The Mission was accomplished the very day, the very minute in fact, that we captured Saddam Hussein hiding in that spider hold next to that hut.

Can you imagine us capturing Hitler in 1945, and not describing it as a "victory" even with the similar mop up operations that existed in Germany for 5 or 6 years afterwards.

The War in Iraq has been simply put, one of the most glorious victories for United States Forces in the 235 year history of our Nation. President Bush, and most assuredly our Armed Forces deserve enormous credit for the victory.

Eric Dondero, Publisher
Libertarian Republican blog

Yes--five years in. And the 'anti war' candidate endorsed by Michael Moore (when has that worked--stick to docs, Mike) keeps voting to fund it.
Obama has to vote for it.
Just like HIllary had no choice when Shrub, Colin Powell, et al were LYING about the WMDs.
Obama's minister put the lie to the candidate's claim to be a uniter. Stokely Carmichael was right--you DO need to become insular before joining the non-minority community--but that time has LONG passed.
There was no need for the Obamas to be part of that church.
And for him not to have KNOWN this would harm the Democratic ticket if he stayed on it--and to stay in the race anyway--shows a form of selfishness that shows he cannot be the top of the ticket.
The only person being helped now by Obama's refusal to take HIllary's invitation for the veep slot
is John McCain.

"Like Bush's Mission Accomplished speech five years ago, McCain too declared that the end was very much in sight in 2003. He would continue President Bush's failed policies - in Iraq and elsewhere."

This is so much more important than what church someone attends. This is what the democrats, no matter who, needs to keep in mind. This war is a disaster and endless if McBush has his way. Not to mention his bomb bomb Iran ditty.

Wanna end the war?
Get Obama to join the Hillary ticket so we can kick some butt instead of watching Mike (Al Gore is the same as George Bush) Moore deliver the election to McCain.

Wanna end the war?
Get Obama to join the Hillary ticket so we can kick some butt instead of watching Mike (Al Gore is the same as George Bush) Moore deliver the election to McCain.

With 49 troops having been killed in Iraq in April there is nothing more that Bush, McCain or any other pro war lover can say to support their deceitful act. It's a travesty that the U.S. Congress has not filed impeachment claims against this president. All the vitriolic press and the criticisms of Obama for Rev Wright's statements really shows how the new media has ill served America. The 4,000 plus deaths that the war has caused are as much the blame of a sleeping media than the President. Imagine if they had spent as much time investigating the wmd claims of the government and reported on the inconsistencies of the intelligence reports, as they have spent on the thoughts of a preacher how many men and women would be maimed for life and others sent to early graves. Rev Wright has not caused anyone to die and he is vilified by all the media and politicians. Where is the justice.

Silly, silly, silly...
just too stupid to even put into words

silly man...
stupid, really silly and
ignorant, way too stupid,
and once more...
that was really silly

What in the world was he thinking?

You couldn't get me
on the deck of that carrier.
not in a million years.

I wanted no part of that stupidity.

Mission Abused.
Mission Absurd.
Mission Adaptable.
Mission Addicted.
Mission Ad-libbed.
Mission Adversed.
Mission Arrogance.
Mission Arbitrary.
Mission Atrocities.
Mission Asunder.
Mission Autocratic.
Mission Abused. Again.

Mission Accomplished...hmmm...Okay, which mission? I keep losing track of this week's reason for why we are in Iraq.

I think this week we're supposed to be in Iraq to bring Democracy. .

And yet, nobody ever calls them on the fact that whatever form of government Iraq has…it will most assuredly NOT involve equal rights for female Iraqis and therefore will be anything BUT a Democracy. .

Each time these warmongers get caught in a lie, they find new and improved talking points to explain the need for our soldiers to die in that hell hole. .

They got weapons of big and badness. (gosh, sorry ’bout that…they must be here somewhere) .

He’s trying to buy nasty nuke stuff. (But we really really believed Niger nukies, we swear!) .

He’s helping Al-Qaeda. (how were we supposed to know that Bin and Sad were enemies?) .

Iraqi oil will PAY for everything! (umm where’d we put all that oil money anyway?) .

Hussein was a brutal dictator (we know we hung him…but we gotta stay in case he haunts the place.) .

Wait! We have it! We’re bringing Democracy to Iraq!…Yeah… yeah…that’s it… and umm umm next week, we’ll bring it to Syria!…oooh wait! We have it…a BETTER Democracy for Iran! .

There will always be a "new" mission until they finally give up and say it: .

We're in Iraq for the oil. It's about the oil, stupid. .

Menopausal Mick

Hey Eric Dondero,

A victory does not equal mission accomplished. The mop up, as you call it, was part of the conflict, not seperate from it. So until the actual fighting was finished its not done.

Also, how was it a victory? It didn't stop Al Qeada, it increased the death tolls in Iraq, it has put our economy on brink of a recession, even if we aren't technically in one yet, and we continue to waste money and lives on it.

If even one of those issues was different it might have a semblance of a victory, but it doesn't.

OMG are you for real Eric Dondero?? The most glorious victory for the United States??? You are so not on this planet!!
Saying that this disaster is more victorious than The Revolutionary War, The Civil War, WWl, WWII is rediculous and obviously coming from a very out of touch and misinformed person! I cant believe you're actually a publisher! Go back to your hole in the sand and count the days to the end of this administration!!

steve/GW, hey dont worry guys, when Obama and his muslim/America hating buddies get in power we can fight them here and save all the transport costs. Oh wait cant do that because Obama will take all our guns first. Hope you guys are the first in line to get it.

"President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said `mission accomplished' for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission,"

What a load of crap. This is the first I've heard of this explanation. But that is par for the course with this adnisitration. They change the reason for everything depending on what is politically expedient at the time.

Like the war itself: WMD (oops none of those), well, no, what we meant was to remove Sadaam (o.k., we did that), no, what we meant was, to give Iraqi's a free election, (well, fine, let's go now, they've had that), well, no, we need to let our soldiers die so they can settle thier political differences. And on and on and on.

What a bunch of liars and America haters. No money for jobs, no money for health care, no money for the housing crisis, etc.. Just untold billions for a faulty war that has Iraqi's worse off than when Sadaam was there.

1/20/09 can't come soon enough.

You Obama haters really are getting tiresome. We get it: you don't like him. Don't vote for him then.

Eric Dondero: Your post is fascinating on a number of levels, I'll only mention one of several problems with it. We caught Saddam in the "spider hold" several months after Commander AWOL braved the seas off the coast of San Diego. So even by your brain-dead standards, you're wrong. Small wonder you consider Bush a hero. Compared to you he's a geniuis.

In fact it was Mission Accomplished. Was the Iraqi Army defeated? Yes. Was Saddam Hussein driven from power? Yes. Was that the mission? Yes.
Is Iraq a free and Democratic country today? Yes. Does Iraq sponsor terrorism today? No. Did Iraq sponsor terrorism under Hussein? Yes.

Does that mean there still isn't much work to do in Iraq, largely because of Al Qaeda and the Left's favorite country, Iran? No.

The fact is Iraq is a fragile democracy, but one that is making strides, albeit slower than expected and slower than hoped.

But we also know the media, nor its friends from the Far Left, are not interested in democracy. Isn't that correct?

Eric Dondero, you might be interesrted in knowing that the banner was hung 7 months before Saddam was captured. Just sayin...

Per Mick:

"Hussein was a brutal dictator (we know we hung him…but we gotta stay in case he haunts the place.) ."

LOL! Thanks.

GWB is nicely framed with a halo around his head.

Hey dumbass, Saddam wasn't captured until DECEMBER 2003... NOT May 1

Get your facts straight before you go all gung ho supporting this abortion of a war.

Does the fact that I live in reality make me Un-American? I better go buy a 50lb bag of Chinese-made cookies from Wal-Mart to show how patriotic I am.

Hey John D..where are the WMD?? You say Iraq is a democratic coountry today.. ARE YOU FOR REAL???? Explain to me how a civil war is democratic? explain to me how subserviant woman is democratic. Oh and theres no terrorists in Iraq anymore?? Holy cow you are deaf dumb and blond.. oops blind. Oh one more thing, yousay the Irqi armewy was defeted, oh really, so who then are we fighting against???? Yo uwar mongers are so out of touch with reality. Our country is loathed around the world. Our country is in a huge deficit because of this war. Our country rather feed and clothe and educate otheer countires than our own. Our country rather watch 40 million people die without health care. Our coountry rather spend billions of dollars on a losng battle thatn create a reasonable health care plan for all.. and this would cost less then this war that we will never win!!
So ya, keep beleiviing the Bush rhetoric on this redundant war and watch your country fall to pieces!

John D- You're absolutely right we must bring democracy to every nation in the world by invasion. Syria, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Venezuela, Somalia, Lebanon, Egypt, Vatican City....

All must be invaded immediately to free their people and have new governments imposed. It doesn't matter how many millions die! The US has every right to destroy any government anywhere in the world that we don't like.

The Crazy Joe Devola Award for stupidest comment of the month award goes to John D.

Who do you think the Shia theocracy, once it's fully established , will be friendly too? That's right, Dyslin, Iran.

"More work to do? do ya think? After hundreds of billions, including the $9 billion that "fell off the truck", reconstruction is a joke. Shoddy work, graft, corruption, rampant. Less electricity now than before the war, sewage in the streets, neighborhoods segregated.

Iraqi forces are no where near ready to "step up", we've armed both sides of the insurgency, there's over a million displaced Iraqis, neighborhoods segregated and turned into fortresses.

20% of active-duty and 40% of reserve-component troops returning from Iraq had symptoms of have of PTSD. The "real" cost of this war will be in the trillions:

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/04/army_ptsd_041208w/

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15499.htm

Bush's useless war has made us poorer, weaker, more divided, and less-safe. Why do you hate America, Johnny Delusional?

John D, you are an ignoramus. If the goal of invading Iraq had been to defeat the Iraqi army and drive Saddam from power, then that's what Bush would have told the American people and what Colin Powell would have told the UN. Instead, what they told us and the world was that it was about WMDs and al-Qaeda. For idiots like you, the mission morphed after the fact into "getting rid of Saddam" because that is about the only positive thing you can point to that resulted from this debacle.

Nor was the goal of the invasion to create a "democratic" Iraq. Don't kid yourself. Bush could not allow a democratic Iraq, because a democratic Iraq would elect a government even more closely aligned with Iran than is the present government and would not have tolerated the US entering into oil and reconstruction contracts that, by law, cannot be terminated or even renegotiated by the Iraqi government.

But none of this means that Bush did not, in fact, accomplish his mission. He most certainly did, because the mission was to take over Iraq, install a puppet government (although with Chalabi as the head), use Iraq as an excuse to funnel hundreds of billions to cronies in the US and abroad, and capitalize on the fear created by the 9-1-1 attack to help get Bush reelected and to try to vastly expand the power of the executive branch of our government.

The problem for Bush and his apologists (and, unfortunately, the rest of us) is that, in the process of accomplishing his mission, Bush destroyed the value of the US dollar. The devastating consequences of this are only now starting to be seen and felt by the American people.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckmancartoons/56289151/

http://icasualties.org/oif/BY_DOD.aspx

It all makes sense now. Johnny D. is a tool for the "message multipliers":

http://www.sfgate.com/comics/fiore/

MayDay! MayDay!
Crazy John D 'Mime is out of his glass box! Mayday Mayday!

I remember that day when Bush so arrogantly stated the war was over and we were victorious. I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember the shortage of equipment that the troops were lacking. I remember how their food was rationed and they were only allowed 2 bottles of water per day, in the 120+ degree heat. I remember my brother being sent to Iraq to search for the WMDs. I remember Bush joking about their whereabouts. I remember him and all of the other chicken hawks laughing while at a Republican Ball. I remember him looking under a table saying, "they've got to be here somewhere." I then remember hearing the worst news of my life... I remember a man with medals on his chest at my front door. I remember those words that came from his mouth. I remember the Sergeant Major telling me that my brother was killed while searching for these very weapons. There is so much I remember that I wish never happened. It disgusts me how people brush off these now-4, 064 dead Americans. Another was just killed today in this disastrous farce of a war that was “won” by the United States 5 years ago today. It sickens me how people trivialize these souls who were lost due to a draft dodger’s lie. Unless one has experienced this pain, do not even think of supporting this war. Plain and simple. This is directed towards people like Eric Dondero. Refrain from your rhetoric and stop supporting a winless war but “fight” to end it.
Peace and Blessings,
Raphael Zappala
Brother of Sgt. Sherwood R. Baker
KIA 4/26/04 in Baghdad, Iraq

Wow. amazing. what drugs are you on.
Doublethink lives. Iraq has always been our enemy, right, . YES. Eric
Dondero obviously flunked history 101. Bush/Cheney sicken and disgust me, cowardly chicken hawks. Bush has actually accomplished his mission, welfare for the rich via the Iraq war con.