WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Wednesday the responsibility for invading Iraq based in part on faulty weapons intelligence rested solely with him, taking on the issue in his most direct and personal terms in the 1,000-plus days since the war's first shots.

"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush said. "As president, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq."

"Saddam was a threat — and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power," Bush declared, as he has before.

Sadly, George W. Bush will never be held accountable for the war crimes of pre-emptively and aggressively invading a sovereign nation that posed no threat to the United States which resulted in the deaths of over 60,000 Iraqi men, women and children in the process. "Whoops" and "mea culpa" doesn't quite make up for so many deaths and so much destruction.

He went on to say:

"Victory will be achieved by meeting certain objectives: when the terrorists and Saddamists can no longer threaten Iraq's democracy, when the Iraqi security forces can protect their own people and when Iraq is not a safe haven for terrorists to plot attacks against our country," he said. "These objectives, not timetables set by politicians in Washington, will drive our force levels in Iraq."

Now I ask you to put aside your political prejudices for just one second and think about that statement. Think about the nations in the Middle East. Can you really name a single nation NOW that fits that description? The ones that aren't dictatorships or so-called rogue nations are ALWAYS being threatened. According to the definition of victory above, we will never pull out of Iraq. In fact, it is almost the justification for invading many other sovereign nations in the region with which the current administration disagrees.

And keep in mind that George W. Bush IS a politician in Washington, and he IS setting his own timetable. This statement is as silly as Bush saying that the military commanders will call the shots on Iraq policy. Right. The last military commander who did that and didn't toe the Bush administration line was fired. Has this administration lied so loudly and so long that no one can see the truth any more?