[Dialogue] We've Lost Battle for Baghdad, US Admits

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Friday, October 20, 2006 by the Guardian/UK
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329605497-117700,00.html>  

We've Lost Battle for Baghdad, US Admits
. President concedes war may be at turning point
. Mounting death toll brings comparison with Vietnam 



by Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington

 

A day after George Bush conceded for the first time that America may have
reached the equivalent of a Tet offensive in Iraq, the Pentagon yesterday
admitted defeat in its strategy of securing Baghdad. 

The admission from President Bush that the US may have arrived at a turning
point in this war - the Tet offensive led to a massive loss of confidence in
the American presence in Vietnam - comes during one of the deadliest months
for US forces since the invasion. 

Yesterday the number of US troops killed since October 1 rose to 73,
deepening the sense that America is trapped in an unwinnable situation and
further damaging Republican chances in midterm elections that are less than
three weeks away. 

In Baghdad a surge in sectarian killings has forced the Pentagon to review
its entire security plan for the capital, Major General William Caldwell, a
US military spokesman, said yesterday. 

"The violence is, indeed, disheartening," he told reporters. The US has
poured 12,000 additional US and Iraqi troops into Baghdad since August only
to see a 22% increase in attacks since the beginning of Ramadan. 

"Operation Together Forward has made a difference in the focus areas but has
not met our overall expectations in sustaining a reduction in the level of
violence," Gen Caldwell said. 

The bleak assessment arrives as official thinking appears to be shifting on
the war, with reports that a study group led by a Bush family loyalist and
former secretary of state, James Baker, could be drawing up an exit plan for
US forces in Iraq. 

Such a strategy would once have been unthinkable for Mr Bush, who famously
vowed to keep US forces in Iraq even if he was supported only by his wife,
Laura, and dog, Barney. 

But the president now appears willing to acknowledge that the public is
losing confidence in his administration's involvement in Iraq. 

On Wednesday Mr Bush admitted for the first time the existence of a parallel
between Iraq and Vietnam. 

Such comparisons had been fiercely resisted by the White House, which has
insisted that the US would succeed in bringing stability to Iraq and
democracy to the Middle East. 

But Mr Bush appeared to agree that the rise in sectarian killings in Iraq
could prove as demoralising to his administration's mission in Iraq as the
Tet offensive of 1968-69. Although that offensive resulted in a military
defeat for the North Vietnamese forces, it turned American public opinion
against the war and the then American president, Lyndon Johnson. 

"There is certainly a stepped-up level of violence, and we are heading
towards an election," Mr Bush said during an interview with ABC television. 

He said he understood the insurgents were trying to drive American forces
out of Iraq. "My feeling is that they all along have been trying to inflict
enough damage so that we leave," he said. 

While Mr Bush now readily acknowledges the potentially demoralising effects
of the violence, there was no sign yesterday that the White House had
reached the same conclusion as critics who have called for an early
withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. 

"The president was making a point that he's made before, which is that
terrorists try to exploit pictures and try to use the media as conduits for
influencing public opinion in the United States," the White House press
secretary, Tony Snow, told reporters yesterday. 

He also rejected any comparison between Mr Bush and President Johnson. 

"The important thing to remember is that the president is determined it's
not going to happen with Iraq, because you have a president who is
determined to win," he said. 

"We do not think that there has been a flip-over point, but more
importantly, from the standpoint of the government and the standpoint of
this administration, we are going to continue pursuing victory
aggressively." 

Backstory 

The Tet offensive, launched in January 1968, is seen as the turning point of
America's involvement in the war. The waves of attacks on Saigon and other
southern cities was a disaster for the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese
Army. But the images of violence - including a commando attack on the US
embassy in Saigon - exposed the hollowness of the Pentagon's claims that
America was in control of the situation. The offensive shook public
confidence in the commander of US forces in Vietnam, General William
Westmoreland, and the then president Lyndon Johnson. 

C Copyright 2006 Guardian News and Media Limited 2006

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