Stay up late on the West Coast and you get tomorrow's New York Times today. Tonight brings a long "From the Editors" note that reconsiders the WMD hysteria that marked some of its prewar coverage and marred its reputation:
"It is still possible that chemical or biological weapons will be unearthed in Iraq, but in this case it looks as if we, along with the administration, were taken in. And until now we have not reported that to our readers."
"We consider the story of Iraq's weapons, and of the pattern of misinformation, to be unfinished business. And we fully intend to continue aggressive reporting aimed at setting the record straight."
For the Times, this transparency thing is still very new. And admitting that major stories that helped launch an ill-conceived war were at best careless and at worst fraudulent is a painful thing for any journalistic enterprise. But admitting mistakes is the first step toward preventing their recurrence.
Now if we can only get our president to understand that principle. Instead, here he is solemnly announcing, in his speech last night, that "Iraq is now the central front in the war on terror." Sure it is. How did it get that way? It wasn't such a front before we invaded. Our mistakes -- Bush's mistakes -- opened another front for bin Ladenism to exploit.
Will Saletan in Slate has a smart deconstruction of the strange rhetoric in Bush's speech that omits any acknowledgment of missteps and all reference to his own agency in the unfolding Iraq disaster. Bush hasn't done anything; instead, "history is moving." It would be funny if there weren't so many lives already lost, and more on the line.
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