Mission Accomplished

Today is the third anniversary of the infamous 'Mission Accomplished' photo-op.



The President (unintentionally?) used the occassion to reassure Americans that we are turning the corner in Iraq... again. Perhaps we should be moving forward instead of just walking around the block. The President spoke of "tough days ahead" but stated the Iraqi government is "more determined than ever to succeed." He also continued to play up this war as part of the war on terror. Is that rhetorical sleight of hand still selling? Just curious. Of course, as course the AP article notes, this is a 'decidedly less positive message than the one he offered from aboard an aircraft carrier' three years ago.

Josh Marshall, I believe, perfectly sums up that disaster of a photo-op:

I think this will go down as the symbol of the Bush administration -- like Carter's malaise speech, Bush's father with the carton of milk, LBJ falling on his metaphorical sword in a nationally televised address. It captures everything. The arrogance. The dingbat personality cult. The fleeting triumph of Potemkin stagecraft over tangible accomplishment. The happy willingness to let others take care of the president's messes.

It is on that last note- the willingness to leave his mess to others- that I am again reminded of the press conference the President gave last month on the third anniversary of the invasion. Asked about when he planned to remove U.S. forces from Iraq, Bush said that decision "will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq" and the proceeded to blame the media for reporting on all the bad news.

Mission accomplished indeed.

Think Progress has a good comparison of numbers between May 1 in 2003 and in 2006. The number of U.S. soldiers killed at that point in 2003 was 139; the amount killed at this point is 2,400. Tne number wounded then was 542; the total wounded now is 17,469. The number of insurgents then was around 5,000; the number now is around 15,000-20,000. The total cost to taxpayers then was $79 billion; the total cost thus far is now $320 billion and climbing.

Given all of that, is it any surprise that doubts are growing over whether any success can be found in Iraq?

On the more surreal end of this anniversary is a look back at the media coverage of the event from 2003, courtesy of Media Matters. That darn ol' liberal media, in addition to joining the President in declaring full-out victory in Iraq, also heaped mighty (and somewhat lusty) praise upon the Commander-In-Chief who just wanted to stage a nice photo for his reelection campaign personally flew a jet onto that carrier after his successful combat tour in Iraq. Here's a snippet from the May 1, 2003, edition of 'Hardball'-

MATTHEWS: Do you think this role, and I want to talk politically [...], the president deserves everything he's doing tonight in terms of his leadership. He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics. Do you think he is defining the office of the presidency, at least for this time, as basically that of commander in chief? That [...] if you're going to run against him, you'd better be ready to take [that] away from him...

...Here's a president who's really nonverbal. He's like Eisenhower. He looks great in a military uniform. He looks great in that cowboy costume he wears when he goes West.

Read the whole writeup at the link above. Chris Matthews' obsession later on with Bush's package is scary. On the May 1 edition of 'Countdown', Matthews told Keith Olbermann that "Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president." Yeeesh, get a room, Chris!

Even CBS' Bob Schieffer said "As far as I'm concerned, that was one of the great pictures of all time." Indeed. That photo will remain a testament the incompetent and deadly style-over-substance governing of George W. Bush.

Chris Matthews may like having a cowboy President, but the rest of us wanted a grown-up.