From ABC:

Though there were concerns during much of last year that Iraq was heading toward civil war, Bush says that he often reiterated his confidence in U.S. “victory” for the sake of the troops. “That’s as much to try and bolster the spirits of the people in the field as well — you can’t have the commander-in-chief say to a bunch of kids who are sacrificing that either it’s not worth it or you’re losing. What does that do for morale?” Bush said.

So Bush wasn’t confident of victory? And he didn’t say that Iraq wasn’t worth it, or that we were losing, because that would hurt the morale of the troops, rather than not saying it because it wasn’t true. Kind of like saying “I denied I had an affair because it would have hurt my wife to say otherwise.” No, you denied you had an affair because you didn’t have an affair. The only person who comes up with the previous excuse is someone who knows he was lying. So Bush is basically saying that he thought we were losing and that it wasn’t worth it. But he kept wasting our money, and letting our troops be injured and killed, so that he didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings. Well, that would be the feelings of the troops who survived.