W Would Do "Mission Accomplished" All Over Again!

[Nbadan]

President Bush (news - web sites) said he had no regrets about donning a flight suit to give his "Mission Accomplished" speech on Iraq (news - web sites) in May 2003 and would do it all over again if he had the chance, according to excerpts from an television interview released on Sunday.

When asked by Fox News if he still would have put on a flight suit to declare major combat operations in Iraq over, Bush replied, "Absolutely." When Bush gave his May 1 speech fewer than 150 Americans had died in the war. Since then more than 900 have died.

The interview is to air on Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor" on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, just before Bush and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) face off in their first televised debate on Thursday.

Amid a rising U.S. death toll and a rash of abductions and beheadings in Iraq, some members of Bush's own Republican Party have criticized him for not doing enough to secure insurgent areas in Iraq sooner.

Yahoo (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20040926/pl_nm/campaign_bush_mission_dc)


Who's delusional now Aggie?

[Spurminator]

Clearly, this is a crucial development in the campaign.

[SpursWoman]

Bush says in an interview to be aired Monday on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" that he "absolutely" would have repeated the announcement, saying he was saying thanks to the troops.

[SpursWoman]

Here's his actual speech from that day. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/iraq/20030501-15.html)




Thank you all very much. 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. (Applause.) And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.

...

We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We're bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. We're pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime, who will be held to account for their crimes. We've begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated. We're helping to rebuild Iraq, where the dictator built palaces for himself, instead of hospitals and schools. And we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by, and for the Iraqi people. (Applause.)

...

The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done. Then we will leave, and we will leave behind a free Iraq. (Applause.)

...


Our mission continues. Al Qaeda is wounded, not destroyed. The scattered cells of the terrorist network still operate in many nations, and we know from daily intelligence that they continue to plot against free people. The proliferation of deadly weapons remains a serious danger. The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither are we. Our government has taken unprecedented measures to defend the homeland. And we will continue to hunt down the enemy before he can strike. (Applause.)

The war on terror is not over; yet it is not endless. We do not know the day of final victory, but we have seen the turning of the tide. No act of the terrorists will change our purpose, or weaken our resolve, or alter their fate. Their cause is lost. Free nations will press on to victory. (Applause.)


Yeah, it sure sounds like he had them all checking out of the Iraq Hilton.


:shootme

[Spurminator]

Too often, people pretend to be complete and total morons so they can interpret anything said or implied by an enemy politician (or hung in the background) to have the worst (and therefore, easiest to bitch about) possible meaning.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Well anyone's delusional when stupid liberals put words in their mouths for them.

Here's a little espousing on Iraq...


Let's talk numbers. The war in Iraq is not going well. Or at least that is the conventional wisdom.

So there are 25 million or more Iraqis, probably at least 30 million.

And we have 200,000 troops on the ground. Who are not engaged in heavy full scale fighting, but mainly in patrolling, training, security operations, and an occasional operation against pockets of resistance.

A quagmire, if you listen to the news media.

So, if TEN percent of the Iraqis wanted to do us deadly harm, do you not think that 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 people could not kill or injure more than one or two people a day? Could they not make a serious dent in a hurry to our forces? If their were full scale combat going on, would not the pictures be splashed all over the evening news as they were in Vietnam???

The Iraqi President says that 15 of the 18 provinces, or states are basically pacified.

If this was A & M, we could talk about the 2%ers who never agree with anyone else on campus.

So, if we project just two percent of the populas as 2%ers, that would be, say 500,000 to 600,000 people, or three times larger than our ground troops. Actually, that approches the numbers of people actively working with us in the government, their new security forces, police, fire, and school teachers, sanitation workers, and others that are working actively to pull this country together. Again, if even a half a million were actively opposing us, we would have a much larger problem than is currently being reported.

So, what is the best estimate of the total numbers of terrorist, thugs, criminals, jihadist, religeous nuts, power hungry opportunist and street punks out their for themselves and their own enrichment? The best estimates are from 15,000 to 25,000 active "problem" people.

So that is between 0.00083% and 0.0001%, or between 83/1000th and 1/100th of ONE per cent. Saddam released three times that from his prisons just before the invasion. We have larger numbers than that in hard core criminals in DC and New York City, with a lower population base.

You do not generally see the press run screaming from these towns calling them ungovernerable and that our "occupation" of DC or NYC has failed and that we need to throw in the towel and withdraw from these areas.

Now I will admit that in Sweden, that the middle eastern immigrants have taken over Malmo, the third largest city in Sweden, and the police there have been proven to be unable to handle the gang rapes, and general nastyness of people who have not been raised to respect the law. Which makes the contrast that much more stark.

Where the policies of the "enlightened" Swedes is creating chaos in their own country, our policies in Iraq have stabilized 99.99917%
of that country.

Methinks the Democrats are like chicken little, crying that the sky is falling when it has not. And unlike them, I can count. The population which is with us is 29,975,000 and those that are opposed are 25,000. I think we are winning.

Who's delusional now, Dannyboy?

[Nbadan]

Perhaps all your argument would have more weight if W. hadn't tried to declare the war over three times now. Once during the Mission Accomplished Photo-opt, once when the new U.S. appointed governing Council was appointed and then again when the U.S.-appointed council ushered in Allawi. Each time the fighting in Iraq just got worse.

When the fighting first started, the Bushiveks said that it was a couple of thousand dead-enders following Al-Sadr. When the fighting spread to Fallujah, Najaf, and Hafah the Bushiveks said it was 5,000 enemy combatants at the most. The latest assessment is 25,000 fighters. I would say major combat operations have just started.

[Nbadan]

Too often, people pretend to be complete and total morons so they can interpret anything said or implied by an enemy politician (or hung in the background) to have the worst (and therefore, easiest to bitch about) possible meaning.

Works both ways Sperminator. The sign didn't say 'thank you troops', it said 'Mission accomplished' you can and probably will interpret that to mean whatever you want, but there is little use in arguing over the perception the sign meant to convey. When you combine that with the statement 'major combat operations in Iraq are over' I think its a pretty clear indication W. thought that the only thing left to do in Iraq were mop up operations, which is clearly not the case.

[Spurminator]

you can and probably will interpret that to mean whatever you want, but there is little use in arguing over the perception the sign meant to convey.

My sentiments exactly, so why does the Left keep bringing it up?

[Joe Chalupa]

It was a PR stunt and a good photo op for Bush.

I"m not questioning his "sincerity" towards the troops but I strongly believe it was for show. Come on now, he IS a politician you know.

[Yonivore]

The Iraqi Army was defeated in 21 days. Probably one of the greatest military victories in history...

That mission WAS accomplished...the Ba'athist regime was defeated; utterly and completely...they're not coming back.