>>Personally I think that the most important parts of his speech were 2 things:
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>>1. Bush accepting responsibility (Can't believe I heard that but I did)
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>I don't read the impersonal "there were mistakes" as "I screwed up", but then I really didn't have the patience to listen to all of it. Maybe he did say something stronger.
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>Though, he did accept responsibility for other screwups before... so what were the consequences? Did he get part of salary cut? What punishment did he suffer?
>
>>2. Making a clear statement that America's support is not open-ended (a clear deviation from his earlier statements until now)
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>Now that one really is new. Seems to be he's found a formula to cut and run but without it being called so.

#2 was news to me as well. That he would concede even that much says to me that an exit strategy is being considered way beyond the what-if stage. Historians may look back on 1/10/07 as a significant date in American policy in Iraq.