Rice says she regrets flawed prewar Iraq intelligence

Defends US decision to send troops; Takes blame for some missteps

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice appeared on ABC's "This Week" yesterday. (Fred Watkins/ ABCnews via AP)

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday she regrets that the United States relied on flawed intelligence as the basis for going to war in Iraq and took partial responsibility for mismanaging the post-invasion occupation.

As eight years of the Bush administration come to a close, the president and now one of his longest-serving advisers are acknowledging mistakes in Iraq while steadfastly defending the war and Saddam Hussein's overthrow.

"While it's fine to go back and say what might we have done differently, the truth of the matter is we don't have that luxury," Rice said in a broadcast interview.

"I would give anything to be able to go back and to know precisely what we were going to find when we were there. But that isn't the way that these things work," Rice said. "And I still believe that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein is going to turn out to be a great strategic achievement."

With the support of Congress, President Bush ordered the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. It was a decision largely justified on grounds - later proved false - that Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction.

Rice made the Sunday morning talk show rounds for perhaps the last time as secretary of state. The forum, which she used many times in the past eight years to promote administration policies, provided her an opportunity to reflect on her legacy.

Rice said she was "still really appalled at the inability of the international community to deal with tyrants."

"We're seeing it in Burma," Rice said of the country in Southeast Asia now that the junta refers to as Myanmar.

"We are now seeing it, I think, in a very, very sad way in Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe should have gone a long time ago. And we can't seem to mobilize the international will to do it."

Bush reflected on the war in a wide-ranging television interview last week, saying the biggest regret of his presidency was the "intelligence failure" regarding the extent of Hussein's threat to the United States. Asked if he would have ordered the invasion if intelligence reports accurately had indicated Hussein did not have the weapons, Bush told "World News" on ABC: "You know, that's an interesting question. That is a do- over that I can't do. It's hard for me to speculate."

In a second interview, he said the mistreatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was "a terrible disappointment." He also acknowledged it has taken longer than he thought it would for stability to take root in Iraq, but said he eventually will be vindicated for his policies in the Mideast.

"I'm confident history will say, 'Oh, Bush could have done it better here, or, Bush could have done it better there,' " Bush told the Middle East Broadcasting Center. The White House released yesterday a transcript of the interview that was taped Friday.

"I believe when people objectively analyze this administration, they'll say, 'Well, I see now what he was trying to do,"' Bush said.

Rice, who was Bush's national security adviser when the United States invaded Iraq and then became secretary of state in Bush's second term, said it was a mistake to put the Defense Department in charge of rebuilding Iraq in the early stages of the occupation. But she declined to blame former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for the inability to maintain order in the occupation's first years.

"I don't think we had the right structure. I'll very, very blunt," Rice said. "We tried in Iraq to give it to a single department, the Department of Defense."

When asked whether that was Rumsfeld's fault, Rice said, "I take responsibility for that, too. We just didn't have the right structure."

Rice was Stanford University's provost before joining the Bush administration. She said she plans to return to Stanford to teach after Bush leaves office in January. She also plans to write a book about her parents.

Rice says Hillary Clinton will do a great job as her successor. Rice says Clinton is intelligent, loves the United States, and has faith in the country's values. Rice said President-elect Barack Obama has made a fine choice in picking the next secretary of state.

Rice said diplomacy has changed a great deal and that much of it is done in the field rather than the halls of government. Rice also said it's a challenge to manage the tens of thousands of people worldwide who work for the State Department.

Rice appeared on "Fox News Sunday, ABC's "This Week," and CNN's "Late Edition."