May 1, 2008
"Mission Accomplished," 5 Years Later
Since Bush Declared End To Major Combat Operations In Iraq, Nearly 4,000 U.S. Troops Have Died
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"In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country," President George W. Bush told the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln May 1, 2003. (AP)
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Iraq: From 'Mission' To 'Job'
The White House now avoids using the word "mission" when referring to the war in Iraq. Bill Plante reports on what has become an embarrassment to the Bush administration.
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Mission Still Not Accomplished
Allen Pizzey and Jim Axelrod report on the anniversary of President Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech on Iraq and how the country is holding together three years later.
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Mission Not Accomplished
A year ago, President Bush stood on an aircraft carrier and proclaimed major combat in Iraq over. Since then, 607 U.S. troops have died, and the future of Iraq seems unclear, Jim Acosta reports.
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Iraq: 5 Years At War
Five years after the U.S.-led invasion, the war wears on.
May 1 marks the fifth anniversary of President George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech, as heralded by a giant banner strung across the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln.
After shifting explanations, the White House eventually said the "Mission Accomplished" phrase referred to the carrier's crew completing their 10-month mission, not the military completing its mission in Iraq.
"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."
After being landed on the deck of the carrier in an S-3B Viking 30 miles off the coast San Diego (Ari Fleischer said the president "could have helicoptered," but "he wanted to see a landing the way aviators see a landing"), Mr. Bush appeared in a flight suit to the cheers of the ship's personnel and the glare of television lights.
Later, he stood at a podium against a patriotic backdrop reading "Mission Accomplished."
To the assembled audience and the world, Mr. Bush said, "Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.
"In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. Our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment - yet it is you, the members of the United States military, who achieved it. Your courage - your willingness to face danger for your country and for each other - made this day possible. Because of you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free.
"Tonight, I have a special word for Secretary Rumsfeld, for General Franks, and for all the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States: America is grateful for a job well done."
Five years after that speech, after the meaning of the phrase "mission accomplished" and when is a job truly "done" has been endlessly parsed, and after responsibility for creating and hanging the sign was first denied and later accepted, the White House said Wednesday that President Bush has paid a price for the banner, with its affirmative message becoming a target of mockery and a symbol of U.S. misjudgments and mistakes in the long and costly war - a war in which major combat operations are still being waged.
The president himself didn't exactly say the words "mission accomplished," but that point often gets lost in the feelings over the continuing war, reports CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante.
But while the White House distanced itself from the message soon after the event, Mr. Bush was not averse to repeating it. Speaking to troops in Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar the following month, Mr. Bush said, "America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished."
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Now in its sixth year, the war in Iraq has claimed the lives of at least 4,058 members of the U.S. military - 3,924 of whom have died since Mr. Bush landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed (the true number may never be known, since the Iraqi government does not record tallies of the dead), and millions have been displaced from their homes. And there are currently more U.S. troops in Iraq than there were when the U.S. invaded with a contingent of other coalition forces. President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific.
White House press secretary Dana PerinoThere were intimations within Mr. Bush's speech, not excerpted and repeated as often, that the administration knew it was not about to wash its hands of Iraq any time soon. "The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort," Mr. Bush said. "Our coalition will stay until our work is done. Then we will leave, and we will leave behind a free Iraq."
Mr. Bush, in a speech early this month, repeated the hopeful sentiment stated that day, that "while this war is difficult, it is not endless."
That message may have special meaning for the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln, on which their commander-in-chief declared "Mission Accomplished" five long years ago. Their ship has just begun duty in the Persian Gulf, within striking distance of the coast of Iran.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Video and Galleries from Iraq After Saddam
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Iraq Photos: June 29-July 5
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Iraq Photos: June 22 ? June 28
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Iraq Photos: June 15 ? June 21
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See all 274 CommentsWhite House press secretary Dana Perino
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He should have been more specific about WMDs, that yellow cake, those tubes...
.........Yeah mocked by the liberals that make up the staff at CBS News.
Just part of the most corrupt institution in Ameirca, our mostly "GOP mocking" intolerant liberal MSM wolfpack press.
This story is proof................really sad.
No wonder liberal Katie is set to leave CBS and why this network has to merge with another flaming liberal news outlet...........CNN
"No wonder liberal Katie is set to leave CBS and why this network has to merge with another flaming liberal news outlet...........CNN"
Oh boo, freaking hoo, Dorothy, go back to Kansas where you belong.
Your pathetic crying is disturbing me.
FAST FORWARD, TODAY, OVER 4,000 AMERICAN KIDS HAVE DIED IN THIS TOTALLY UNNECESSARY, BLOOD FOR OIL WAR.
"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED," WILL BE WHEN OUR TROOPS ARE HOME, AND THIS ADMINISTRATION, IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE LIES, FABRICATED EVIDENCE, ARROGANT, TOTAL DISREGARD FOR THE LIVES OF AMERICAN TROOPS.
GOD "BLESS" OUR TROOPS......
What an F***** lie that one is. It took almost 5 years to come up with that one. Bush is an idiot if he thinks people are going to buy that one.
White House press secretary Dana Perino
Understatement of the century!
Posted by perceptions5 at 08:05 AM : May 01, 2008
Your paranoia is amusing to say the least! Ha!Ha!Ha!
Posted by dinkydog1 at 08:18 AM : May 01, 2008
I need to ask you something did you finish the 3rd grade. Bush is a right wing Reactionary that is ultra fringe conservative why don''t you wing nuts go back to your hole from where you came from.
NO amount of spin we just don''t want to hear it anymore wing nuts.
What an absolute load of cr@p.
Lie after lie after lie after lie. It never stops.
Even Republicanazis must be getting tired of the pathetic cr@p that keeps dribbling out of the White House.
what a load of Cr@p......
i wonder if this will be mentioned in his library of
1 book!
All these achievements "Price less"
I thought mission is accomplished, I thought that poster meant that :(
Posted by dinkydog1 at 08:18 AM : May 01, 2008
I need to ask you something did you finish the 3rd grade. Bush is a right wing Reactionary that is ultra fringe conservative why don''''t you wing nuts go back to your hole from where you came from.
NO amount of spin we just don''''t want to hear it anymore wing nuts.
............
"Liberal" is bankrupting a nation, starting usless wars without provacation, creating a debitor nation, I could go on and on but point is I am tired of hearing Bush supporters bashing liberals and supporting Bush as a conservative, it shows how warper thier values have become in trying to support this idiot. Yes I did finish 3rd grade.
Posted by JohnShaft4 at 08:47 AM : May 01, 2008
Right after Jimmah Carter
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Posted by emelder at 08:55 AM : May 01, 2008
Not god bless America, god damnn america. NOT MY PRESIDENT
this is a real live southpark episode.....
Right after Jimmah Carter - Posted by LibH8er at 09:10 AM : May 01, 2008.
Carter may not have been the most effective President, but he was infinitely smarter than the Shrub. GWB will be rated in the bottom 3, if not the worst President, in American history.
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Posted by JohnShaft4 at 09:21 AM : May 01, 2008
That''s funny. A LIB talking about tax cuts. LOL...LOL again.
when did obama say god *** america? I know bush called our Constitution a god damned piece of paper that doesn''t mean a thing to him it is his way and nothing else. even if his way is unconstitutional.
Oh, you poor persuted little tw.at! How dare anyone be critical of what your boss has done, or how he did it, eh? The nerve of pointing out what an as.sinine stunt this was, and how it backfired and made the Bush administration looks even more incompetent, arrogant and clueless.
Yup, shame on that durn ''librul media'' for not allowing them to bury this under shifting rationalizations and lame excuses.
Posted by mbcsmith at 09:16 AM : May 01, 2008
Ahhhh a diehard supporter of the vomit of America. One who considers life easier to be told how to think by faux news and lintball.
God forbid youinvestigate all sides of an issue--and still on the ********* America mantra or the Clinton did it. Yawwwwwnnnnnn you people can''t come up with anything new--same ole same ole.
What are you going to do when Bush/Cheney meet their "waterloo"? They may be winning now, but their defeat will be soon!
I don''t think Obama is as easily bribed as the other contenders.
According to PRwatch.org:
The Pentagon military analyst program unveiled in last week''s exposi by David Barstow in The New York Times was not just unethical but illegal. It violates, for starters, specific restrictions that Congress has been placing in its annual appropriation bills every year since 1951. According to those restrictions, "No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other Act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by the Congress."
As explained in a March 21, 2005 report by the Congressional Research Service, "publicity or propaganda" is defined by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to mean either (1) self-aggrandizement by public officials, (2) purely partisan activity, or (3) "covert propaganda." By covert propaganda, GAO means information which originates from the government but is unattributed and made to appear as though it came from a third party.
So the Pentagon broke the law, while using well-compensated Media Putzes to mislead Americans about the life and death issue of war.
So the Pentagon and the pundits both win; the Defense Department disseminates official government policy and the pundits get a fat paycheck.
And then there are of course the networks, which must have known -- with a wink and a nod -- about the collaboration between their hired guns and their White House connections. As FreePress.net reminds us, "The Pentagon propaganda wouldn''t have spread far if not for the administration''s cozy relationship with corporate media outlets like Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN. Their failure to properly question the case for war -- to counter the official version with dissenting views -- poses a fundamental threat to our democracy."
The Pentagon has officially "suspended" the "independent television analyst" propaganda campaign, but don''t count on it. They''ve just learned to be more discreet, we imagine.
(cont)
As it turns out, however, The New York Times broke ranks and revealed that the so-called military "experts" have really been parroting talking points provided by the Pentagon. In short, instead of providing third party insight, they have been peddling propaganda.
FreePress.net, an organization ever on the prowl for big media lapses, noted, "These so-called experts went on the air to cover up bad news about Iraq with White House spin. Many of these pundits work for private military contractors as consultants, board members and lobbyists."
(cont)
Posted April 30, 2008 | 05:55 PM (EST)
The last ten days have been among the most shameful in the history of American journalism.
On April 20th, the New York Times published its expose of the Bush administration''s use of Pentagon-approved, prepped, and financially-enriched "military analysts" to appear on TV to help sell the invasion of Iraq, and then put a positive spin on the occupation -- even as conditions on the ground deteriorated.
It was a powerful illustration of the Bush administration''s commitment to propaganda and disinformation. But it was also a damning indictment of the mainstream media''s complicity in the wholesale deception of the American public on the single most important decision a country can make -- the decision to go to war.
How big a story was it? John Stauber of the Center for Media and Democracy called it the Pentagon Papers of the Iraq war.
So it only stands to reason that a story this explosive would quickly become the subject of extensive follow-ups by TV and print journalists, and endless debate on the political talk shows, right?
Wrong.
Instead of opening their reportorial and analytical floodgates, the mainstream news media have all but ignored the story.
The Huffington Post
4059 American troops killed!
$1 trillion spent!
The conutry''s economy in ruins!
And the best thing is, Iraq delivered to Iran!
Heckuva job, Liar-in-Chief!
Posted by taotxzen at 10:30 AM
Everyday we learn something new and nothing is a surprise.
Personally, I''m just waiting for something bad enough to come out that will put and end to the Bush/Cheney reign of terror.
The majority of Americans are weary of the goings on of these two and the fact that they get away with everything they do is utterly amazing.
We haven''t had even close to "adequate" representation of this country in over 7 years.
We need Justice!
McCain has all but locked up the Republican presidential nomination and is preparing for a fall campaign in which his support of the Iraq war is sure to be a major issue. Yet the former Navy pilot and Vietnam POW makes himself a target by refusing to endorse Webb%u2019s new GI education bill and instead signing on to a Republican alternative that focuses more on career soldiers than on the great majority who leave after their first four years.
McCain concedes he hasn%u2019t tended to his day job in a while, but said his Senate office staff told him that Webb %u201Chas not been eager to negotiate.%u201D
%u201CHe%u2019s so full of it,%u201D Webb said in response. %u201CI have personally talked to John three times. I made a personal call to [McCain aide] Mark Salter months ago asking that they look at this.%u201D
For Webb, this seems to have far less to do with campaign politics, and far more to do with a deep desire to get a bill through the chamber: %u201CI don%u2019t want this to become a political issue. I want to get a bill done.%u201D
For the troops%u2019 sake, it%u2019d be great if McCain agreed.
from: Crooks and Liars
By: Steve Benen @ 5:30 AM - PDT
A couple of weeks ago, John McCain talked about the importance of increasing the size of the U.S. military. To entice more volunteers, he said, the government should focus on incentives: %u201COne of the things we ought to do is provide [the troops with] significant educational benefits in return for serving.%u201D
A few days later, McCain announced that he%u2019ll oppose a bipartisan measure to renew and expand the GI Bill for a new generation of veterans.
Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), the leading proponent of the modernized GI Bill, is calling McCain out and creating an interesting battle.
From Annapolis to Vietnam and back to the Pentagon, John McCain and Jim Webb trod the same paths before coming to the Senate. Iraq divides them today, but there%u2019s also the new kinship of being anxious fathers watching their sons come and go with Marine units in the war.
So what does it say about Washington that two such men, with so much in common, are locked in an increasingly intense debate over a shared value: education benefits for veterans? [%u2026]
(cont)
Posted by BagdadsHere
Google: Paul Bremer, you know the Medal of Freedom guy. Also see my post below:
Shameful Days: Why Won''t The Media Pursue the Pentagon Propaganda Scandal?
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