I was surprised when I heard that State Department official Alberto Fernandez had bluntly mentioned on Al-Jazeera that, while “we tried to do our best in Iraq,” “I think there is a big possibility (inaudible) for extreme criticism and because undoubtedly there was arrogance and stupidity from the United States in Iraq."
Now he’s telling Al-Jazeera that these statements reflect neither his own views nor that of the State Department. Suddenly I’m less surprised.
Regarding Iraq’s general situation, Yahoo!News reports President Bush saying:
"I'm patient. I'm not patient forever, and I'm not patient with dawdling," Bush said. "But I recognize the degree of difficulty of the task, and therefore, say to the American people, we won't cut and run."
Clearly, Bush has stupendous patience for Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. Clearly, too, Rumsfeld has stupendous patience with lawlessness and violence in Iraq, to which he showed naive toleration in the wake of the war. Patience is not always a virtue--not when it is just a dressed up form of failure meeting inertia.
I’m guessing, and I hope I am wrong, that somehow Fernandez was notified that Bush would not have patience for his statements on Al-Jazeera, and that this prompted his reversal.
Yahoo!News also says that a “senior Bush administration official said, "I can only assume his remarks must have been mistranslated. Those comments obviously don't reflect our policy."
Indeed. Admitting mistakes--without including a quick remark that the larger strategic idea was sound--does not seem to reflect Bush policy.
Back in school you might see kids make a mistake in a game and then demand "take-backs." Children understand that the latter follows the former and that the two are related.
This administration does not "do" mistakes, but it does do "take-backs."

Yahoo!News provided information referred to here