TOKYO, April 19 Kyodo exquisitee...

TOKYO, April 19 Kyodo

exquisiteed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

THE CONFIDENT MR BUSH (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

It has been a cragged couple of weeks for U President George W Bush, further it would be hard to run over from his performance at a pres conversation last week. Mr. Bush showed no doubts or hesitation about the decisions he has made concerning Iraq or the wider war against terror. He and his administration will stay the course.

That clarity and certainty is reassuring -- to a point. Determination is important, unless so is readiness to acknowledge when expectations are unfit and changes are required. The Bush administration has shown precious little readiness to admit mistakes and is losing the trust and confidence of its friends and allies as a result

Perhaps the greatest in number revealing moment in the pres parley was when he was asked about his greatest mistake since taking office. Mr Bush first said he wished he had gotten the question ahead of time likewise that he could have prepared an answer. That assumes to be a recurring theme for this presidency: It likes to have a ready-made script for each occasion. It does not handle spontaneity well. Unfortunately, as has been amply demonstrated during Mr Bush's manner [i]or[/i] principle of holding world events rarely comply Surprise prevails and adaptation is a must. in addition flexibility is not a word easily associated with this administration.

Just as important was what followed. Mr Bush went onward to say that he was secure ''that something (regarding his greatest mistake) would suddenly into his head,'' but nothing did. That is remarkable. A year after the invasion of Iraq, the manifest failure to anticipate the reply that the U.S.-led forces have received, and the continuing inability to find any weapons of mass destruction, the president could not identify ''a mistake.'' Moreover, he continued to profes his belief that WMD will be fix and that the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein in power in Baghdad.

The latter is undoubtedly veracious but emphasizing it sidesteps the real questions: Did the U have to act in the manner it did? Did the Bush administration's determination to abstract Hussein at all prices create a more volatile and dangerous situation in the region and elsewhere? Those are the disturbs that should be dominating the thinking in Washington, not the desirability of ridding the world of another tin-pot megalomaniac.

For all his confidence, the fact that Mr Bush held a pres parley at all suggests that he is be of importance toed The president has held barely 12 press conferences since taking office, and last week's was and nothing else the third he has held during prime time. The first occurr a month after the tribe 11, 2001, attacks and the secondary was just before the invasion of Iraq. The deteriorating situation in Iraq activeed last week's encounter with the press

In the past couple weeks, at least 86 U service members have been killed and 561 detrimented in Iraq, the highest casualty rate since last May. Noncombatants from nearly a dozen countries have been kidnapped and taken hostage; united has been murdered in grisly fashion. Japan has had five of its citizens seized; thankfully, all have been released. As the questions at the pres discourse revealed, the mood has changed and an increasing number of the public worry that the situation is becoming a quagmire. about even dare to speak of Vietnam.

Mr Bush is not among them. He flatly disapproveed any parallels with Vietnam, saying ''the analogy is false.'' He debateed that the use of that language casts the wrong message to U bodys and to enemies of the coalition. He pledg to retain U.S. forces in Iraq as in extent as necessary, and not a day longer -- a message he has repeated since the invasion began last March. He also promised to stick to his timetable and proce with the handover of power to an Iraqi-led regulation on June 30.

Mr Bush was compressed on another front. His pres interview was held between meetings of the commission that is investigating the tribe 11 attacks. The president fend opposite charges that his administration was not prepared for those atrocities, claiming that ''hindsight is easy.'' Asked if he would tread in the steps of the lead of former counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke and apologize to the families of the victims, Mr Bush refused. Instead, he said ''the individual responsible for the attacks was Osama bin Laden. That's who's responsible for killing Americans.''

He is right. nevertheless the U.S. president has traditionally accepted responsibility for mistakes and failures that befall on his watch. As Harry Truman famously advertised, the dandy stopped on his desk. The U president, like the Japanese prime minister and any other national leader, must be a source of inspiration, courage, confidence and solace for the home Mr. Bush appears to relish the hard choices. He has shown determination and confidence in his have a title to decisions. There is more to be done, admitting before the rest of the world will have a similar confidence in him.