President George W. Bush drew a comparison between Iraq and the Vietnam war for the first time when he said Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist, "could be right" in writing that the violent situation in Iraq was the "jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive", writes Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington.

"There is certainly a stepped-up level of violence and we're heading into an election," Mr Bush told ABC News. The Tet offensive helped turn US public opinion against the war, and led to President Lyndon Johnson deciding to abandon his presidential re-election bid.