Word: regretful
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...sentences, are really semanticists when it boils down to it. And diplomacy, when it boils down to it, is mostly semantics. The present standoff between the United States and China over the downed spy plane is all about lexical boundaries - which a-words ("apology") are taboo, which r-words ("regret") are insufficient, which s-words ("sorry") are being broached. It's no accident that former Nixon speechwriter and foreign-policy maven William Safire is now a usage columnist for the New York Times...
...aging autocrat who staked his authority on building a better relationship with the West, only to come under fire at home for going too far. In a test of pride and power, two presidents fought to control the weapons of diplomacy, the tiny spaces between a concern, a regret and an apology...
Yesterday’s statement of regret on the loss of the Chinese pilot issued by Secretary of State Colin Powell was welcome and appropriate. A formal apology before the facts are gathered would have been a disservice to the American crew. But the statement should have come days earlier, as soon as the Chinese pilot was listed as missing. The U.S. should attempt to make up for its laxity by offering its aid in any search for the wreckage and communicating its regret directly to the pilot’s family...
...fact that public pressure on Beijing is more likely to prolong than resolve the crisis, Washington worked to cool the temperature of the dispute Wednesday: No more clock-is-ticking public statements by President Bush. Instead, Secretary of State Colin Powell was on point, issuing a statement of regret that, while well short of the apology the Chinese had demanded, shifted the tone away from the language of confrontation; he then hand-delivered a letter to Beijing's most senior diplomat setting out Washington's ideas for a diplomatic resolution. Most important, perhaps, the contents of that letter were...
TIME.com: The U.S. appears to be giving diplomacy time to resolve the spy plane standoff. The tone of official statements appears to have been toned down somewhat, and Secretary of State Colin Powell's statement of regret over the death of the Chinese airman looks like a further effort to cool tensions. How is the U.S. trying to move the diplomatic process forward...