At first glance, this (from Fox News) is rather shocking:

Official: Bush to Admit Iraq Mistakes

Bush? Admit a mistake? Nahhh, never happen! But read on:

President George W. Bush will tell the nation Wednesday night that he should have sent more troops to Iraq to fight the war during the earlier stages of the nearly four-year conflict, a senior administration official revealed.

... Bush will also acknowledge that the rules of engagement were flawed and seek support for a new strategy to win the unpopular war, presidential counselor Dan Bartlett said.

OK, let's compare and contrast. That was Bush. Now here's the crazed Freeper whose mock Bush speech I quoted last night:

... I must admit a mistake. I have been fighting the war against Islamo Fascism for the past three years like Bill Clinton. This has been a major blunder on my part....

From this point forward the war against Islamo Fascism no matter if it is in Iraq, Northern Africa, the Phillipines, New York City or Knoxville, Tennessee will be total, no surrender, no political correctness no UN pandering or plunder.

Separated at birth?

OK, seriously: Bush isn't going to say that he himself made a mistake. He's going to say, in effect, that Rumsfeld made a mistake. Fighting this war with a small force was Rummy's idea, after all. And Bush has now let Rummy go. So Bush is right! Again! (Never mind the fact that we're adding too few troops years too late.)

With regard to Rummy, also see this Newsweek story, which notes that one of Rummy's top deputies is leaving and one is apparently about to leave:

Gates Cleans House

...Lt. Gen. William Boykin and his boss, soon-to-depart Defense Undersecretary for Intelligence Steve Cambone, have guided or taken part in the planning of ... covert operations against Al Qaeda-linked groups in several countries since 9/11.... But Boykin has long been a divisive figure. A devout evangelical Christian, he achieved notoriety in October 2003 when he was videotaped telling a church audience that the god of a Muslim warlord was "an idol" and that "my God was a real God." Boykin and Cambone have also generated controversy by allegedly seeking to wrest control of intelligence-gathering from the CIA. Gates has said he is especially determined to improve cooperation between the Department of Defense and the CIA....

While Cambone's departure has been announced, Boykin's has not. A Defense Department spokesman would not confirm Wednesday that Boykin was planning to retire, but he declined to deny it either.... "If you're getting rid of Cambone, you almost certainly have to get rid of Boykin," says Philip Giraldi, a former CIA counterterrorism official who stays in touch with the community. "They're hand in glove. Gates feels it all went out of control, that they're doing too many things in too many places."...

If Bush is letting this happen, it means that maybe his learning curve isn't entirely flat -- maybe he's concluded that Rummy, with his small-force obsession and his endless turf battles, was kind of a problem. And hey, it only took him six years to figure that out! But at least it happened. And now it means Boy Bush can have even more troops to make stuff go boom!