(Copyright National Post 2007)

WASHINGTON - Gazing into a future when he has retired to his Texas ranch, U.S. President George W. Bush acknowledged the sting of his unpopularity yesterday but foresaw no regrets over the war in Iraq.

"You know, I guess I'm like any other political figure: Everybody wants to be loved," the increasingly isolated President said in a rare moment of public introspection as he defended his heavily criticized strategy.

"It's just sometimes the decisions you make, and the consequences, don't enable you to be loved," the President told a press conference called after a White House report to Congress painted a bleak picture of trends in Iraq.

"And so, when it's all said and done, if you ever come down and visit the old, tired me down there in Crawford, I will be able to say, I looked in the mirror and made decisions based upon principle, not based upon politics. And that's important to me."

Weighed down by the bloody war in Iraq, now in its fifth year, churning through billions of dollars and pushing the U.S. death toll beyond 3,600, Mr. Bush has seen his approval ratings slip to some of the lowest levels in U.S. history.

Mr. Bush, whose term ends in January, 2009, blamed ousted -- and ultimately executed -- Iraqi

dictator Saddam Hussein for triggering the war and told critics who say he should have sent more U.S. troops from the start that U.S. commander Tommy Franks and the Pentagon had set force levels.

He said he had tried to avoid war by bringing UN pressure to force Iraq to give up weapons of mass destruction or face "serious consequences."

Mr. Bush stressed, "That was the message, clear message, to Saddam Hussein. He chose the course. It was his decision to make."

The President did not mention Iraq did not possess the vast stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons nor the advanced nuclear weapons program his administration repeatedly accused Saddam of having.