www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1649312,00.html

Perhaps the overwhelming support for the war among Americans has something to do with the fact that all the major newspapers and news networks came out in complete support of the war (and many haven't changed their line even now). Americans had come to trust our news media (based on the fact that the media actually used to be trustworthy). Most Americans didn't realize that the reporters they went to for their news knew nothing about what they were reporting on or were in the employ of the very people trying to trick them. Now that Americans are coming to realize that the media is full of shit, the numbers in support of the war have gone down. Make no mistake though, just because Americans were fooled by a duplicitous and willfully ignorant media doesn't mean they have anything to apologize for.

even though it is more responsible than any pundit for U.S. policy in Iraq.

This is bullshit. The government has not listened to the actual desires of the people for a very long time. They would have gone to war with Iraq even if the approval numbers were in the low 20s.

This is not all the fault of the pundits or of "Washington" or of politicians. Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq was scandalously unilateral, but it did in fact have the support of most American citizens, which surely egged him on.

I think the author has a problem with cause and effect. Bush was going to go into Iraq whether the American people wanted it or not (which is illustrated by the fact that he's not going to leave Iraq no matter how much the American people want him to). They manufactured support for the war in much the same way toy companies manufacture demand for their products by advertising during children's programming. They bombarded us with positive reporting about the war while completely ignoring and ostracizing those who said we shouldn't go to war. It's no wonder the support was there, there wasn't a single dissenting voice anywhere to be found in the media.

The ensuing disaster is partly the fault of those Americans who told pollsters back in 2002 and 2003 that they supported Bush's war and then in 2004 voted to re-elect him, which he took, quite reasonably, as an endorsement of his policies.

Blaming the victim is a common tactic of the victimizer. The American public was brow-beaten into supporting the war by non-stop pro-war coverage. The American public was deceived into voting for Bush by constant jabs in the media at John Kerry. To suggest otherwise is to diminish the significant effort that was put into creating this result by the media and the Republican Party.

Millions of Americans now apparently regret those opinions.

Because there's finally a voice, albeit quiet, telling them the truth about the war.

But unlike the politicians and the pundits, they do not face pressure to recant or apologize. American democracy might be stronger if they did.

Try as they may to shift blame upon the citizenry, the media will carry the blame for this 'til the end of time. They can't push that blame onto anyone else.