Defying critics and plunging poll numbers, he declared March 21, "I'm optimistic we'll succeed. If not, I'd pull our troops out."

The president rejected suggestions that he should ask for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, chief architect of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Listen, every war plan looks good on paper until you meet the enemy," Bush said. He acknowledged mistakes as the United States was forced to switch tactics and change a reconstruction strategy that offered targets for insurgents.

He also rejected assertions by Iraq's former interim prime minister that the country has fallen into civil war amid sectarian violence that has left more than 1,000 Iraqis dead since the February bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine.

"This is a moment the Iraqis had a chance to fall apart, and they didn't," Bush said, crediting religious and political leaders for the restraint.

The president spoke for almost an hour at a White House news conference, part of a new offensive to ease Americans' unhappiness with the war and fellow Republicans' anxiety about fall elections.

Bush adamantly has refused to set a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Asked if there will come a day when there will be no more U.S. forces in the Middle Eastern country, Bush said: "That, of course, is an objective. And that will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq."

Pressed whether that means a complete withdrawal will not happen during his presidency, Bush said, "I can only tell you that I will make decisions on force levels based upon what the commanders on the ground say."

The Japan Times Weekly: April 1, 2006
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