May 1, 2008
"Mission Accomplished," Five Years Later
Five years ago today, President George W. Bush gave a televised address on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln to declare, "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September 11, 2001, and still goes on." The speech, which took place after Bush made a splashy entrance by arriving on the aircraft carrier in a fighter jet, announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq, but the whole spectacle ended up being a target for criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the war.
Now the White House is admitting the banner was, uh, problematic, perhaps because it wasn't specific--or something like that. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said yesterday:
"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.' 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."That would have been a way bigger banner--"Mission Accomplished for These Sailors who are on This Ship on Their Mission." Or how about "Mission Accomplished for Giving Everyone an Opportunity to Make Fun of President Bush and His Administration"?
Photograph by J. Scott Applewhite/AP
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Quagmire Accomplished.
by may 1,2003, the forces of the Imperial US Empire had destroyed the government of Iraq and surrounded and occupied the oil fields...two words that history will use to describe this action...Mission Accomplished
As much as I hate the media, I hope they tear this apart.
Sad.
you know I thought that maybe, just maybe that the last few months of Bush's administration would be on the upswing. It seemed like everything might be alright last summer. Now with gas prices Higher than ever, the mortgage crisis, and the war it seems that Bush really might give us a huge parting gift in a couple of months. I'm thinking either nuclear dirty bomb or something. This administration has to be the worst presidency in history. I just hope that the midwesterners are the first ones feeling the pain they caused by voting for this fucknut.
What mission is that exactly?
And why?
"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."
That has got to be the lamest excuse I've ever heard. The White House should have some fucking respect for the 4,000+ US Soldiers (not to mention the untold number of civilians) who have been killed since the mission was "accomplished" and not continue to peddle this B.S.
Dana Perino is such a douche.
Abe Lincoln would be proud of Bush extending his legacy of nixing habeas corpus, starting an unnecessary war, and demolishing the Constitution.
The minute he leaves office, his phone stops ringing. Even Dick Cheney's Christmas cards will arrive late, if at all.
1. Price of gasoline tripled
2. Price of crude oil quadruples
3. Oil company prifits at all time high
4. Oil company taxes at all time low
5. Increase in wealth for the richest 1% doubled
6. Defense contractor stocks & profits soaring.
7. Largest shift of wealth away from the middle class to the wealthy in history.
8. Largest reversal of civil rights in our nation's history.
"Mission Accomplished!"
re: bottomless chips
Which "unnecessary war" are you speaking about? The war against the treasonous southern secessionists who violated the Constitution by turning against the United States?
Hmmm... a bunch of very rich white slave owners who were able to convince the poor whites to fight in a bloody war for the right to own slaves by waving the flags of "state's rights" and "southern tradition" in front of them. Not much has changed.
I look at the conservatives and say:
"You hated gays and the environment enough to vote this dick into office!?"
The thing that really boils me at this point is that Dubyah thinks his failure is a funny enough to joke about.
It would be damn hard for another administration to come along and be as incompetent as this fucker was. Good Riddance.
I think you need to investigate the causes of the civil war, how other countries dealt with slavery, and Lincoln's true role---not just what our public middle school history teachers told us.
How do entitlement programs shift wealth from the middle class to the wealthy?
wow, bottomless chips, you just really have the right answer for everything, don't you? wow, wow, wow. do you have a laminated poster of a nude karl rove in your shower too? because that would make sense.
your answer to number 7 alone is the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard. entitlement programs for whom? you must be referring to the capital gains tax cut.
We have trillions of dollars on the books for entitlement programs, yet the income tax only brings in $1T/year. Look at the IRS's records, and you'll see that the income tax, corporate, estate...all the taxes don't bring in enough money to pay for our entitlement programs let alone our $3T war, and $1T/year foreign policy.
So, if you don't have the money, you print it and borrow it (from China).
This debases the currency, and the new money added into the market floats to Wall Street and by the time it gets back down to the lowest class, it's worth less than before. A person making $15,000/year has very limited potential to earn raises for cost of living and, generally, there's little room for advancement. So that person is stuck with 15k a year, while the actual dollar they earn is worth less.
The M1 and M2 indexes proves an increase in money, and the CPI shows how our dollar gets us less.
It's foolish to think that we can afford our current free health care, let alone UHC. This goes for our Pentagon budget, too, and other frivolous programs.
Glad you want to keep the discourse civil and serious. Ah...a good Karl Rove joke at my expense. Do I return the conservative barb and call Barrack Obama by his middle name?
I'm based in reason and fact, buddy.
Read my above answer for why our entitlement programs, social security nets, whatever you want to call him have created a nation where we've begun to wipe out a middle class and create more poorer people.
Apple has had record profits, too. Ever look at oil company's operating budgets?
Since when does what Apple do have any impact on the average consumer? Nobody has to buy a Mac or an iPod. It's all discretionary. The price of gas affects everyone, even those who don't drive. Just check supermarket prices if you don't think so.
What does the budget have to do with anything? We're talking about record profits, not revenue.
Nobody has to buy gas, either. Yes, it's pretty much a way of life for people outside of NYC, and even then you have deliveries and such, but it's not water or food. It's really a problem of the free-market that we haven't come up with a better fuel/energy solution over time. We've been using oil all this time, and never formulated a feasible backup plan. It's not a company's fault that they're in demand.
Say I, as an oil exec, have record profits of $100 million in one quarter. People get outraged. But say my operating expenses were $1B. Now say an upstart dot com recorded a $1MM profit but it's expenses were $1MM.
Who had the greater profit in your eyes? The oil company or the dot com?
And, again, the government makes 40-50 cents on every gallon of gas sold. That's about 1/6th of every gallon sold. Imagine if the government received 1/6th of every iPod sold.
Dana Perino has to be the worst professional liar that this White House has ever employed, and they've gone through a few of them over the years. The little twat actually expects us to believe that the Mission Accompished banner (and Bush's mission accomplished speech) was directed toward the ship that Bush was standing on and not to the war in general? Are you fucking kidding me?
Remember that this is the same White House Press Secretary who didn't know what the CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS WAS! THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS!!!!!
Why bother with the excuses any more? Just tell us we're a bunch of morons for voting for you in the first place and spit on us.
Nobody has to buy gas, either. Yes, it's pretty much a way of life for people outside of NYC, and even then you have deliveries and such, but it's not water or food.
Good god, man, are you really as stupid as you sound? Turn on any news outlet and you'll hear, read or see how high fuel prices are hitting farmers, truckers, delivery vans, airlines, bus lines, even garbage trucks. Do you think everything you buy, use and consume magically grows out of nowhere, comes to you on a flying carpet then disappears without a trace when you're done?
You try to sound like you're intelligent and well-read, but everything you write sounds like conspiracy theories (Lincoln could have avoided the Civil War and let the South go) or being a apologist for the oil companies.
De facto it's necessary, like I said it was (I even pointed out the goods need to be delivered even for "gas-free" New Yorkers), but it's not necessary for survival of man.
Petroleum is finite, so it better not be necessary for us all to live.
My point was that just because gas is more important to us than iPods, doesn't mean that oil companies should have to give away their product at a below market price.
Computers have become a necessary utility in our lives. Cars, too. Should GM and Dell not be able to profit? Should HP be ashamed for being so immoral that they dare charge us more for a computer than it cost to research and produce?
No, of course not. Oil companies shouldn't have to feel guilty and give us cheaper oil and gas, too.
I initially said that this was a good thing, higher oil prices, because: It forces people to start to get more and more serious about a new, alternative energy source.
What's so wrong about that that makes me "sound stupid?"
It's now a conspiracy theory to say that there were other ways that Lincoln could've tried to end slavery? Then again, he never even gave a damn about slavery, just the union. No historian will go on the record saying that Lincoln was a staunch abolitionist.
Do you know how the British ended slavery? Not through a deadly war that made a chasm where we still have some ill will between two regions of our nation some 200 years later.
And, yes, I guess I am an apologist for the oil companies because the whole assault on them is a diversion from reality. People are misplacing their blame.
Hey Bottomless Chips-- didn't I see you on the West 4th platform handing out your handmade fliers of this nonsense, kind of aggressively?
I talked to your mom, and she wants you to start taking your meds again. I lied and told her you weren't barefoot, but technically, only wearing one shoe (and on the wrong foot!) isn't 'wearing shoes', if you get my drift.
Anyway-- get well soon!
If I'm so wrong, you should be easily able to refute my statements with facts, right?
Alas, you stoop so low to have to make fun of my parents. I'm sure your parents are proud that their kid is essentially name-calling on the Internet.
Okay. Here's where you're wrong. You're wrong about everything. I didn't make fun of your parents; I'm actually quite fond of your mom. Like her and your friend, we're all three very concerned about you.
Please, Bottom. Please. Take your meds. Those voices in your head won't go away by themselves. And that shoe? It really does go on the other foot.
xox,
Megs
Keep blaming oil companies and Bush for all of our problems, megs, and see what that accomplishes.
Grow up and look a little further into the issues before trying to mock people.
*I didn't vote for Bush if that makes you feel better and will stop your odd putdowns. Mom jokes? Seriously? That's your attempt at clever humor?