Rep. Miller: New White House ‘Mission Accomplished’ Claim Is Reprehensible
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- May 1, 2008 -- U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Democratic Policy Committee, issued the following statement today in response to White House Press Secretary Dana Perino’s comment yesterday that the “Mission Accomplished” banner hung from the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003 did not really mean that the Iraq war “mission” had been accomplished.
“This latest White House comment is reprehensible and should be repudiated. Yet again, the Bush Administration, faced with its own failures in Iraq, is trying to rewrite history rather than write a new policy to end the war and bring our troops home in a timely and responsible manner.
“The assertion yesterday by the White House that the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner was meant simply to describe the mission of the USS Abraham Lincoln and its sailors in 2003 is clearly not believable and should be publicly repudiated by the President. The unjustified and misleading declaration of ‘Mission Accomplished’ by the President was the entire basis for his speech five years ago today, and it is a deep insult to all Americans and our servicemen and servicewomen that the White House is once again deliberately distorting the truth.
“The White House knowingly hung the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner in a public relations effort to convince the world that military operations in Iraq had been completed quickly just as White House and Pentagon officials had repeatedly said would happen before the war began. Well, we all know what happened after that, because so far over 4,000 military personnel have lost their lives in Iraq and nearly 30,000 have been wounded.
“The President’s reckless and shortsighted decision to send America into an unjustified war in Iraq is one of the most costly and devastating foreign policy decision ever made by an American president. What the White House owes Americans is a new policy in Iraq that will bring our troops home, not a new version of history that only deceives Americans further, just as the Administration knowingly deceived Americans and the Congress in the buildup to this tragic war.”
BACKGROUND:
On May 1, 2003, President Bush said this in his speech: “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” The ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner clearly reflected the substance of this speech. Yet this is what White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said yesterday, April 30, during a briefing with reporters, according to the Associated Press: “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."
Since the President declared ‘Mission Accomplished’ on May 1, 2003, 3,908 American men and women in uniform have been killed and an estimated 29,366 have been wounded in Iraq. Furthermore, since the war began in March 2003, a total of 4,058 American men and women in uniform have been killed and an estimated 29,911 have been wounded in Iraq. [Defense Department, 4/30/08]
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Posted by PDP-Staff at May 1, 08 06:35 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
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