oing to tell the American
             people I have a plan to win the war on terror." [iv] The answer sounds
             suspiciously like the answer of a child wanting to explain something bad he
             did so he won't be punished. This attitude was far from that of LBJ,
             whoâ€"as early as 1965â€"was searching for a peaceful way to end the conflict.
             In 1968, Johnson had been assuring the American public that there was
             "light at the end of the tunnel" regarding the war, which was being
             regularly protested. The Tet Offensive, however, which was devastating to
             American troops, signaled the folly of that statement. [vi]
             It was clear after 1968, that the Vietnam conflict could not be won
             but must be wound down somehow and the U.S. extricated. On the other hand,
             Bush was still vowing, at the middle of April when numerous problems with
             the conduct of the war had come to light, that the U.S. would complete its
             mission of creating a more stable Iraq. Observers such as Jonathan Marcus
             of the BBC had observed that completing the mission might be problematical,
             however. He said that among U.S. commanders in Iraq, there is not much
             talk about the end-game, but rather about how to minimize threats facing
             their troops each day. He also noted the disparity between the Pentagon
             insisting it is not fighting a guerrilla were, and the facts that say the
             continuing problems are, in fact, gueri
             ...