Bush's new strategy includes rare public contrition

WASHINGTON – Make no mistake about it: President Bush is admitting he's made some in Iraq.

The president's new approach in Iraq includes a rare public concession that his government has been wrong. 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.

"Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me," Bush said in his address to the nation Wednesday.

With public support for the war long eroded, Bush is trying to win some back. His message: OK, I get it.

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 bin Laden "dead or alive" and challenging U.S. foes in Iraq with "bring 'em on."

"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 in Iraq.

On Wednesday night, as his aides promised, the president said his government's efforts in Baghdad were flawed.

"There were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure neighborhoods that had been cleared of terrorists and insurgents," Bush said. "And there were too many restrictions on the troops we did have. Our military commanders reviewed the new Iraqi plan to ensure that it addressed these mistakes. They report that it does."