SAN DIEGO, CA. Remember when? It was five years ago today, when President Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, floating right off San Diego’s coast, and had his infamous “Mission Accomplished” moment. President Bush, dressed in a flight suit, had landed on the deck of the carrier and declared an end to major military operations in Iraq. Mainstream media reporters rushed to report that the Bush administration was “planning to withdraw most United States combat forces from Iraq over the next several months.”
White House press secretary Dana Perino said yesterday, April 30th, that:
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.
Take a look at what major media pundits declared over the following days after Mission Accomplished back in May 2003. Here’s an example:Chris Matthews on MSNBC called Bush a “hero” and boomed, “He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics.”
PBS’ Gwen Ifill said Bush was “part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan.” On NBC, Brian Williams gushed, “The pictures were beautiful. It was quite something to see the first-ever American president on a — on a carrier landing. This must be very meaningful to the United States military.” When Bush’s jet landed on an aircraft carrier, American casualties stood at 139 killed and 542 wounded. [Go here to see more of that outrageous media coverage.]
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