10-30-2003, 06:27 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Junkie
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Bush: What mission accomplished?
Link can be found here
Quote:
WASHINGTON — President Bush tried to distance himself Tuesday from a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished" that hung on an aircraft carrier where he staged a fighter-jet landing May 1. He said the banner was the Navy's idea and a reference to the mission of the USS Abraham Lincoln.
"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended," President Bush declared May 1 aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
By J. Scott Applewhite, AP
Military officials agreed that the banner was their idea but said White House aides signed off on it, made it and positioned it prominently behind the spot where Bush made his remarks.
Bush, at a news conference, also said he had never suggested that the war in Iraq was over when he landed on the Abraham Lincoln. Since then, 115 American troops have been killed in action and hundreds more wounded.
"I think you ought to look at my speech," Bush said. "I said Iraq's a dangerous place, got hard work to do, there's still more to be done."
During his remarks on the aircraft carrier as he stood in front of the banner, Bush said, "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended." He went on to say, "We have difficult work to do in Iraq. ... The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort."
On Tuesday, Bush said the banner was put up by the crewmembers of the Abraham Lincoln to say that their mission was accomplished. "I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from my staff — they weren't that ingenious, by the way," Bush said.
Cmdr. Conrad Chun, a Navy spokesman, said the banner was "the ship's idea. The banner signified the successful completion of the Lincoln's deployment."
But Bush's advance staff did have a hand in the banner, said other military officials who asked not to be identified. Personnel aboard the Abraham Lincoln asked the White House to make the banner because there were no art supplies aboard the ship, the officials said. The White House advance team then brought the banner to the ship and positioned it behind Bush.
White House communications director Dan Bartlett confirmed some of those details. "I received a phone call from the ship. They asked if they could have something that recognized that they had accomplished their mission. We agreed and helped develop a banner that reflected that," he said.
The White House communications office, well-known for the care it takes with the backdrops at Bush's speeches, created the "Mission Accomplished" banner in the same style as banners the president uses in other appearances, including one in Canton, Ohio, just a week before the carrier speech. That banner, with the same typeface and soft, brush-stroked American flag in the background, read: "Jobs and Growth."
Bush's remarks Tuesday on the banner drew criticism from Democratic presidential candidates. "Ask our troops in Iraq whether the mission has been accomplished," Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said. "Ask our troops in Iraq whether they'd rather have had a fancy aircraft landing from the president or a responsible postwar plan to keep them safe."
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean said Bush's attempt to "walk away" from hisend-of-combat announcement on the Lincoln did not surprise him.
"Yesterday, the president claimed that the wave of attacks that left dozens dead and scores injured proved that the U.S. was winning the peace in Iraq," Dean said. "Today, we heard him absurdly claiming that the White House was not responsible for the 'Mission Accomplished' banner that decorated the flight deck."
Retired general Wesley Clark called Bush "wrong" and "irresponsible" for backtracking "on his May 1 political photo op."
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Does anyone even believe our Commander-in-Chief on this one? The White House made the banner special just for this aircraft carrier? Are they serious?
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"I can normally tell how intelligent a man is by how stupid he thinks I am" - Cormac McCarthy, All The Pretty Horses
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