Bush's trademark bravado banished

BY TIMOTHY M. PHELPS | Newsday Washington Bureau Chief

June 9, 2006

President Bush talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in an air strike. (White House Photo / June 8, 2006)

WASHINGTON - A new, more humble George W. Bush, minus his pilot's flight suit and Texas oilman bravado, appeared in the White House Rose Garden yesterday to speak of good news from Iraq.

This was not the same person who dressed in military garb for the aircraft carrier stunt on May 1, 2003 that claimed "Mission Accomplished." Nor was it the leader who said a few months later, "Bring 'em on" when things started going badly, or who declared when Saddam Hussein was captured at the end of that first year: "In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over. A hopeful day has arrived."

Wearing a gray suit, white shirt and blue tie, a much more somber Bush told reporters that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been killed. He never once cracked his trademark half-smile - his critics call it a smirk - and he pointedly did not say things would be better now in Iraq.

"Zarqawi is dead, but the difficult and necessary mission in Iraq continues," the president said, clearly aware that al-Zarqawi was just one of many and mindful that U.S. troops will not be home tomorrow.

"We can expect the terrorists and insurgents to carry on without him," Bush went on. "We can expect the sectarian violence to continue. Yet the ideology of terror has lost one of its most visible and aggressive leaders." He forswore his past claims of a turning point in Iraq, describing it instead as an opportunity for its people and their leaders.

"Zarqawi's death is a severe blow to al-Qaida. It's a victory in the global war on terror and it is an opportunity for Iraq's new government to turn the tide of this struggle," he said.

"I think [he] is very much a changed man. There is evidence of it everywhere," said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University and an expert on the presidency. "The president has come to the view that these triumphant moments don't last very long and that the war on terrorism is a protracted war that will go on." Baker said Bush was "more reflective, more humble and less triumphant" than in the past.

The new humility could come in part from his falling out of favor with the American people. An Associated Press poll released yesterday - but conducted before al-Zarqawi's death - showed 59 percent of the public, the highest level yet, say Iraq was a mistake. Only half of conservatives and two-thirds of Republicans approved his handling of Iraq. Only 35 percent approved of the job he was doing.

It also could reflect the fact that most experts, including Ahmed Hashim, a specialist on Iraq security from the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., and various people at the International Crisis Group, an influential think tank here, have said the insurgency is composed primarily of homegrown Iraqis - not foreign Arabs like al-Zarqawi.

Bush gave the first inkling of this fundamental change in attitude in the sixth year of his presidency two weeks ago when a penitent president, standing next to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, delineated mistakes he had made on Iraq.

"Saying 'Bring it on.' Kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong signal to people. ... I learned some lessons about expressing myself maybe in a little more sophisticated manner. You know - "Wanted dead or alive," that kind of talk.

"I think in certain parts of the world it was misinterpreted. And so I learned - I learned from that."

Making it clear that yesterday's change in tone and substance was not by accident, Bush's public face - press secretary Tony Snow - actually warned the public after Bush's remarks not to get too exited. "I don't want people to get giddy about this or euphoric," Snow said. He said it was "a positive sign" that might have "positive ramifications over time, but we need to understand it is still a war and there are still going to be tough days."

Asked by a reporter whether yesterday was perhaps "the most positive day in the war in Iraq," Snow demurred, saying simply, "It is a day where a lot of people can say, 'OK, we killed a very bad man.'"

Asked about the question presumably on most Americans' minds - when will the troops come home - Snow seemed to minimize the impact of al-Zarqawi's death on that decision.

"Why are you so hell-bent on saying we're going to get out tomorrow? The facts on the ground, we've got ... additional dead guys out of the terror network, but there is still a significant problem here."