Bill O'Reilly, the news commentator who has called his legions of fans to boycott France and any other nation that opposed the war in Iraq, said he now regrets his support for the conflict.The Fox News Channel's conservative talk-show host said he had wrongly judged the need to invade Iraq.
"Well, my analysis was wrong and I'm sorry," O'Reilly told ABC News, according to a transcript of an interview released Wednesday.
On his show, "The O'Reilly Factor," the commentator had staunchly supported President George W. Bush's argument for war -- that Saddam Hussein posed a danger to the United States because he possessed weapons of mass destruction.
And he vociferously attacked war opponents such as France, Canada and Germany.
"I don't believe a word (French President) Jacques Chirac says. I think he's a phony," he once said on his show.
But the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq contributed to O'Reilly's change of heart. O'Reilly had promised viewers before the war began in March that he would apologize if no illegal arms were found in Iraq.
"I am much more skeptical of the Bush administration now than I, I was at that time," he said.
When the interviewer asked him again about his new position, O'Reilly responded: "Yeah, I just said it. What do you want me to do? Go over and kiss the camera?"
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