Bush draws Iraq-Vietnam parallel, Turning Point of the War?

WASHINGTON: US President George W Bush says he sees a possible parallel between the increase in violence in Iraq and the 1968 Tet offensive that prompted a loss of support among Americans for the Vietnam War.

But the White House said the president was not making the analogy that Iraq had reached a similar turning point. Instead, he meant that insurgents might be increasing violence to try to influence the upcoming US election.
Sponsored Links
Quake safe your house now

Bush was asked in an ABC News interview on Wednesday whether he agreed with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's opinion that the violence in Iraq was "the jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive."

Bush responded: "He could be right. There's certainly a stepped-up level of violence, and we're heading into an election."

Bush and other top US officials have long resisted comparisons to the Vietnam War when critics have suggested that Iraq has turned into a quagmire.

But they have stepped back from adamant declarations of progress as sectarian violence ratchets up, with more than 2750 American troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis killed since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

Attacks in Iraq killed about 40 people on Thursday. The death toll for US troops rose to 72 for October, which could become one of their deadliest months in two years.

"I expressed the sentiment some time ago that I thought we were over the hump in terms of violence, I think that was premature," Vice President Dick Cheney said in an interview with Time magazine.

Cheney agreed that insurgents were trying to create as much bloodshed as possible to influence public opinion in the United States.

Communist forces lost the Tet offensive, but it was a major propaganda victory and is widely considered a turning point of the war in Vietnam, prompting support among Americans for the conflict to drop. President Lyndon Johnson's popularity fell and he withdrew as a candidate for re-election in March 1968.


Source

Personally I find the excuse of isurgents being extremely violent to influence the American public opinion prior to the elections pretty weak. Bush did admit to recognize the parallels between the Iraq and Vietnam wars, and now Bush suddenly meant something else if we may believe the white house official. I mean the public opinion won't change dramatically caused by four weeks increased violence.

Iraq is turning into a disaster, the coalition troops are losing control and more people are dying every day.

A new NBC Wall Street Journal poll reveals more Americans than ever are upset over Iraq.

US commanders there admit they too are discouraged and will reassess.

The war is driving approval of President Bush even lower in the latest NBC Wall Street Journal survey.

57% of those polled disapprove of his overall job performance on Iraq. Bush disapproval is 63%, 6 points worse than a month ago.

The poll shows more voters want Democrats to take over Congress.

Source

Well as someone who avoided the Vietnam war, Dubya may not understand the implications of his reference.

The Tet offensive was a six-month long effort against US troops at a time when support for the war in the US was fairly high. Even when Tet ended in June of '69, the war was favored by the majority of Americans.

How a constantly increasing level of violence over a 3-1/2 year period can be parsed into a 'new offensive' is beyond most observers.

Further, the White House apologists are transparently wrong in trying to explain the reference as 'trying to influence US elections,' since Tet began in January '68.

It's constantly amazing -- the lack of knowledge or understanding of history in the public discourse.

Isn't it attributed to Santayana? "Those who do not study the past are doomed to repeat it."