Salon.com News | Bush disavows mission accomplished banner: "Bush disavows mission accomplished banner


Oct. 28, 2003  |  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Six months after he spoke on an aircraft carrier deck under a banner proclaiming ``Mission Accomplished,'' President Bush disavowed any connection with the war message.

The phrase has been mocked many times since Bush's carrier speech as criticism has mounted over the failed search for weapons of mass destruction and the continuing violence in Iraq.

When it was brought up again Tuesday at a news conference, Bush said, ``The `Mission Accomplished' sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished.''

``I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from my staff _ they weren't that ingenious, by the way.''

That explanation hadn't surfaced during months of questions to White House officials about proclaiming the mission in Iraq successful while violence continued.

The president's appearance on the Abraham Lincoln, which was returning home after service in the Persian Gulf, included his dramatic and much-publicized landing on the ship's deck.

Bush's disavowal Tuesday brought new criticism from retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to run against the president. Clark said Bush ``backtracked on his May 1 political photo op on the USS Abraham Lincoln by blaming the troops on the aircraft carrier for the declaration of 'mission accomplished' in Iraq.'' "

This seems particularly weeny, even for this administration. If it needed disavowing, why not do it when the public loved it? Now blaming it on the sailors? Why does this president not get hammered, even by his supporters, for not being willing to take responsibility for his actions?