Toning down

Mr. Bush is toning his rhetoric down, even to the point of admitting that he regrets some of his rhetoric in the past. See this article in The Times, and also this one.

In his "joint press availability" with Angela Merkel of Germany yesterday, he said this:

Q Mr. President, on the way to Europe, you gave a very interesting interview for The Times newspaper in which you basically said that you regret your war rhetoric. Now I'm wondering, do you actually just regret your war rhetoric, or do you regret having gone to war with Iraq?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I don't regret it at all. Removing Saddam Hussein made the world a safer place. And yes, I told the guy -- the guy said, now what could you do over? First of all, you don't get to do things over in my line of work. But I could have used better rhetoric to indicate that one, we tried to exhaust the diplomacy in Iraq; two, that I don't like war. But, no, the decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision.

Yeah, what can one say?
Good direction.
Too late.

P.S. Language remains a problem with him. The word rhetoric has a negative connotation (think propaganda). I would think a president would want to avoid all rhetoric if he (or she) could, not wish for better rhetoric.
It's like saying you want better torture.