I Stand Corrected
Thomas Daly, Editor, Vital Speeches of the Day

Mr. Walsh is correct and I reread the entire speech. He did not say, “Mission accomplished,” he did say, “major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” That was careless considering I published the speech.

However, there should be no question what he meant. I will grant you that he did not say “mission accomplished” I will even concede the fact that President Bush did not have any idea the banner would be hung. I still however feel at this time he was telling the American people the war was over or at least implying it. We know at the time public support of the war was dropping.

To check the validity of the President’s statement we must examine the phrase “major combat operations.” Wouldn’t deploying another 20,000 troops in January 2007, which is almost one sixth of the original combat size be considered continuing “major combat operations”? Why would they send that many if they did indeed have control of the country. Proving it was not over and the statement in his speech was false. Also in the speech the president said, “America is grateful for a job well done.” I don’t know how this could mean anything but that the job is over. He did not say “America is grateful for this part of the job being well done.”

Look, if he didn’t mean the war was over, why use an ambiguous word like “transition”, why did he not just say, “We have freed Iraq, but the war in Iraq is not over.” He talks about defeating, Nazi Germany and all the rest of the rhetoric implied a finality. He talks about rebuilding, how can you rebuild if you are still destroying.

This speech was one of the defining moments in his presidency. So the banner tagline was not in the actual speech and again I stand corrected. My original point still holds true. His administration would have been better remembered if they told the truth and said “The battle between Saddam Hussein’s forces and the coalition military for control of the country – had concluded successfully but the war is not over.” This would not leave anything to doubt. But he didn’t. So we have to let history tell the tale. At times there is more power in truth than rhetoric and over time rhetoric fades.

Tom -- I think people can disagree on the meaning of "major combat operations" and I know more people see this issue your way than mine. I'm sure the president hoped the second phase of the war -- the rebuilding -- would be less dangerous and deadly than it turned out to be.

We certainly agree on the larger point: Mission Accomplished has shaped the view of George Bush's presidency in a negative way. The president recognized this, too. In his press conference a week before leaving office he said, "Clearly putting a 'Mission Accomplished' on a aircraft carrier was a mistake. It sent the wrong message. We were trying to say something differently, but nevertheless, it conveyed a different message."

Should he have said that sooner? Probably. Would it have made much of a difference in media or public perception? Probably not. The only thing that changed public perception was success on the ground, which fortunately we've seen over the last year.

Thanks for your great work on Vital Speeches.