Mr. Powell's statements were very well crafted. On the one hand he admits to doubts about the urgency for war, on the other hand he defends the administration's decision to go to war. There two remarks are almost irreconcilable, but I think Mr. Powell can get away with it.

But he's already stated the latter remark on a number of occasions. So the new news is his very public expression of doubt. Absent this, another comment of his defending the war isn't particularly newsworthy. But the main story here IS his newly stated expression of doubt, which is precisely why the comment finds its way into the headline.

Mr. Powell's doubts raises a valuable question...if we knew then what we know now, would we still have gone to war? I suspect not. The whole premise of going to war was based upon the belief that Saddam's WMD's posed a threat to Americans. If these didn't exist, the preeminent reason for sidestepping the U.N. and conducting a pre-emptive war goes away.