charms

I think the Bush PR team went a little bit overboard with the whole thing (flying in wearing the flightsuit, etc), but it's also been completely overblown by the Democrats.

Even though it seems like 'major' combat in Iraq, it mostly consists of small-unit skirmishes, ambushes, patrols, and searches. That's still very dangerous stuff and can get a lot of soldiers killed. But I think most military people would agree that the major stuff did end with the speech, i.e. carrier battle groups, 1000 tank formations rumbling across the desert, major bombing of command and control and infrastucture. In the traditional military sense, those major combat operations were over and were heading home with their 'mission accomplished.'

I think it is fair to say that Bush was overconfident and prematurely congratulating himself on winning the big battle, when he should have been more focused on the 1000 small battles yet to come. But it is insincere to pretend that Bush declared victory fpr the sake of scoring cheap political points.