since Bill Pullman played the jet fighter pilot in the movie Independence Day.” Media Matters looks back at the media’s fawning coverage of Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech.
9%.
Percentage of Americans who believe the mission in Iraq has been accomplished.
‘Mission Accomplished’ By The Numbers
On May 1, 2003, President Bush stood underneath a “Mission Accomplished” banner and announced that “Major combat operations have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”
Here’s a look at the situation then compared to the situation now, by the numbers:
| May 1, 2003 | Today | |
| U.S. Troops Wounded | 542 | 17,469 |
| U.S. Troops Killed |
139 | 2,400 |
| Size of U.S. Forces | 150,000 | 132,000 |
| Size of Iraqi Security Forces |
7,000-9000 | 250,500 |
| Number of Insurgents | 5,000 | 15,000-20,000 |
| Insurgent Attacks Per Day | 8 | 75 |
| Cost to U.S. Taxpayers | $79 billion | $320 billion |
| Approval of Bush’s Handling of Iraq | 75% | 37% |
| Percentage of Americans who Believe The Iraq War Was “Worth Fighting” | 70% | 41% |
| Bush’s Overall Job Approval | 71% | 38% |
ThinkFast: May 1, 2006
“There’re some dumb ideas in this,” Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) said of the conservative plan to ease the pain of high gas prices, such as handing out $100 rebate checks. Aides to conservative senators “reported a surge of calls and e-mail messages from constituents ridiculing the rebate as a paltry and transparent effort to pander to voters.”
On Saturday — two days prior to the three-year anniversary of “Mission Accomplished” — the “top U.S. general on the ground in Iraq warned…that a surge in violence was likely in coming months.”
In 2003, President Bush supported an executive order requiring all agencies and “any other entity within the executive branch” to provide an annual accounting of their document classification. But Vice President Cheney continues to insist that he’s exempt from the rule.
Bruce Springsteen plays New Orleans at “the biggest musical happening since Katrina struck last summer.” “I saw sights I never thought I’d see in an American city,” he said. “The criminal ineptitude makes you furious.” He then “launched into a song titled ‘How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?’ and dedicated the song to ‘President Bystander.’”
Tens of thousands rally to stop the genocide in Darfur. (See photos.) “With tears in his eyes,” one Sudanese refugee who came to the U.S. six years ago said: “I’m personally moved by the way the American people are supporting us.” Read more
