In a White House statement on October 25, 2006, President Bush said: ” ‘The enemy we face in Iraq has evolved over the past three years. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, a sophisticated and violent insurgency took root. Early on, this insurgency was made up of remnants of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, as well as criminals released by the regime. The insurgency was fueled by al Qaeda and other foreign terrorists who focused most of their attention on high-profile attacks against coalition forces and international institutions. We learned some key lessons from that early phase in the war. We saw how quickly al Qaeda and other extremist groups would come to Iraq to fight and try to drive us out. We overestimated the capability of the civil service in Iraq to continue to provide essential services to the Iraqi people. We did not expect the Iraqi army, including the Republican Guard, to melt away in the way that it did in the face of advancing coalition forces.’ ”
– George Bush (via CNN Staff), “Bush: U.S. Shifting Tactics in Iraq War,” CNN, Oct. 26, 2006