On “Mission Accomplished” Plus Five

Five years ago today, President George W. Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared, against the backdrop of a banner that said “Mission Accomplished” that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.”

We have Senator John McCain saying that the United States will be in Iraq for another hundred years. We have Secretary of State Condi Rice saying that putting down guerilla forces in Iraq is like what the Allies did in Germany and Japan after World War II, when bands of German and Japanese partisans attacked American forces after their surrender. (I don’t know what history books Rice read in college, but historically, that didn’t happen. I, however, note it for the record.)

In short, five years after “Mission Accomplished” the mission hasn’t been accomplished.

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

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