Progressive Democrat Issue 74: FROM MISSION ACCOMPLISHED TO THE FOREVER WAR IN THREE YEARS

This week was the third anniversary of Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech, quite possibly the dumbest speeches in American History. Since then, the quagmire has stretched on and on and there is no end in sight.
Let's reflect on then and now...

May 1st, 2003, in the New York Times (via Editor and Publisher):

By Elisabeth Bumiller
WASHINGTON, May 1 -- President Bush's made-for-television address tonight on the carrier Abraham Lincoln was a powerful, Reaganesque finale to a six-week war. But beneath the golden images of a president steaming home with his troops toward the California coast lay the cold political and military realities that drove Mr. Bush's advisers to create the moment.

The president declared an end to major combat operations, White House, Pentagon and State Department officials said, for three crucial reasons: to signify the shift of American soldiers from the role of conquerors to police, to open the way for aid from countries that refused to help militarily and -- above all -- to signal to voters that Mr. Bush is shifting his focus from Baghdad to concerns at home….

''This is the formalization that tells everybody we're not engaged in combat anymore, we're prepared for getting out,'' a senior administration official said….

Three years ago we were "ready to pull out..." Well, as pointed out by the Editor and Publisher article as well:

When Bush spoke, the U.S. had 150,000 troops in Iraq; the number now stands at 132,000. American casualties at the time were 139 killed and 542 wounded. Today those numbers are more than 2,400 killed and 17,000 wounded.

How do you spell Bush Failure? I-R-A-Q...though some are ready to replace that "Q" with an "N."

But even our government has admitted to this failure when in April they re-named this war the "Forever War. (Okay...Forever War is my term for it...they call it the "Long War.")

Here's what I had to say last month about the renamed war:

Make no mistake. This rebranding of the war is the clearest admission of failure this administration has ever made. It is a desperate move indicating that they have no idea what they are doing. Some generals always wanted to fight the real war, the war on al Qaeda, and can't believe we pissed it all away by invading Iraq. Some generals want to cut and run, because they know we are barrelling down the same path we did in Vietnam only writ larger. Most of the world now looks at us with loathing, wondering what kind of idiots we are. Halliburton doesn't care what we call it as long as the war is a long, LONG war...a war that will forever fill their coffers and the coffers of Exxon and Bechtel until their CEOs are drowning in dollars.

And you know who else sees this as the Forever war and is pleased as punch at every single move Bush has made since the decision to invade? Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. Bush has been their gift from Allah--an Americn President who fits exactly the caricature of America that they portray. Bush and bin Laden, who know many of the same people, are both thrilled to have the Forever War.

Don't forget to write your "Mission NOT Accomplished" letter to the editor today or tomorrow.

I think this might be a good place to suggest supporting some Fighting Dems so we can get some people who REALLY know what it's like in office, replacing some of these inept, Chicken Hawk failures.

Or just donate to Band of Brothers PAC and Impeach PAC.

In three years Bush has led us from victory to perpetual war…it’s time for us to say “no.”