Bush has second thoughts on tough talk

President George Bush says he now sees that tough talk can have an “unintended consequence".

During a round-table interview with reporters from 14 newspapers, the president, who not long ago declined to identify any mistakes he’d made during his first term, expressed misgivings for two of his most famous expressions: “Bring’em on", in reference to Iraqis attacking US troops, and his vow to get Osama bin Laden ”dead or alive".

“Sometimes, words have consequences you don’t intend them to mean,” Bush said.

“Bring’em on is the classic example, when I was really trying to rally the troops and make it clear to them that I fully understood, you know, what a great job they were doing. And those words had an unintended consequence. It kind of, some interpreted it to be defiance in the face of danger. That certainly wasn’t the case.”

In the week after the 9/11 attacks, Bush was asked if he wanted bin Laden dead.

“I want justice,” Bush said. “And there’s an old poster out West, that I recall, that said, Wanted, Dead or Alive.”

Recalling that remark, Bush said: “I can remember gettng back to the White House, and Laura said, ‘Why did you do that for?’ I said, ‘Well, it was just an expression that came out. I didn’t rehearse it.’

“I don’t know if you’d call it a regret, but it certainly is a lesson that a president must be mindful of, that the words that you sometimes say. ... I speak plainly sometimes, but you’ve got to be mindful of the consequences of the words. So put that down. I don’t know if you’d call that a confession, a regret, something.”

During his second debate last year with presidential challenger Senator John Kerry, Bush was asked to name three instances in which he had made a wrong decision.

At the time he declined to identify any specific mistakes.

Bush admitted that four years as president have changed him. “They say my hair is greyer. But I come from a pretty white-haired gene pool. At least half of it.”