In my favorite antiwar song of this war, “Shock and Awe,” Neil Young moaned: “Back in the days of Mission Accomplished/ our chief was landing on the deck/ The sun was setting/ behind a golden photo op.” But as Neil added elsewhere in the tune: “History is a cruel judge of overconfidence.” More here on clueless Bush taking bike ride today with wounded vets.
Nowhere can we see this more clearly than in the media coverage of the event. (Much more in my new e-book.)
On May 1, 2003, Richard Perle advised, in a USA Today op-ed, “Relax, Celebrate Victory.” The same day, President Bush, dressed in a flight suit, landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared an end to major military operations in Iraq—with the now-infamous “Mission Accomplished” banner arrayed behind him.
Chris Matthews on MSNBC called Bush a “hero” and boomed, “He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics.” He added: “Women like a guy who’s president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It’s simple.”
PBS’ Gwen Ifill said Bush was “part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan.” On NBC, Brian Williams gushed, “The pictures were beautiful. It was quite something to see the first-ever American president on a—on a carrier landing.”
Bob Schieffer on CBS said: “As far as I’m concerned, that was one of the great pictures of all time.” His guest, Joe Klein, responded: “Well, that was probably the coolest presidential image since Bill Pullman played the jet fighter pilot in the movie Independence Day. That was the first thing that came to mind for me.”
Everyone agreed the Democrats and antiwar critics were now on the run. The New York Times observed, “The Bush administration is planning to withdraw most United States combat forces from Iraq over the next several months and wants to shrink the American military presence to less than two divisions by the fall, senior allied officials said today.”
Maureen Dowd in her column declared: “Out bounded the cocky, rule-breaking, daredevil flyboy, a man navigating the Highway to the Danger Zone, out along the edges where he was born to be, the further on the edge, the hotter the intensity.
“He flashed that famous all-American grin as he swaggered around the deck of the aircraft carrier in his olive flight suit, ejection harness between his legs, helmet tucked under his arm, awestruck crew crowding around. Maverick was back, cooler and hotter than ever, throttling to the max with joystick politics. Compared to Karl Rove’s 'revvin’ up your engine' myth-making cinematic style, Jerry Bruckheimer’s movies look like Lizzie McGuire.
“This time Maverick didn’t just nail a few bogeys and do a 4G inverted dive with a MiG-28 at a range of two meters. This time the Top Gun wasted a couple of nasty regimes, and promised this was just the beginning.”
When Bush’s jet landed on the aircraft carrier, American casualties stood at 139 killed and 542 wounded. That was over 4300 American, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi, fatalities ago.
Greg Mitchell's So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits and the President Failed on Iraq (with a preface by Bruce Springsteen) has now been published in an e-book edition.
3 comments:
Jail the war criminal and all his cronies. It's a black mark against our nation that Bush walks around free as a bird.
Just reading the story over at CNN about Bush's bike ride at his Crawford ranch with 16 wounded veterans from the George Bush wars. And as I read the story I saw this quote by Bush. "This is a festival, and it is a moment for others to see people who have been severely wounded say 'I'm overcoming the consequence of my decision to volunteer".
I'm overcoming the consequence of my decision to volunteer?? What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Somehow, that strikes me as one of the most clueless, heartless and ignorant statements this man has ever uttered. He simply cannot envision that these people have suffered and died because of him. In his mind, what happened to them was simply the result of THEIR decision to volunteer. Not the fact that he sent them in there knowing it was all based on a lie. This has to be one of the most narcissistic and unaware human beings on the face of the planet. He simply has a way of creating revulsion and disgust every time he opens his mouth.
Ugh! How repulsive to see all of these egregiously fawning comments in one place. I think I might be ill.
My son would leave for Iraq 11 days after "Mission Accomplished". He came home in a flag covered casket 12 months later.
The Bush administration should all be in jail. The media who wrote this crap should have had their credentials voided, but none of them questioned the war as they should have. Bush poured the Koolaid and not only did they drink up, they asked for more!
Truer words were never spoken, Mike. "In his mind, what happened to them was simply the result of THEIR decision to volunteer." I cannot tell me how many people told me "Well, he volunteered" when they found out my son was KIA in Iraq.
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