Bush’s Admission Of Mistakes: About Time Or A Mistake?

One of the ongoing factoids that has plagued President George Bush for years has been his seeming inability to publicly admit mistakes. Is that due to pride? A refusal to admit he was wrong? Not thinking he was wrong about anything? A quality reflecting steely assertiveness or a flaw revealing an inner petulant child?

So yesterday when Bush met with his longtime ally Tony Blair— who has also been politically diminished in recent months — he tried to offer a kind of indirect apology, of sorts:

President George W. Bush admitted on Thursday that his bellicose “bring ‘em on” taunt to Iraqi insurgents was a big mistake, as he and British Prime Minister Tony Blair carefully avoided setting a timetable for removing troops from Iraq.

Meeting at a time when a new Iraqi unity government offers the promise of a way out of an unpopular war that has damaged their standings at home, Bush and Blair were remarkably reflective on some of the grievous mistakes that critics say has intensified anti-American sentiment in the Middle East.

Back in July 2003, the tough-talking Texan responded to a question about the emerging Iraqi insurgency by saying “bring ‘em on.”

At a joint news conference with Blair, after three years of war that has killed more than 2,400 Americans and thousands of Iraqis, Bush said that remark was “kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong message to people.”

“I learned some lessons about expressing myself maybe in a little more sophisticated manner, you know. “Wanted, dead or alive”; that kind of talk. I think in certain parts of the world it was misinterpreted,” he said.

He also cited the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal as “the biggest mistake that’s happened so far, at least from our country’s involvement in Iraq … We’ve been paying for that for a long period of time,” he said.

So how was it received? Bush’s comments are seemingly being panned by the right and by the left. On MSNBC‘s Scarborough Country, Bush’s comments got so many thumbs down from its mixed panel of talking heads that you would have thought they were reviewing the remake of The Poseidon Adventure.

Was it unseemly? Was it a mistake? Did it send the wrong message?

Actually, it seemed more a lifeline to Blair, who is in worse political shape than Bush (but still more popular than Vice President Dick Cheney, who polls slightly ahead of smallpox and jock itch).

And then there’s this: from a policy-making standpoint, it is probably true that Bush’s remarks were an error. Journalists love these kinds of quotes because they’re great sound bites. And the quotes seemed to play well domestically at the time they were made. BUT:

They were used by Bush’s (and the U.S.’) foes abroad to paint him as a reckless Texas cowboy who was seeking a fight. Others criticized the “bring ‘em on” as potentially provocative to terrorists and insurgents at a time when American military were in harm’s way. Some career diplomats would probably not applaud Bush’s use of language in a such a volatile situation (although in the Bush administration the Defense Department seems dominant in some policies).

But there is some irony here . After years of being criticized for not admitting mistakes, Bush finally did and now he’s being criticized by both sides (the right, for saying it; progressives, for waiting so long and by his defenders who had steadfastly insisted for years that there was nothing wrong with his words).

The big questions is not how this will play domestically. How will this be perceived overseas and will it help stem the use of the prevalent Bush image by foes of the U.S.? Will it soften Bush’s image as a kind of John Wayne in a suit? Or will it make him seem a weakened leader?

Watch the VIDEO HERE. Here’s what Michael Reynolds has to say. And Peter Dao.

UPDATE: Some links at Pajamas Media.