via The Road to Surfdom via Atrios

IF someone important like Andrew Sullivan had said this, it would no doubt be all over the blogosphere, with people tripping over themselves to praise his honesty. Alas, it comes merely from retiring Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage:

"I'm disappointed that Iraq hasn't turned out better. And that we weren't able to move forward more meaningfully in the Middle East peace process."
Then, after a minute's pause, he adds a third regret: "The biggest regret is that we didn't stop 9/11. And then in the wake of 9/11, instead of redoubling what is our traditional export of hope and optimism we exported our fear and our anger. And presented a very intense and angry face to the world. I regret that a lot."

Of course, if anybody from the left had said it, they would have been denounced as a traitor and a classic America-hater. Probably by Andrew Sullivan.