"Mission Accomplished" 5 Years Later

WASHINGTON — The White House said Wednesday that President Bush has paid a price for the "Mission Accomplished" banner that was flown in triumph five years ago but later became a symbol of U.S. misjudgments and mistakes in the long and costly war in Iraq.

Thursday is the fifth anniversary of Bush's dramatic landing in a Navy jet on an aircraft carrier homebound from the war. The USS Abraham Lincoln had launched thousands of airstrikes on Iraq.

"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended," Bush said at the time. "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on Sept. 11, 2001, and still goes on." The "Mission Accomplished" banner was prominently displayed above him _ a move the White House came to regret as the display was mocked and became a source of controversy.

After shifting explanations, the White House eventually said the "Mission Accomplished" phrase referred to the carrier's crew completing its 10-month mission, not the military completing its mission in Iraq. Bush, in October 2003, disavowed any connection with the "Mission Accomplished" message. He said the White House had nothing to do with the banner; a spokesman later said the ship's crew asked for the sign and the White House staff had it made by a private vendor.

"President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said `mission accomplished' for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday. "And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year."

She said what is important now is "how the president would describe the fight today. It's been a very tough month in Iraq, but we are taking the fight to the enemy."

At least 49 U.S. troops died in Iraq in April, making it the deadliest month since September when 65 U.S. troops died.

Now in its sixth year, the war in Iraq has claimed the lives of at least 4,061 members of the U.S. military. Only the Vietnam War (August 1964 to January 1973), the war in Afghanistan (October 2001 to present) and the Revolutionary War (July 1776 to April 1783) have engaged America longer.

Bush, in a speech earlier this month, said that "while this war is difficult, it is not endless."

___

On the Net:

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

Comments

[sugarmoes]

it's all good... so long as lil cowpeepee duhbyuh got to wear his codpeepee in public... he REALLY gets turned on by that.

almost as much as rove does.

[NotWaldo]

"Mission Accomplish­ed... Delayed".

[loyalreader]

And to think we have to protect THEM and pay them out of our tax dollars,,,plus their useless relatives until they die. American citizens have been hoodwinked. Oh, yeah,,,,build libraries, bury them and what ever else they want the public to do for them.

[hipolitical]

Sarcasm and venting will do nothing to remedy the situation. The task at hand is to take real action and ensure that the ignorati are no longer allowed to proactively withdraw from learning about this travesty.

Hipolitical
http://www.hipolitical.com/

[elbzee]

You're absolutely right hipolitical. Seems there’s work to be done. There are a lot of letters to be written and voices to be raised.

It's just that, it's been such a horrific time. Those of us who saw it coming, yelled at the top of our lungs, and watched the wreck in slow motion are so sick of it all that we have to break the misery. Maybe it's a blessing that the chimp is such a buffoon. He provides us with so many opportunities to crack each other up and alleviate the stress. Otherwise I’d think about slitting my wrists more often.

[Alexandra2008]

Who voted for this guy? John McCain = more of the same.

[TiffanyHusseinBanned]

Happy Mission Accomplished Day Everyone!

[newworldman777]

Thank you. I think that I'll wear my lapel flag pin today, just to prove to everybody that I am patriotic.

[Kong2]

I'm wearing two so I can be twice as patriotic.

[lisakaz2]

Only in Bu$hco's myopic, corporatist world is a military standstill equated with "winning." Winning what? More importantly is the "for whom" since it's all about Big Oil.

[frappe]

The prezidunce should give a speech today on the White House lawn commemorating this auspicious moment when he declared five years ago, "Mission Accomplished". To further cement this memorable moment in our memories, he should give the speech while wearing the same Navy or Air Force flight suit that he wore five years ago.

Heckuva job, Bushie! America is vulnerable on so many fronts thanks to your stupidity and incompetence. Your presidency has been a plague on the American people and the world. Americans and the world will rejoice when you go back to doing what you do best -- pulling weeds out of the ground on your ranch in Crawfor, Texas.

[zerocoma]

Clueless then - clueless now.

george w. bush is a coward and traitor who would best serve this nation through expeditiously conducted suicide.

[cruisepuppy7452a]

Ok, I would like to know, at what point did we accomplish anything? Was it when thousands of our troops died horriffic deaths, or got maimed, left to die, had thier autopsies altered by the pentagon? Was that what they call a success? Or the lies about how 911 happened, the stolen election, was that what they call a success? The way I see it, nothing has come from it, but a dead economy, loss of homes, healthcare, soldiers, wages, jobs, outsourcing and a lying president who is on a power trip. The man couldn't manage a 7 eleven, and he is running our country? So, this is accomplishement? Hmmm, In any other country this would be called grounds for war crimes, jail and perhaps hanging if he was lucky. Republicans have to see, nobody won aything in this fiasco. There was nothing to win. The rove machine can try to spin this, but its very hard to spin shit on a wheel. The disgrace of it all, nobody has done a damn thing to stop it. Nothing. Nada. So who is worse? Those who refuse to do anything about it, or those who did it, and think they won?

[lisakaz2]

Good question. They're both pretty reprehensible imo.

[Nyland8]

Most of us here at HuffPo saw the writing on the wall many years ago, but shills like bj and other knee-jerk neo-conned minions who'd sell their own mothers for a tax cut, will continue to spray graffiti over that writing long after Bush is dead, rather than admit their mistake as adults would and call for Bush's head like most of the educated people of the free world today. Hardcore devotees of the philosophy of "If you repeat a lie often enough ... " would rather 100,000 Americans die and 40 Trillion dollars be spent before they'd give up their revisionist chants about "liberation" and "freedom" and "democracy" for the Iraqis, and no mountain of evidence that pours in day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year will make them change their tune or admit their mistake.

As the Democratic Party seizes more power in the coming election, they will blame the Democrats for failing to extricate us from that catastrophe, rather than the neo-conmen who've put and kept us there for more than 5 years now. And whatever humanitarian disasters result in Iraq after we’ve gone, and there’s no predicting them, they will never assume responsibility for making the wrong choice in going in, opting instead to condemn the party chosen by the people to get us out of where we never belonged in the first place.

Just like the neo-conmen who brainstormed this disaster, they, too, are cowards.

8

[only1Demvoter]

8 : Yep.

And they better hope the ' likes of me ,' never gets our hands on them either...

Their annonimity suits them fortunately.

See ? ... Even in prayer comes evasion.


-ralph

[mfsomom]

Since "Mission Accomplished" there have been 3924 casualties in Iraq. These are not just numbers folks, these are OUR sons and daughters. What are their stories, who are they, what were their dreams and what would they have accomplished had their lives not been sacrificed so carelessly? As divided as our nation continues to be over the war, as decent human beings, we must pay attention, pull together and care for our neighbors who are living this nightmare, and help them to heal. We MUST take care of our soldiers, their families. We must end this occupation of Iraq and reclaim the moral decency and identity as a peope we can all be proud of. Today is yet another sad, tragic day in a string of endless sad, tragic days.

Obama '08

[SatinPanties]

"Since "Mission Accomplished" there have been 3924 casualties in Iraq. These are not just numbers folks, these are OUR sons and daughters.­"

As the WH mouthpiece would say: it is only a "number"

Or,

"So?!"

[leftcoastindy]

Not to mention 100's of thousands of completely innocent husbands, wives, son's, daughters, babies, and various other types of innocent Iraqi's.

[Bobby]

Mission WAS accomlished by Bu$h and his criminals. They lied us into a war that has paid off handsomely to the war profiteers and big oil. Bu$h has more than doubled the gas prices in his term and has put us into a full blown recession with foreclosures and HUGE healthcare and energy costs. The Federal Reserve and big banking now have even MORE power. Ironic that war profiteering, oil and big banking are staples of the Bu$h family business. Now food is becoming much more expensive. The VERY rich are still happy, and Dumbya wants to make their tax cuts permanent. Meanwhile the middle class is dying, and so is most of America.

[faretheewell]

My only defense when my grandchildren ask how I let this turd become the president is to say I voted against him twice. It seems rather shallow given the long reaching legacy that this buffoon has wrought.

If he does a high-dollar speaking tour in Saudi Arabia and China, ala Ronald Reagan, he should be shipped to the Hague immediately to face trial for crimes against humanity.

[Nyland8]

From the very beginning, Bush's "goals" for Iraq have been unachievable and continuously modified to reflect that reality. For the past three years, he's really been content to just ride out his term in office with no success on the horizon, let alone an exit strategy, stating for the record that it would be left for some other president to get us out. He has already resigned himself and our country to failure, mostly because achieving victory and an exit strategy is totally dependent upon what the Iraqis themselves do - and we're not in control of that.

But most of the neo-conmen and the neo-conned won't admit the fundamental flaw in their world view or their plans. They'd prefer to criticize the implementation and tactics rather than admit to a flawed underlying strategy.

They are cowards at heart - which might explain why so few of them have ever served among the very forces they're willing to sacrifice to their own ideological god.

8

[TNFarmer]

8 I disagree on one point. :..he's really been content to just ride out his term in office with no success on the horizon,..­.." He and his minions have been trying to extricate themselves from the mess they got this country into in Iraq. They just can't find a way to turn a bad situation into something less bad. As my good ole Daddy used to say, "You can't make chicken salad out'a' chicken shit." No matter who wins the next election, the Iraq debacle can't be made into chicken salad.

[Nyland8]

Acknowledged.

8

[elbzee]

Sadly, we know now what you get if you try to make chicken salad out'a' chicken shit. All too well!

Your dad was a wise man.