Bush: There will be no pullout from Iraq while I'm president

President Bush sought to buy more time for his Iraq "surge" strategy on Aug. 22 by making a risky comparison for the first time with the bloodshed and chaos that followed the US pullout from Vietnam. Making it clear he will resist congressional pressure next month for an early withdrawal, he signaled that US troops, whom he hailed as the "greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known", will be in Iraq as long as he is president. He also said the consequences of leaving "without getting the job done would be devastating," and "the enemy would follow us home." Bush's speech came on the day that the US suffered one of its highest daily death tolls since the 2003 invasion, with 14 troops killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed. In a speech to army veterans in Kansas City, Bush invoked one of the US's biggest military disasters in support of keeping troops in Iraq: "One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people', 're-education camps' and 'killing fields'." The speech was aimed primarily at what White House officials privately describe as the "Defeatocrats," the Democratic congressmen trying to push Bush into an early withdrawal. The issue is set to come to a head next month when the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, gives a progress report to Congress. Gen Petraeus is expected to say that the surge has produced military successes but that there has only been limited progress on the political front. In relation to the latter, Bush was forced on Aug. 22 to backtrack after 24 hours earlier expressing frustration with the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. Alarmed by the harsh reaction of Maliki, Bush hurriedly rewrote his speech to praise him: "Prime Minister Maliki's a good guy, a good man with a difficult job and I support him." The speech overall reflected the White House belief that it is shifting public opinion behind the surge -- the injection of 30,000 extra US troops into Iraq that has brought the total US force in the country to its highest level, 165,000. The Bush administration wants to keep the surge going until at least next April, at which point the overstretched military will be forced to begin reducing troop numbers anyway. Although Gen Petraeus has not yet completed his report, a Pentagon source said the US presence could be down to 110,000 by the end of next year. The army, as of Aug. 22, had no plans to replace five brigades, each consisting of 3,400 to 4,000 soldiers, when their 15-month tours expire next summer. Freedom's Watch, a conservative group, has just launched a $15 million advertizing campaign in 20 states saying: "It's no time to quit. It's no time for politics." Bush's former White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, who works for the group, said: "We want to get the message to both Democrats and Republicans: don't cut and run, fully fund the troops, and victory is the only objective." The White House has been emboldened by a Gallup poll published on Aug. 22 showing approval ratings for the Democratic-led Congress had dropped to 18%, the lowest since the survey of the public views of the legislature began in 1974, and an earlier Gallup poll showing support for the surge had jumped in a month from 22% to 31%.