News Analysis: Bush and Blair admit mistakes, but defend war

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News Analysis: Bush and Blair admit mistakes, but defend war in Iraq  
By David E. Sanger and Jim Rutenberg The New York Times

FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2006


WASHINGTON President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, two leaders badly weakened by the continuing violence in Iraq, have acknowledged major misjudgments in the execution of the war even while insisting that the election of a constitutional government in Baghdad justified their decision to invade three years ago.

Speaking in subdued, almost chastened, tones at a joint news conference at the White House late Thursday, the two leaders steadfastly refused to talk about a schedule for pulling troops out of Iraq - a pressure both men are feeling intently. They stuck to a common formulation that they would withdraw troops only as properly trained Iraqi soldiers took control over more and more territory.

But in an unusual admission of personal mistakes, Bush said he regretted challenging insurgents in Iraq to "bring it on" in 2003 and his statement that he wanted Osama bin Laden "dead or alive." Those two statements quickly came to reinforce his image around the world as a cowboy commander-in-chief.

"Kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong signal to people," Bush said. "I learned some lessons about expressing myself maybe in a little more sophisticated manner."

He went on to say that the U.S. military's biggest mistake was the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, where photographs showed them being degraded and abused. "We've been paying for that for a long period of time," Bush said.

Blair, whose approval levels have sunk even lower than Bush's, said he particularly regretted the decision in 2003 to strip most members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party of their positions in government and civic life, leaving most institutions shorn of expertise and leadership.


The news conference was notable for the contrite tone of both leaders. Bush acknowledged "a sense of consternation" among the American people, driven by the steady drumbeat of U.S. casualties.

Their meeting came at a low moment in Bush's presidency and Blair's leadership: The decisions they made to invade Iraq, which they have defended ever since, have proved a political albatross for both. Just as they joined in the drive to war in 2003, the two leaders Thursday seemed joined by a common interest in contending that things had finally turned around in Iraq.

Blair, who went to Iraq this week, ventured the closest to a prediction about a timetable for disengagement, and said he thought it was possible that the new prime minister, Nuri Kamal al- Maliki, was accurate in his prediction that his forces could secure the country within 18 months.

But Bush quickly fell back to his familiar insistence that he would not begin to reduce troop levels until field commanders said it was possible, and he noted that troops were recently deployed from Kuwait to help stabilize Baghdad.

Bush added that in the end he would insist on victory over both insurgents and terrorists linked to Al Qaeda, and he dismissed as "press speculation" reports of tentative Pentagon plans to reduce troop levels to about 100,000 by the end of this year. "A loss in Iraq would make this world an incredibly dangerous place," he said.

Bush said he and Blair had spent "a great deal of time" discussing their next challenge: how to formulate the right mix of penalties and incentives to force Iran to suspend the production of uranium and give up a program that both men have said clearly points to a desire to build a nuclear bomb.

The overwhelming sense from the news conference was of two battered leaders who, once confident in their judgments on Iraq, now understood that misjudgments had not only affected their approval ratings, but perhaps their legacies. On a recent cover, The Economist pictured the two under the headline "Axis of Feeble."

Bush acknowledged that the war in Iraq had taken a significant toll in public opinion. "I mean, when you turn on your TV screen and see innocent people die day in and day out, it affects the mentality of our country," he said.

Blair tried to focus on the moment, saying that he had heard the complaint that "you went in with this Western concept of democracy, and you didn't understand that their whole culture was different." With a weak smile, he suggested to Bush that those who voted in Iraq had amounted to "a higher turnout, I have to say - I'm afraid to say, I think - than either your election or mine."