WASHINGTON (AP) - Make no mistake about it: President Bush is admitting he's made some in Iraq. "He is responsible. He will take responsibility for the mistakes in the past," White House counselor Dan Bartlett said Wednesday, promising that Bush's speech would feature some rare presidential contrition.
With public support for the war long eroded, Bush is trying to win some back. His message: OK, I get it.
He concedes now that there should have been more U.S. and Iraqi troops and clearer rules of battle for them, and that changes are coming.
This is not Bush's natural tendency. When he admits a big mistake, the concession often comes reluctantly and belatedly.
Late in his first term, he was asked to name his biggest mistake since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He famously struggled to come up with one. He told the reporter: "I wish you would have given me this written question ahead of time."
When Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the Gulf Coast and lawlessness reigned in New Orleans, Bush said he took responsibility for a slow, bumbling federal response—after the city's mayor said federal officials "don't have a clue."
In late 2005, while defending the Iraq war, Bush took blame for faulty weapons intelligence that led to the U.S. invasion.
"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush said. "As president, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq."
Bush has also apologized sometimes for his choice of words, such as wanting to capture Osama bid Laden "dead or alive" and challenging U.S. foes to "bring it on" after the terrorist strikes on America.
"In certain parts of the world, it was misinterpreted. And so I learned from that," Bush said in May. He added that the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was "the biggest mistake that's happened so far."
When Republicans lost control of Congress in November, Bush wasn't on the ballot. Yet he acknowledged that his own political standing didn't help.
"As the head of the Republican Party, I share a large part of the responsibility," Bush said.
Now comes the new way forward on Iraq.
Bartlett said Bush knows that most Americans aren't satisfied with the progress of the war.
"President Bush is in their camp," Bartlett said. "He's not satisfied. He's going to say the strategy was not working."
And that, yes, he's responsible.
