What Bush Didn't Say

Bush continues to be unable to acknowledge his mistakes. Why this is so I will leave to the nickel and dime psychologists like Down and Rich. It is, however a clear pattern in his behavior as President.

He should have said that he and his government were wrong about Sadam's possession of WMD's, taken the responsibility for that error and gone on to the rest of his speech as an explanation of the justification for the war, even in the face of the fall of one, and only one, rationale for it.

He also proclaimed the new policy of, "clear, hold and build" as if it were the coalition approach for the last three years. Here is how he put it:

Our coalition along with our Iraqi allies is moving forward with a comprehensive plan. Our strategy is to clear, hold and build. We're working to clear areas from terrorist control, to hold those areas securely and to build lasting democratic Iraqi institutions to an increasingly inclusive political process.

This was not the approach used to date, witness Falujah and other towns once liberated and subsequently reinfested by the "insurgents". A better leader would have acknowledged the mistakes of the past while displaying how he had learned from those mistakes. Sadly, a great leader does not now, and is unlikely to inhabit 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in the foreseeable future.