May 1, 2003, 20 years ago: Just 41 days after sending American troops into Iraq to remove the government of dictator Saddam Hussein, President George W. Bush announces, "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."
At the time, it was a justifiable statement. What was not justified was the hoopla around it.
Bush had flown with the Texas Air National Guard in the closing months of the Vietnam War. On this day, Bush became the 1st sitting President to arrive in an "arrested landing" in a "fixed-wing aircraft" on an aircraft carrier, when he was flown (not as the pilot) onto the USS Abraham Lincoln in a Lockheed S-3 Viking, dubbed Navy One, as the carrier lay just off the coast of San Diego, having returned from combat operations in the Persian Gulf.
(Ordinarily, any plane bearing the President of the United States carries the designation Air Force One, not just the jumbo jet that usually flies him where he needs to go. And any helicopter that carries the President is Marine One. This time, because it was a Navy jet, it got the designation Navy One.)
Bush posed for photographs with pilots and members of the ship's crew, while still wearing a flight suit that was necessary for travel aboard the fighter jet. A few hours later, he gave a speech announcing the end of major combat operations in the Iraq War. Behind and above him hung a banner that said "Mission Accomplished."
Bush was criticized for the historic jet landing on the carrier, as an overly theatrical and expensive stunt. For instance, it was pointed out that the carrier was well within range of Bush's helicopter, and that a jet landing was not needed. Originally, the White House had stated that the carrier was too far off the California coast for a helicopter landing, and a jet would be needed to reach it. On the day of the speech, the Lincoln was only 30 miles from shore, but the Administration still decided to go ahead with the jet landing.
The "Mission Accomplished" banner was a focal point of controversy and criticism. Navy Commander and Pentagon spokesman Conrad Chun said the banner referred specifically to the aircraft carrier's 10-month deployment, which was the longest deployment of a carrier since the Vietnam War, 30 years earlier; and not the war itself. Chun said, "It truly did signify a mission accomplished for the crew."
The White House claimed that the banner was requested by the crew of the ship, who did not have the facilities for producing such a banner. Afterward, the Administration and Navy sources stated that the banner was the Navy's idea, White House staff members made the banner, and it was hung by the U.S. Navy personnel.
Whether meant for the crew or not, the general impression created by the image of Bush under the banner was criticized as premature, especially later as the guerrilla war began. Subsequently, the White House released a statement saying that the sign and Bush's visit referred to the initial invasion of Iraq.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered any mention of "Mission Accomplished" removed from Bush's speech. Later, Rumsfeld told journalist Bob Woodward, "I was in Baghdad, and I was given a draft of that thing to look at. And I just died, and I said, 'My God, it's too conclusive.' And I fixed it, and sent it back... They fixed the speech, but not the sign."
Bush ran for re-election in 2004, in part, on the Iraq War. He won. The Republican Party went into the 2006 elections, in part, on the Iraq War. They lost both houses of Congress, and Rumsfeld resigned.
Senator John McCain ran as the Republicans' nominee for President in 2008, with winning the Iraq War as a major part of his platform. He lost, because the American people didn't want to do what it would take to win the war. They just wanted it to be over.
Senator Barack Obama promised voters that, if they elected him, he would end the war, and they elected him. On December 31, 2011, President Barack Obama pulled the last remaining combat troops out of Iraq. A year later, he ran for re-election partly on that basis, and he won.
The "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" banner is now in the collection of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. It is not on display.
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