In a speech before the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Wednesday, President Bush warned that a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq would lead to mass bloodshed similar to what happened in Southeast Asia after the Vietnam War. He referenced the killing fields in Cambodia and the re-educution camps in Vietnam.

President Bush: “There was another price to our withdrawal from Vietnam, and we can hear it in the words of the enemy we face in today’s struggle, those who came to our soil and killed thousands of citizens on September the 11th, 2001. In an interview with a Pakistani newspaper after the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden declared that the American people had risen against their government’s war in Vietnam, and they must do the same today.”

Bush’s speech appears to be part of a coordinated White House effort to bolster support for the war ahead of the debate on Capitol Hill in September.