Powell acknowledges mistakes (but important to "stay the course")

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/12/03/d3.or.powell.1203.p1.php?section=nation_world

Powell acknowledges mistakes

The Associated Press


SALEM - Despite protests from some students and faculty members, former Secretary of State Colin Powell received a mostly warm reception from about 1,000 Willamette University students Friday who heard him defend the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq.

``It is important to stay the course'' in Iraq, Powell said during a 50-minute campus forum during which he was quizzed by students about prospects for ending the war in Iraq anytime soon.

Earlier this week, Powell's former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, said President Bush was ``too aloof, too distant from the details'' of postwar planning, allowing underlings to exploit Bush's detachment and make bad decisions. Wilkerson also suggested that Powell may agree with him that Bush was too hands off about Iraq.

However, Powell made no similar comment during his stop at Willamette University. He did say, though, that some ``big mistakes'' were made in the conduct of the war in the first year but that ``we are correcting them now'' in the effort to build a new Iraq.