Bush lists banner, comments as mistakes

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- History will determine what his administration could have been done and how it could have been done better, U.S. President George Bush said Monday.

"Clearly putting a 'Mission Accomplished' (banner) on the aircraft carrier was a mistake," Bush said during his last news conference, referring to a banner visible as he spoke on the progress in the war in Iraq. "Some of my rhetoric has been a mistake."

He said he thought "long and hard" about how to respond to Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico, saying if he went to New Orleans or Baton Rouge, he would have been criticized for keeping emergency personnel from their initial tasks.

"One thing about the presidency," Bush said, "you can only make decisions based on the information you have at hand."

He said the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and not finding weapons of mass destruction were "significant disappointments -- I don't know if they're mistakes."

He bristled at suggestions the United States' moral standing in the world was tarnished by the Iraq war, use of harsh interrogation techniques and the use of the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison for accused terrorists, saying, "I disagree with this assessment that people view America in a dim light."

"I've heard all that," Bush said. "My view is most people around the world respect America. Some don't like me ... but I'm more concerned about the country and how people view the United States of America. They view us as strong, compassionate people who care deeply about the universality of freedom."