Sigh. It's like Regensburg all over again.
First of all, it's literally not what he said. George Stephanopolous asked the President if Iraq right now was similar to the Tet Offensive, not to Viet Nam generally. Secondly, folks have utterly missed the point (gotta be deliberate, right?). The President said the increased violence in Iraq this very moment may be similar to the Tet Offensive, and then went on to talk about how the enemy is stepping up attacks with our elections in mind --which means his point was not that we're succumbing to a stronger enemy, but that, like Tet, the military is winning and the Press may cause us to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. As ninme's frequent commenter Rueful Red puts it (I big heart him too, by the by --no offense to Mrs. Red intended):
The Tet offensive is always presented as a victory for the guerilla Vietcong. In fact the fighting was done by the North Vietnamese Army, which invaded in divisional strength, and got, er, creamed.Also via ninme, Best of the Web yesterday:
Tet, that is, was a military victory for the U.S. that turned into a propaganda victory for the communists because American journalists presented a false picture of what had happened.RTWT for crying out loud. (Thinking about Tet sends me into stroke-level fury every time. Gotta go cool down.)
UPDATE: See? Via Instapundit: ARE THE TERRORISTS TRYING TO PULL A TET IN IRAQ? Of course. And the media are trying to help them. "Not surprisingly to me but shocking to many, the President obviously knows more history than his interviewer."
UPDATE 2: Mudville Gazette on CNN & Tom Friedman openly running with enemy propaganda, plus many links. To summarize: al-Qaeda: we're losing badly, but if we send the right pictures to America, everyone will think otherwise. CNN: Cool! al-Qaeda footage! Tet offensive indeed.