Tuesday, November 15, 2005

I'm so confused






















Ok, the image on the top is from May 1, 2003 and the image on the bottom is from November 11, 2005.

Shouldn't you have a strategy for victory and then accomplish your mission, not the other way around?

Let's see what Sun Tzu has to say shall we?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Provide some context, why don't you?

[blockquote]
Cmdr. Conrad Chun, a Navy spokesman, defended the president's assertion.

"The banner was a Navy idea, the ship's idea," Chun said.

"The banner signified the successful completion of the ship's deployment," he said, noting the Abraham Lincoln was deployed 290 days, longer than any other nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in history.
[/blockquote]

I've no problem with anybody calling Bush an idiot, but at least dis him for something he actually did. Call me crazy ...

Chuck said...

MMhmm. And they took Bush's picture in front of that banner to convey one message, the war was over. Let's hear some of that speech:

During the speech in May, Bush said, "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September 11, 2001, and still goes on."

The speech and events surrounding it were widely publicized and served as the symbolic end to the war in Iraq.


I call that a victory speech and I call bullshit on any notion that Bush landed on that carrier and gave a speech in front of a red, white and blue banner that read "Mission Accomplished" for any purpose other than signalling that the grand adventure HAD GONE (past tense) well.

The grand adventure continues to not go well (present tense).

That's the context.

Chuck said...

And here's an even better one, from the next day (the same victory lap through the Middle East I guess):

"America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished," he said. Despite growing doubts at home and abroad, he reiterated that troops would find weapons of mass destruction, which were his rationale for striking first at Iraq.

Funny how at a later time he's still hitting the "Mission Accomplished" talking point even though the aircraft carrier that came up with the idea was long gone.

I guess it was just luck that the "war is over" vibe was such good politics, happened during a perfect photo op including a Top Gun-esque carrier deck landing, followed by speeches in the succeeding days with the Commander in Chief surrounded by his troops ringing the "mission accomplished" meme again and again.

Oh and don't forget the vow in that quote that we'd find the weapons.

Anonymous said...

Thanks. I appreciate the context. :)

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