GW Bush vient de donner une interview t\u00e9l\u00e9vis\u00e9e \u00e0 George Staphanopoulos, de ABC.News<\/em>. Des extraits de cette interview sont publi\u00e9s dans un texte de Ed O-Keefe, sur le site ABC.News<\/em>, ce 18 octobre<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tDeux domaines sont notamment abord\u00e9s : la comparaison de la situation en Irak avec celle du Viet-n\u00e2m et la perception que les \u00e9lections mid-term<\/em> (7 novembre) sont devenues un r\u00e9f\u00e9rendum sur la guerre.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abStephanopoulos asked whether the president agreed with the opinion of columnist Tom Friedman, who wrote in The New York Times today that the situation in Iraq may be equivalent to the Tet offensive in Vietnam almost 40 years ago.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbHe could be right, the president said, before adding, There’s certainly a stepped-up level of violence, and we’re heading into an election.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbGeorge, 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.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbBush said he could not imagine any circumstances under which all U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Iraq before the end of his presidency.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbYou mean every single troop out? No, he told Stephanopoulos.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t()<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbWhen asked whether the midterm elections are a referendum on Iraq, the President replied, I think they’re a referendum, from my perspective, which is kind of like your perspective, which is the Washington perspective, based upon: who best to secure this country from further attack and who best to help this economy continue to grow. The truth of the matter is, as you well know, most elections are very local elections. Sometimes those issues are salient, but sometimes there’s other issues at the local level as well.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbI’m not on the ballot, Bush said. This set of elections is much different from a presidential election year.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tLes r\u00e9ponses de GW Bush sont comme d’habitude dilatoires, impr\u00e9cises et encombr\u00e9es de slogans divers mais nettement sur la d\u00e9fensive. Le texte de Friedman auquel Stephanopoulos fait allusion est \u00abBarney and Baghdad<\/em>\u00bb, publi\u00e9 hier 18 octobre<\/a> (acc\u00e8s payant), et dont la substance est r\u00e9sum\u00e9e de la sorte : \u00abWhat we’re seeing in Iraq seems like the jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tBien \u00e9videmment, la comparaison vaut pour nous beaucoup plus pour l’opinion publique US que pour les situations respectives au Viet-n\u00e2m et en Irak : c’est effectivement \u00e0 l’occasion de l’offensive du T\u00eat, en janvier-f\u00e9vrier 1968, que l’opinion publique US bascula compl\u00e8tement dans une opposition activiste \u00e0 la guerre, comme elle semble en train de le faire \u00e0 propos de l’Irak. La perspective de la comparaison n’est pas encourageante : retrait en mars 1968 de Johnson pour un deuxi\u00e8me mandat et une ann\u00e9e aux USA o\u00f9 le d\u00e9sordre civil atteignit son sommet avec les assassinats de Martin Luther Kink et Robert Kennedy, et les troubles qui accompagn\u00e8rent ces deux \u00e9v\u00e9nements.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t(Au niveau op\u00e9rationnel, la comparaison est beaucoup moins convaincante. La position militaire des USA au Viet-n\u00e2m en 1968 \u00e9tait bien meilleure que celle qu’ils ont aujourd’hui en Irak.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n