Ya, it would be unfair of me to put to much on a pull-out quote from an article. Who knows what context that was taken out of, what was happening for him that day, how accurately the reporter conveyed the conversation, etc.

Still, if you've been speaking about the issue for so long, I'd hope you'd have a pat line down along the lines of "I'll never be able to make up for killing a human being that day" somewhere between the "we were desperate to end the war in any way we could" and "why don't you shove that Che t-shirt right up your own ass".