reams of disconfirming evidence that would have averted this senseless waste of life and treasury.
2. Using a Valley Girl-ism like "to the max" is not going to ingratiate you to your SoCal audience - or anyone else. That clause is, like, soooo 1986.
3. Can you please stop with the charade that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were in any way related? Iraq didn't become a giant terrorist training camp until after you invaded it! Why is this the trope that won't die?

And finally, there's this little gem:

Later, Bush said: "I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true. One, I believe there's an Almighty. And, secondly, I believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody's soul, regardless of what you look like or where you live, to be free."

He bases his foreign policy on things he thinks are true? Rather than on things like facts that, I don't know, are true? This, I suppose, is why Stephen Colbert introduced us to the word "truthiness".