Bush displays no regret in Iraq visit

US President George W. Bush's visit to Baghdad on Sunday should have been used to make an apology to the people of Iraq, the taxpayers of his own country, and the allies that sent soldiers to a war that will go down as one of the most unnecessary in history.

He could have drawn some consolation from the fact that his aircraft could touch down at Baghdad International Airport in broad daylight and his motorcade could move across the Tigris River on visits to Iraqi leaders, but even that was marred by the embarrassment of an Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at Bush during a press conference.

Over the past five years and nine months since Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, some 4,200 US troops have been killed - at least four times more than the figure that Pentagon strategists expected - an uncountable number of Iraqi civilians and security personnel have perished, and more than $560 billion in US taxpayer money has been spent supporting the campaign, a campaign many Americans did not support from the beginning.