Post #153

Subject: Mission Accomplished

The White House said Wednesday that President George W. 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.

What price? Somebody named Bush die?

Yesterday was 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.

“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.”

Oh, yeah, that price – that mean nasty media making fun. Whew – I thought “the price” was something big, like Laura getting a splinter in her “Victory Garden.” :p

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.”

Oh, man – he still doesn’t get it. The enemy we are fighting in Iraq is NOT our real enemy. Indeed, the Iraq War is a drain on and a diversion from the War on Terror and makig us less secure. The Iraq War itself is giving aid and comfort to our real enemy – we are losing the ability to respond militarily to other threats and have provided Al-Qaeda with a recruiting poster.

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

If that wasn’t so tragic, the irony would be overwhelming.