Another bad Mission Accomplished explanation.
Another bad Mission Accomplished explanation.
War Room’s Tim Grieve notes that White House spokeswoman Dana Perino emphasized today that President Bush never used the words “Mission Accomplished” — but then argued “we did prevail.”
PERINO: Let me just remind everybody, in case you need it, that speech there, I encourage people to read it. The president never said ‘mission accomplished.’ I realize that the banner said ‘mission accomplished.’ That was specific to the mission of that ship. They were supposed to be deployed for six months. They were deployed well beyond that. [...]
Q: He did say: “In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”
PERINO: We did prevail, in terms of toppling the Iraqi army and Saddam Hussein. And several months later, 12 million Iraqis voted for a new government and a constitution. And things looked very promising.
UPDATE: Dan Froomkin reminds us: “About a month after his appearance on the flight deck, Bush traveled to Qatar, where he told troops: ‘America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished.’”
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PARSING WORDS IS BULLSH!T
May 1st, 2007 at 2:00 pm“And things looked very promising.” In a removed-from-reality sort of way.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:00 pmAhhhh, so we succeeded
before we failed
May 1st, 2007 at 2:01 pm“That was specific to the mission of that ship”
HAHAHAHAHA
May 1st, 2007 at 2:01 pmPerino is a goddamn liar. I can’t provide a link, but I do remember reading an article about how the ‘mission accomplished’ banner was decided upon, etc. The point is, the banner had nothing to do with that ship. That is a bold faced lie. Do these people have no shame? Is everything just a game to them? Anything you can do, I can do better, I can do anything better than you? Personally, I am sick and tired of our great country being run by a bunch of lying spoiled brats.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:02 pmI realize that the banner said ‘mission accomplished.’ That was specific to the mission of that ship.
Wait, wait, wait just one second here. ValianttheVerile stated that it was Tommy Frank’s idea to put the banner up there, in another thread
The White House admitted it was their idea, years back.
Now it’s about the mission of the ship? Gawd, the circle is complete.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:03 pmCan they, the administration, just stick to one lie?
“major combat operations are over” only 168 soldiers dead…
May 1st, 2007 at 2:04 pmwhy are we still there?
But of course, you liberals never wanted us to win in Iraq.
STFU you scum.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:04 pmThere was a big freaking banner. Get a grip, liars.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:04 pmWe did prevail, in terms of toppling the Iraqi army and Saddam Hussein.
Fried baloney. Everyone knew at the time that Saddam’s forces would fold, and a guerrilla war would commence. There has been no ending of combat operations, on either side.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:04 pm“And things looked very promising.” – - And then reality bit.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:05 pmAnother crock o’ crap brought to you by your ffffing admiserystration.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:06 pm….and who the f*uck ever said that our Thief in Charge ever uttered those words?
It was implied, right when the ship turned away from the harbor in San Diego, to make it look like it was far out to sea.
But we all know he never said those words.
He did say that major combat was over, which also implies, mission accomplished.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:06 pmVictory has been achieved, send the troops home now!
It all depends on what the meaning of the words Mission Accomplished is.
Ha….what a pack of losers. Drugged out perverts, dry drunks, bloated, sneering goons with bad aim, flaccid and self important jerks with bad dance moves, balding and arrogant windbags with erectile dysfunction, war-mongering keyboard commandos with disdain for crime victims, doe-eye relgious zealots without any knowledge of the US Constitution, unmarried, childless defenders of family values.
The Republican Party, the losers we always knew they were.
-GSD
May 1st, 2007 at 2:08 pm(yawn)
May 1st, 2007 at 2:08 pmdid firepants post something that would lead to quality debate, even if from opposing ideas?
No? Didn’t think so
“And things looked very promising.â€
She said, before belting out a couple of verses of “The Way We Were.”
May 1st, 2007 at 2:09 pmAnd things looked very promising…
‘Looked’ being the operative word. That was then, this is now.
Lies, revisionism, rhetoric, & CRS (can’t remember shit) seem to be the operating principles to this day.
Nothing has changed except the mood in America. These spoiled, soiled brats still think lying to Americans is an honorable plan. It never was, never should be & you’re going to pay!
Time for impeachment, time for some honesty out of the most corrupt administration this country has ever witnessed.
Book the bastards, the jig’s up.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:09 pmUh. What do you expect from a spokesman/spokeswoman.?Their job is to spin and lie.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:09 pm“Can they, the administration, just stick to one lie?”
While I hate to ascribe to evil what can be explained by stupidity, I am reminded of what Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote regarding the character of Iago in Shakespeare’s /Othello/. If you recall the play Iago never really offers one definitive REASON why he hates Othello, but kinda throws different reasons around, a lot. Coleridge referred to this, in a memorable phrase, as “The motive-hunting of motiveless Malignity.”
I know it’s a stretch to go from reality (whatever THAT is) to literature, but I think there’s an interesting parallel there.
Dubya is far less multifaceted a character than Iago.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:09 pm“And things looked very promising.”
I’m reminded of the Car Talk guys. Once in awhile they run stories about people doing really stupid things – blowing up cars with dynamite, going over a waterfall in a garbage barrel, etc. It’s like a Darwin Awards kind of thing, and the antics always end badly for the daredevil: death or dismemberment or worse. The punch line is that right up till the last second, these idiots thought that everything was hunky dory, illustrated by last words such as “hey, watch this!’”
Codpiece Day is shaping up to be an annual rite where a nation remembers the time it crawled into the barrel with a moron and tossed itself over the falls.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:10 pmBut of course, you liberals never wanted us to win in Iraq.
STFU you scum.
Comment by firehead — May 1, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
Actually, we never wanted us to LOSE in Iraq which is why we were out protesting before we were led down this path. If you were suggesting that the war would be a good thing then YOU are partly responsible for all of the death and carnage that has ensued.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:18 pmThe banner “related to the mission of the ship.”
And the mission of the ship was to make the CinC look tough.
“Mission accomplished.”
May 1st, 2007 at 2:21 pmPerino: “……things ‘looked’ very promising”
(past tense…………..)
May 1st, 2007 at 2:21 pmIt’s interesting that “parsing words” was bad when Fmr-Pres. Clinton did it, but it’s good when Pres. bush does it.
Republicans have never wanted the terrorists stopped. It would ruin their catch-all excuse for any extremism they cared for!
al Quida supports Pres. Bush!!! Pres. Bush has done more to help recruiting for al Quida than anyone ever before!
May 1st, 2007 at 2:25 pmThe ship was undergoing a galley rennovation; the ‘mission accomplished banner’ was referring to regarding the final installation of the Corian counters.
Why do liberals hate american kitchen rennovation?
May 1st, 2007 at 2:25 pmBut of course, you liberals never wanted us to win in Iraq.
The liberals NEVER wanted me to go INTO Iraq, but FIND OSAMA!
And I told them “He’s NOT important” after “Dead or Alive!!”.
So, the liberals were RIGHT, my Nazi azz-licker FIREHEAD!!
So, WHEN are YOU going to Iraq to DIE for my LIES, azz-licker???
Right, another COWARD like ME…
See YOU in hell firehead/jake/ma54 (cause I’LL be THERE),
Mr. Bush
MURDEROUS WAR CRIMINAL
COXUCKER PUNK TRAITOR TO THE USA (TM–BushCrimeCo, Inc.)
P.S. Keep LICKING, boy!!!
May 1st, 2007 at 2:28 pmIn his remarks here, Bush asked, “I have a question for you: Can you hear me now?” His audience erupted.
“America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished,” he said. Despite growing doubts at home and abroad, he reiterated that troops would find weapons of mass destruction, which were his rationale for striking first at Iraq.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-06-05-bush-qatar_x.htm
Firehead it was a mission to free oppressed people, see? not a war on terrorism. Bush and his planners messed up big time, if you want o be angry at someone for a botched democratic experiment/war/freedomoperation/WMDhunt you should look no farther than the CIC.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:32 pmAgain I ask: why you act surprised? Perino is full of shit, but don’t tell me you’ve actually taken any spokesman/woman seriously? They are professional liars and some of them, like Scotty, do a beautiful job obfuscating and deflecting topics that aren’t worth discussing.
Have some respect for professionals!
May 1st, 2007 at 2:33 pmIt is hugely funny (in a “here they go again” sort of way) that any Bushman can claim that the “Mission Accomplished” banner was anything but a Bush p.r. prop. The carrier was left at sea, rather than reaching dock in a short time, and turned so that video would show the sea and not land in the background. Bush dons his codpiece and lands on the carrier with the videographers there ready to record the landing. Now, it stands to reason that if Bush’s advance people did not explicitly place that banner, then they let it stay up when they could easily have ordered it down.
So, Bush did USE the words “mission accomplished”, even if he didn’t SPEAK them.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:35 pmI’m glad she put THAT one to rest.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:36 pmSo please write to your senators, representatives, governors, state representatives, and mayors in support of impeachment! I just did, for the second time. Can we get the grass roots steamroller moving along?
(but you have to admit, Perino is kind of hot! Just find something to stick in her mouth to shut her up!)
May 1st, 2007 at 2:37 pmOn the anniversary of President Bush’s declaration of “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq, here’s a look back at four years of Republican talking points to sell the war and demonize Democrats:
May 1st, 2007 at 2:37 pm“Mission Accomplished: 4 Years of GOP Iraq Talking Points.”
Then why did the USA Gov’t make a sign for the ship?
Seems kind of odd.
LOL
May 1st, 2007 at 2:38 pmNice tray, Airhead Perino! Sure, he may never have “said” mission accomplished but the subliminal programming of the words on a huge banner behind the Chip said it all! Get a life or you’ll be getting cancer soon with all of the lying you’re doing, bleachie! Maybe all of the bleach is finally seeping through your scalp into your grey matter; that is, if you even have any up there.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:40 pmTo view these old clips of the Shrub in uniform is excruciatingly painful and yet offers necessary “comic relief”. He looks like the quintessential buffon doing it with the banner overhead as though he’s acting in a movie. To him, that’s all it’s ever been…..a B Movie!
May 1st, 2007 at 2:41 pmIt was specific to the mission of the ship, oh, ok, I got it now. For a couple years there, I was under a different impression.
/sarcasm
May 1st, 2007 at 2:42 pmWhat a bunch of quacks….thugs….liars and thieves! One lies and the other swears to it. If it didn’t mean the end of this country, it would actually be good comedy…..
May 1st, 2007 at 2:42 pmChimpy also said all major combat operations has been completed.
Bush is a psychopathic, alcoholic war criminal.
So, is everyone in the Bush Crime Family.
Everyone in the Bush administration are liars and they all should be indicted on War Crimes Against Humanity.
When is this great country going to wake up! The fucking Media in this country are complicit in the crimes that are taking place.
Are we all going to wake up someday and have a Military Police State.
When is the next damn provocation? This administration caused 9/11.
I love my country but fear my governmnet. We have met the enemy and he is us.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:46 pmYes we Pre-veiled are fute atrosities.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:54 pmHe pretended to fly a plane, he pretended the ship was out to sea, he pretened the war was won – now he’s pretending it’s not a lost cause.
What a jerk! He broke the military, he broke FEMA, he broke the Justice Department and Lord know what else we haven’t discovered yet. Sure makes removing the letter ‘w’ from a computer keyboard look like a harmless prank.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:56 pmWhat a crock! Presidential appearances are staged events. Every single image in every shot is orchestrated in detail. There is no way in hell he would have been positioned with that “Mission Accomplished ” banner in the background if it had nothing to do with the message they wished to convey.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:56 pmBush reiterated his “Mission Accomplished” statement to the troops at Camp As Sayliyah on June 5, 2003 — about a month after the aircraft carrier incident: “America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished.”
May 1st, 2007 at 2:56 pmHow absolutely hollow is that woman’s head? A fifth grader could have at least come up with Mission Accomplished for Regime Change.Did she say that just to sanitize the President’s record? What a stooge, a cute stooge, but still a stooge.
May 1st, 2007 at 2:59 pmPublished on Sunday, September 26, 2004 by Reuters
Bush: Would Give ‘Mission Accomplished’ Speech Again
CRAWFORD, Texas – President Bush said he had no regrets about donning a flight suit to give his “Mission Accomplished” speech on Iraq 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.
May 1st, 2007 at 3:03 pmMission of the ship?!?! The ship was in San Diego harbor, the speech was as empty as the codpiece he was wearing. What a bunch of liars!
May 1st, 2007 at 3:05 pmThat tight-ass Preino reminds me of Angela on The Office.
May 1st, 2007 at 3:08 pmI’m still waiting for the day that Allan Funt steps out from wherever he’s been hiding for the past seven years to tell us that this whole administration has just been a carefully-orchestrated Candid Camera prank.
May 1st, 2007 at 3:13 pmPerhaps Bush didn’t actually utter those words. That would involve the use of more than two syllables.
May 1st, 2007 at 3:14 pm…And so Scott Sforza came aboard several days before the president was due to touch down on the Lincoln to work out the dozens of small details that would create a truly memorable photo op. Take the lighting, for example. Sforza concluded that the president would look best, look more heroic, in the more muted sunshine of the late afternoon then he would in the harsh light of midday. And so the event was scheduled for the late afternoon. And then there was the question of the ship’s proximity to land. Originally, the White House had argued that a helicopter entrance would not have been possible because the ship was too far out to sea. But it turned out that the Lincoln had moved faster than planned, and on May 1, it was only 45 kilometers off the coast of San Diego, well within helicopter range. But nothing would be allowed to get in the way of the picture of the president, in full battle gear, landing mid-ocean aboard an S-3 Viking fighter jet. It simply required turning the Lincoln away from land, so the cameras would see nothing but sea and sky behind Mr. Bush, rather than the looming skyline of San Diego.
…The exterior of the four-seat Navy S-3B Viking was marked with “Navy 1″ in the back and “George W. Bush Commander-in-Chief” just below the cockpit window. On the plane’s tail was the insignia of the squadron, the “Blue Wolves.”
…”Yes, I flew it. Yeah, of course, I liked it,” said Bush, who was an F-102 fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard after graduating from Yale University in 1968.
…Bush wanted to swoop onto the deck of the Lincoln aboard an F-18 Hornet, but the Secret Service nixed the idea — they didn’t like leaving the president unguarded in a fighter jet that only has space for the president and a pilot.
…No president in the 20th century, not even Dwight Eisenhower, a legitimate five-star general, had ever been photographed wearing a military uniform. But this president was different. Michael Deaver, who had created so many compelling images for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, was suitably impressed. “Somebody’s got a good eye over there,” he told the New York Times two weeks later. “They understand they have to build a set. … They understand that what’s around the head is just as important as the head.” Chris Mathews, a host on MSNBC, called it “the best presidential picture in years.”
May 1st, 2007 at 3:19 pmToasterhead you just got Punked, OK I just woke up, and it isn’t all a bad dream. We’re F@#%&$!
May 1st, 2007 at 3:20 pm“PERINO: We did prevail”
… then why are we still there?
“And things looked very promising.”
May 1st, 2007 at 3:29 pm… then maybe we should sue for breach of promise?
This is just like saying Bush never linked Saddam to 9/11. All he did was to mention them both in the same sentence, time after time after time. But he didn’t actually link the two. In salesmanship it’s called the use of inference.
It’s a way to weasel out of a misrepresentation charge.
May 1st, 2007 at 3:29 pmRove and company have a PhD in wordsmithing. Words spoken by Bush Administration officials are carefully chosen to imply hidden meanings, then pundits are used to spread the hidden meanings. This allows officials to later hide behind the actual words used and deny any responsibility for the intended interpretations.
May 1st, 2007 at 3:39 pmThat was specific to the mission of that ship.
yes, thanks for waiting four years to give us that bit of context.
let’s get dana’s take on some other bushco classics…
bring ‘em on
the “‘em” there refers to the LOVERS OF FREEDOM!
last throes
what cheney actually said was “last throws” – meaning the insurgents were just warming up, like a relief pitcher about to come into a baseball game.
we know where the wmds are
May 1st, 2007 at 3:44 pmwell, we do. we still have the receipts!
Sounds like Orwell’s Animal Farm when the pigs keep modifying the rules painted on the wall.
May 1st, 2007 at 3:49 pmwhy are these jokers still in office?
May 1st, 2007 at 4:00 pmWhy wasn’t she then asked:
May 1st, 2007 at 4:29 pm“So do all ships returning home get a nifty ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner?”
Ms Perino is obviously finding other applications for her lipstick….
May 1st, 2007 at 4:47 pmpre·vail /prɪˈveɪl/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[pri-veyl] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation
1. to be or prove superior in strength, power, or influence (usually fol. by over): They prevailed over their enemies in the battle.
Hmmm…Let me see…
a) We are stronger, yet we have a decided advantage because the enemy has little to lose…
b) It serves no strategic advantage for the U.S.
c) It is costing thousands of military and civilian deaths
d) Is being corrupted and mislabeled as a national Security risk…
Hmmmm…VIETNAM anyone? It is too bad that the communist threat thatwas preached over and over again did not materialize and yet, we have no visible enemy within Vietnam currently?
2. to succeed; become dominant; win out: to wish that the right side might prevail.
Well that would be accurate. BUSH is certainly wishing, yet he keeps forgetting ONE THING! HE IS AN IDIOT AND A COWARD, and has NO EXPERIENCE in warfare.
a) Dominance is a strategy and a concept of winning before the battle is fought. So there goes that advantage.
b) Good commanders know when they are at an impass. They will withdraw and regroup to fight differently. Dayum, I forgot who I was talking about! Therefore, we have NO PLAN, NO STRATEGY, NO VICTORY…
c) The HATED are the least trusted, and so it often falls to others to clean up the mess they created. This is not know, since DADDY BUSH has been covering for his SCREW_UP of a son for so long…
May 1st, 2007 at 4:49 pmLet’s go back to the 90’s and review some of Osama bin Laden’s list of demands.
U.S. Military bases out of Saudi Arabia? Check.
Remove the secular dictator from power in Iraq? Check.
More recruits for al Qaeda? Check.
Yes, one could make a cogent argument that George W. Bush supports terrorism.
May 1st, 2007 at 4:57 pmIt all depends on what the definition of “is” is.
Right wingers??!
This administration is a disgrace to the entire world.
May 1st, 2007 at 5:32 pmPres Bush:
The mission was accomplished before it wasn’t!
May 2nd, 2007 at 12:03 amPres Bush:
‘Mission Accomplished’ referred to my safe landing on that carrier.
May 2nd, 2007 at 3:26 am