President Bush gave a prime-time speech from the Oval Office on December 18, 2005. “As the war continued, he acknowledged, many people were arguing that the U.S. was ‘creating more problems than we’re solving’ by remaining in Iraq. He rejected the notion. ‘Defeatism may have its partisan uses, but it is not justified by the facts,’ Bush said, adding, ‘To retreat before victory would be an act of recklessness and dishonor, and I will not allow it.’ ”
– Bob Woodward, State of Denial, Page 435