THE STORY:
WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday she regrets the U.S. relied on flawed intelligence as the basis for going to war in Iraq and took partial responsibility for mismanaging the post-invasion occupation.
As eight years of the Bush administration come to a close, the president and now one of his longest-serving advisers are acknowledging mistakes in Iraq while steadfastly defending the war and Saddam Hussein’s overthrow.
“While it’s fine to go back and say what might we have done differently, the truth of the matter is we don’t have that luxury,” Rice said in a broadcast interview.
“I would give anything to be able to go back and to know precisely what we were going to find when we were there. But that isn’t the way that these things work,” Rice said “And I still believe that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein is going to turn out to be a great strategic achievement.”
With the support of Congress, President George W. Bush ordered the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. It was a decision largely justified on grounds — later proved false — that Saddam was building weapons of mass destruction.
