MISSION NOT SO ACCOMPLISHED AFTER ALL

Surfing the news on the 'net recently, I finally got a few answers to a long burning question that had left me scratching my head--like so many others:

"What was the purpose to the 'MISSION ACCOMPLISHED' banner anyways?

As we all know--five years ago--Bush flew on the Lincoln to declare such a thing: "Mission Accomplished!"

The war in Iraq was over. We had prevailed.

Or so we thought. The symbolism of the banner implied--as the White House had intended--was to signify a victory over our enemies in Iraq: That...we had won...the war in that country--and the President wanted something to portray such a victorious cavet for all to see.

Up went the banner.

Now--5 years later--the White House was simply implying that the banner was supposed to illustrate how the Abraham Lincoln had "successfully" returned from its 10-month mission overseas.

Not how we initially won the war in Iraq.

So did Bush simply 'misspeak' what was later documented in his speech on the carrier's deck? That 'major combat operations in Iraq' were in fact not over?

Maybe on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq war, we'll finally have answers to these questions too.

Schuyler Thorpe

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Everett, WA 98204

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