Flashback: Read McCain's 'Mission Accomplished' Iraq Speech

UPDATE: John McCain said on Thursday that President Bush shouldn't be blamed for the "Mission Accomplished" banner:

Republican John McCain says President Bush should not be held responsible for the much-criticized "mission accomplished" banner five years ago, but he should be blamed for bungling the early months of the Iraq war.

Thursday was the fifth anniversary of Bush's dramatic landing on an aircraft carrier where the banner hung. The certain GOP presidential nominee said he thought the banner was a mistake at the time.

As a refresher, here is the first paragraph of Bush's speech in front of the banner: "[M]y fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."

Moreover, McCain himself defended the banner in June 2003 on Fox News:

NEIL CAVUTO (host): Senator -- after a conflict means after the conflict, and many argue the conflict isn't over.

McCAIN: Well, then why was there a banner that said mission accomplished on the aircraft carrier? Look, the -- I have said a long time that reconstruction of Iraq would be a long, long, difficult process, but the conflict -- the major conflict is over, the regime change has been accomplished, and it's very appropriate.

And on May 22, 2003 -- just three weeks after Bush spoke on the aircraft carrier -- McCain offered a mission accomplished speech of his own. On the Senate floor, McCain proclaimed "massive victory" in Iraq and credited combat-readiness for "our victory" in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Here's the extended excerpt from that speech:

Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom demonstrated to the world what we saw just 12 years ago. We went to war as the most combat-ready force in the world. The value of that readiness is clear. We won a massive victory in a few weeks, and we did so with very limited loss of American and allied lives. We were able to end aggression with minimum overall loss of life, and we were even able to greatly reduce the civilian casualties of Afghani and Iraqi citizens.

In order to understand the issues involved, it is necessary to recognize just how difficult it is to achieve the kind of readiness we had during Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Readiness is not solely a matter of funding operations and maintenance at the proper level. It is not only a matter of funding adequate numbers of high quality personnel, or of funding superior weapons and munitions, strategic mobility and propositioning, high operating tempos, realistic levels of training at every level of combat, or of logistics and support capabilities.

Readiness, in fact, is all of these things and more. A force beings to go hollow the moment it loses its overall mix of combat capabilities in any one critical area. Our technology edge in Afghanistan and Iraq would have been meaningless if we did not have men and women trained to use it. Having the best weapons system platforms in the world would not have given us our victory if we had not had the right command and control facilities, maintenance capabilities, and munitions.

Comments

[Kenny2k]

03:20 PM on 05/02/2008

If Bush is not to be blaimed, then who? I guess I'll just blame you. Mr. Mc Blame. I hope the American people don't make the 3rd presidential mistake and vote for you. You are a sorry excuse for a candidate. Vote no on McCain the once and still POW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GPRogueCowboy]

02:21 PM on 05/02/2008

According to US Intelligence Estimates the PEAK number of Al Qaeda in Iraq was about 10,000 and as of March 15th, 2008 there were about 6000.
Petraeus reported in April 2008 that there are 540,000 Iraq Security Forces,
the US has 140,000 Troops, Allies have 10,000. That is 690,000 and I think you have to add the Awakening Force (Sons of Iraq) which was reported to be 80,000 at $16 Million/Month which would bring the total to 770,000 Good Guys vs. 6000 Bad Guys. We have have lost over 4063, they have lost about 4000, we have had 30,000 wounded, Al Qaeda have had ??? wounded. Allies have lost 310, Allies have over 1000 wounded, Iraqi Security Forces killed ????? (top secret), over 100,000 Iraqi Security Forces Wounded, over 100,000 Iraqi Civilians have died due to War related incidents, 300,000 - 500,000 Iraq Civilians have been wounded, over 4 Million Iraqi's have been displaced from homes in the FIRST FIVE YEARS.
If we continue this TERRIFIC PROGRESS it will take at least another 7 years to kill or capture the remaining 6000 Al Qaeda. ALL the other metrics will most likely follow i.e. another 4000 Dead GI's.
OOOPS I forgot, we have to continue fighting the CIVIL WAR until there is only ONE PARTY remaining. Then we will have come FULL CIRCLE.
Of course as a result of this great track record General Petraeus will be promoted to Head of CENT COM and awarded the 5th Star by June 2008

[rudyacuna]

02:14 PM on 05/02/2008

Neither McCain nor Bush want to be held accountable for their pasts. I commensurate with the time that McCain spent as a POW. But the sad fact is that the US should have never been in Vietnam. We did not have a moral or legal right to be there. Being an American veteran does not absolve us from judgment or international law. I am a Korean War Veteran -- and that does not make me special. Are Japanese, German or Italian war veterans heroes? They fought for their countries. Bush is a war criminal. Even the pope has labeled the Iraq War as an unjust war. It was a violation of international law. Under the terms of Nuremberg we could be judged. (It sends the message that if the Nazis would have won that they would not be culpable for their crimes). "Mission Accomplished" is tragic because of the effect, which means less education for the poor, less medical care and more crime in the future. Bush should be impeached.

[Veggee]

01:54 PM on 05/02/2008

Bush appologist and former Maverick John McCain has attached himself to an already fallen star.

President McCain, you said that you would use diplomacy with Iran. Why did you authorize military action? Because he got in my face, thats why.....

Former Maverick John McCain has flip-flopped on torture, taxes, and wives. He tells the American people that he is in excellent health, but tells the Navy that his is permanently disabled , in order to collect more than $58,000 of tax free money a year. I guess that figure has increased over the years but it looks like it adds up to more than one million dollars of tax free money. That's pretty good compensation for someone who is in excellent health. So which is it, Excellent health or disabled? Give us the straight talk..........you know the kind of straight talk you gave your wife (c**t).

[trollsbwild]

01:26 PM on 05/02/2008

Let John keep talking. Once the public at large gets a chance to see MyCane, we'll see how he will do in a GE.
He has been very lucky that the Dems have been fighting it out over the nominee. His problem is that this won't go on past June.
By this summer, we will still be Iraq, gas prices will still be out of sight, and the economy will have sustained a few more bumps in the road, no matter what the spin.
Nothing will change the 21%ers from voting for the GOP. As for the rest of us....NOT!

[trollsbwild]

01:20 PM on 05/02/2008

So John- regarding the war in Iraq-is anything Bush's fault?

[Toonadude]

01:03 PM on 05/02/2008

Too bad he so closley resembles GHWB who I'm sure would like to be taking a "not responsible" position of his own these days.

[sufi66]

10:40 AM on 05/02/2008

Nothing is Bush's fault, right John?

[musselmanm]

08:08 AM on 05/02/2008

Hey you haters! The banner might not have been Bush's fault!
The statement on board that Carrier, "american combat operations in Iraq are over." is his freakin fault.
He is a Liar and cumpulsive liar and a poor excuse for the leader of our County.
I look forward to the day when we only have the photograph of McSame givving him the offer of a Monica while hugging the breath out of him.
Perhaps they will live together in a country with no extradition agreements so the Hauge war crimes cannot start.
These crimes would include past wartime acts such as dropping Napalm on innocent civilians over in Asia.

[GingerB]

12:34 AM on 05/02/2008

Obviously, nothing is Bush's fault 'cause he's been held accountable for absolutely nothing.

[madron]

12:19 AM on 05/02/2008

One republican puke lies and the other swears to it.....

[john85msy]

11:56 PM on 05/01/2008

And thats why we call you McBush.

[BWonka]

09:52 PM on 05/01/2008

Nothing is ever his fault - at least according to him, and the sad, shalow fools who believe him. Part of his bully/coward persona is to deny, deny, deny. And never, ever take responsibility.

And people wonder why we are now one of the most hated nations in the world.

[dadw5boys]

09:25 PM on 05/01/2008

COMMANDER AND THEIF HAS NOT CONTROL AND TAKES NO RESPONSIBLE!!!!!!!!

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

09:25 PM on 05/01/2008

The banner wasn't his fault? OK, I'll give you that one. After all, the words were spelled correctly.

What remains his fault are the following: LYING about weapons of mass destruction; LAUGHING about not finding them at a subsequent white house correspondent's dinner; FIXING the intelligence to get us into a war with a country that had NOTHING TO DO WITH SEPTEMBER 11th; APPOINTING people to every government body who had one aim - to bring down that government body; EATING cake with John McSame while people drowned in New Orleans; LETTING his excuse for a Secretary of State to go to NY and watch Spamalot while people drowned in New Orleans.

And that's just off the top of my head. Rot in hell, Dumbya.

[SteveStephens]

09:44 PM on 05/01/2008

I agree with the former post. In addition, when these corrupt mother fuckers outed that spy for political reasons, then denied having anything to do with it. That still burns my ass. There is only one word to describe it: TREASON.

[momofsonofwar]

10:41 PM on 05/01/2008

my thoughts exactly

[newworldman777]

09:04 AM on 05/02/2008

Let's not forget Bush's convenient commuting of the prison sentence I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to ensure his cooperation in the coverup regarding the involvement of top White House officials in the outing of Plame. Now, we can begin the watch of the date that Bush will give that criminal Libby a full pardon. After all, this administration has been so imbued with criminality, that it would only be appropriate for them to finish it out with a bang -- i.e. Libby's full pardon for felonies.

[john85msy]

11:59 PM on 05/01/2008

What about the U.S. prosecutors he dismissed that were hot on his trail?