"My Bad," Says Bush

“It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong,” Bush said during his fourth and final speech before Thursday’s vote for Iraq’s parliament. “As president I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq. And I’m also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities. And we’re doing just that.”

“My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision,” the president said. “Saddam was a threat and the American people, and the world is better off because he is no longer in power.”

Bush spoke at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

Meanwhile, 48 percent of respondents to a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll said they thought it was a mistake to send U.S. troops to Iraq, as opposed to 54 percent of those polled last month. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percent. Fifty percent said it was not a mistake, compared to 45 percent last month. The president’s approval rating is 42 percent — up 4 percent from November.