WASHINGTON — A subdued President Bush, presenting his long-awaited new blueprint for Iraq, acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that his previous strategy had failed and said that averting defeat required more than 20,000 additional American troops and a different relationship with the government in Baghdad.
In a striking concession, Bush said that the last year in Iraq had turned out to be the opposite of what he had expected -- an explosion of sectarian violence instead of growing national unity among the Iraqi people and a winding-down of American military involvement.
He said the reversal occurred in part because there had not been enough troops to provide security in Iraqi neighborhoods -- a strong criticism of his policy since the earliest days of the invasion.
"Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me," Bush said. "It is clear that we need to change our strategy in Iraq."
Outlining his new approach in a somber address from the White House library, Bush acknowledged the growing opposition to the war, saying: "The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people, and it is unacceptable to me."
But he said that the response should be to increase, not decrease, the U.S. commitment to stabilize the troubled country that the U.S. military invaded more than three years ago. "If we increase our support at this crucial moment and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home," Bush said.
Bush did not say how long the increase would last. Military strategists have said that anything less than 18 months would probably be ineffective, but Democrats and some Republicans are eager to see troop levels begin to drop before the 2008 campaign season heats up. And administration officials noted that one benchmark the Iraqi government had set for itself was to take charge of security in Baghdad by the end of this year.
"We aren't putting a time horizon on it. We think that is troublesome," said a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the president.
The government of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki must provide more of its own forces in Baghdad, Bush said, with U.S. troops acting primarily in support. And he said the Iraqi government must end political and sectarian interference with security operations and permit U.S. forces to operate in all areas of the city.
