Paired Delusion

Bush, Blair Concede Missteps on Iraq
But Leaders Say War Was Justified

By Glenn Kessler and Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, May 26, 2006; A01

President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair last night acknowledged a series of errors in managing the occupation of Iraq that have made the conflict more difficult and more damaging to the U.S. image abroad, even as they insisted that enough progress has been made that other nations should support the nascent Iraqi government.

In a joint news conference, Bush said he had used inappropriate "tough talk" -- such as saying "bring 'em on" in reference to insurgents -- that he said "sent the wrong signal to people." He also said the "biggest mistake" for the United States was the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, in which guards photographed themselves sexually tormenting Iraqi prisoners, spawning revulsion worldwide. "We've been paying for that for a long period of time," he said.

Blair, who visited Baghdad this week, said he and Bush should have recognized that the fall of president Saddam Hussein would not "be the rise of a democratic Iraq, that it was going to be a more difficult process" because "you're talking about literally building the institutions of a state from scratch."

While Bush increasingly has begun to acknowledge missteps in handling the war, his comments last night -- together with Blair's -- represent his most explicit acknowledgment that the administration underestimated the difficulty of the central project of his presidency.

The hour-long news conference came at a moment of acute political weakness for both men, who repeatedly emphasized that Iraq is finally turning a corner and that, whatever their other misjudgments, the decision to attack Iraq remains justified. Blair appeared dour and exhausted during much of the news conference, and both leaders became most animated when talking about their sagging political fortunes.

"No question that the Iraq war has, you know, created a sense of consternation here in America," Bush said. "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 added: "I can understand why the American people are troubled by the war in Iraq. I understand that. But I also believe the sacrifice is worth it and it's necessary."

In his own recital of errors -- which came in response to a British reporter on the last question of the evening -- Blair cited the process of "de-Baathification" that immediately followed the overthrow of the old government. Many analysts say that decision to remove all of Hussein's loyalists fueled the insurgency because it threw tens of thousands of Iraqis out of work and left an administrative vacuum, and Blair agreed that it should have been done "in a more differentiated way."

The prime minister's examples appeared to be a direct rebuke of both the Pentagon's insistence that a detailed "nation-building" plan was unnecessary before the invasion and the push by key members of Bush's administration for broad de-Baathification.

Bush's approval ratings have sunk to some of the lowest numbers for any president in decades, while Blair's Labor Party took a beating in recent elections. Iraq has played a role in both their troubles as American and British voters tire of the war. In the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, 32 percent of Americans approved of Bush's handling of the war and 37 percent said it has been worth the cost.

Bush, and especially Blair, made the case that because Iraq now has a permanent government, other nations and international organizations -- such as the United Nations -- that have been reluctant to assist in rebuilding the country now have an obligation to step forward. Speaking of his trip to Baghdad, Blair said, "I came away thinking that the challenge is still immense, but I also came away more certain than ever that we should rise to it.

"What is important now is to say that after three years, which have been very, very difficult, indeed, and when at times it looked impossible for the democratic process to work . . . then it is our duty, but it is also the duty of the whole of the international community, to get behind this government and support it," he added.

I watched this little drama. The whole thing was a straw man. All of our "problems" in Iraq are directly due to the fact that we invaded it. Failing to note that is a sign of intellectual laziness. Bush and Blair are partners in a folie a deux.