Topic: Bush Accepts Iraq-Vietnam Comparison

Media: ABC News
Byline: ED O'KEEFE
Date: 18 October 2006

WASHINGTON - In an ABC News exclusive, President Bush said that a newspaper
column comparing the current situation in Iraq and the 1968 Tet Offensive in
Vietnam, which was widely seen as the turning point in that war, might be
accurate.

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos asked whether the president concurred with
the assessment of columnist Tom Friedman, who wrote in the New York Times
that the situation in Iraq may be equivalent to the Tet Offensive in
Vietnam.

"He could be right," the president said, before adding: "There's certainly a
stepped up level of violence, and we're heading into an election."

"George, my gut tells me that they have all along been trying to inflict
enough damage that we'd leave," Bush said. "And the leaders of al Qaeda have
made that very clear. Look, here's how I view it. First of all, al Qaeda is
still very active in Iraq. They are dangerous. They are lethal. They are
trying to not only kill American troops, but they're trying to foment
sectarian violence. They believe that if they can create enough chaos, the
American people will grow sick and tired of the Iraqi effort and will cause
government to withdraw."

Bush said he could not imagine any circumstances under which all U.S. troops
would be withdrawn from Iraq before the end of his presidency.

"You mean every single troop out? No," he told Stephanopoulos.

Bush also had some tough words for Democrats, saying that pulling troops
from Iraq would be the equivalent of surrender.

"If we were to leave before the job is done, in my judgment, the al Qaeda
would find a safe haven from which to attack. This is exactly what they
said," Bush said. The president insisted he was not disparaging his
opponents.

"It's not questioning their patriotism, I think it's questioning their
judgment," he said.