Mission Accomplished

by hilzoy

Then:
Hardball, 5/1/03:

"MATTHEWS: What's the importance of the president's amazing display of leadership tonight? (...)

MATTHEWS: Do you think this role, and I want to talk politically [...], the president deserves everything he's doing tonight in terms of his leadership. He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics. Do you think he is defining the office of the presidency, at least for this time, as basically that of commander in chief? That [...] if you're going to run against him, you'd better be ready to take [that] away from him. (...)

MATTHEWS: Ann Coulter, you're the first to speak tonight on the buzz. The president's performance tonight, redolent of the best of Reagan -- what do you think?

COULTER: It's stunning. It's amazing. I think it's huge. I mean, he's landing on a boat at 150 miles per hour. It's tremendous. It's hard to imagine any Democrat being able to do that. And it doesn't matter if Democrats try to ridicule it. It's stunning, and it speaks for itself."

Maureen Dowd, 5/4/03:

"Out bounded the cocky, rule-breaking, daredevil flyboy, a man navigating the Highway to the Danger Zone, out along the edges where he was born to be, the further on the edge, the hotter the intensity.

He flashed that famous all-American grin as he swaggered around the deck of the aircraft carrier in his olive flight suit, ejection harness between his legs, helmet tucked under his arm, awestruck crew crowding around. Maverick was back, cooler and hotter than ever, throttling to the max with joystick politics.

Compared to Karl Rove's ''revvin' up your engine'' myth-making cinematic style, Jerry Bruckheimer's movies look like ''Lizzie McGuire.''

This time Maverick didn't just nail a few bogeys and do a 4G inverted dive with a MIG-28 at a range of two meters. This time the Top Gun wasted a couple of nasty regimes, and promised this was just the beginning."

Washington Week in Review (et tu, Gwen Ifill?), 5/2/03:

"IFILL: Picture perfect. Part Spider-Man, part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan. The president seizes the moment on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific."

NYT, 5/2/03:

"But within minutes Mr. Bush emerged for the kind of photographs that other politicians can only dream about. He hopped out of the plane with a helmet tucked under his arm and walked across the flight deck with a swagger that seemed to suggest he had seen ''Top Gun.'' Clearly in his element, he was swarmed by cheering members of the Lincoln's crew."

And, lest we forget, G. Gordon Liddy, famous expert on female psychology, Hardball, 5/7/03:

"Al Gore had to go get some woman to tell him how to be a man. And here comes George Bush. You know, he's in his flight suit, he's striding across the deck, and he's wearing his parachute harness, you know -- and I've worn those because I parachute -- and it makes the best of his manly characteristic. You go run those -- run that stuff again of him walking across there with the parachute. He has just won every woman's vote in the United States of America. You know, all those women who say size doesn't count -- they're all liars. Check that out. I hope the Democrats keep ratting on him and all of this stuff so that they keep showing that tape."

US Troops killed in Iraq: 134

Iraqis killed: unknown

WMD in Iraq: 0

Al Qaeda fighters in Iraq: 0 before the invasion (I have no idea whether any had crossed the border between the invasion and 5/1/2003.)

Now:

US troops killed in Iraq: 3351

Iraqis killed in Iraq: unknown; est. 655,000 as of 10/2006

WMD in Iraq: 0

Al Qaeda fighters in Iraq: unknown, est. (pdf) 800-2,000 as of 11/06

(From the AJC, via Dan Froomkin.)

Comments

[Randy Paul]

That really says it all. Bush is guilty of premature congratulation.

[someotherdude]

Warmongering...whoremongering....whores for wars...just pitiful and degenerate...the whole lot of us/U.S.

[john miller]

My basic feeling since early in the mission to Afghanistan is that Bush and company have been the best thing that ever happened to al Qaeda. They don't need to have another attack on our shores. They are accomplishing much of what they wanted.

[Deirdre Helfferich]

Ah, yes. And then the war started to go sour, and all of a sudden that "Mission Accomplished" sign had nothing to do with the administration, and oh, yes, they never promised it would be easy, or quick, or a slam-dunk, or anything like that.

[Gary Farber]

You didn't include my favorite Matthews quote from that day's show, Hilzoy:

[...] I think we like having a hero as our president. It's simple.

Even if one stipulated arguendo that Bush landed the S-3B (Viking) unaided, or if one stipulated arguendo that as President he presided over Winning A War, how either, or anything else, would make him personally a "hero" is something I'd need someone else to explain to me. Is everyone who has ever made a carrier landing a "hero"? Is FDR a "hero" for having been president while WWII was essentially (yes, not technically) won?

As a trivial note, one can but imagine what Ann Coulter would say about the level of naval/military knowledge of anyone who refers to an aircraft carrier as a "boat."

I mean, he's landing on a boat at 150 miles per hour.

And a submarine is a ship. Sure.

Incidentally, it should be noted for the record that Bush never even claimed to have landed the Viking; the most the White House said was stuff like this:

Bush said he did take a turn at piloting the craft.

"Yes, I flew it. Yeah, of course, I liked it," said Bush, who was an F-102 fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard after graduating from Yale University in 1968.

[...]

The aircraft's pilot, Navy Cmdr. John Lussier of Orlando, Florida, said the president "enjoyed the heck out of" taking the controls and doing a couple of maneuvers.

As anyone with the faintest clue realizes (heck, just check out any decent flight simulator software), "taking the controls" in mid-flight, and actually landing on a carrier deck, carry wildly different levels of difficulty. Literally, 6-year-olds can do the former. The latter: extremely tricky for the most skilled pilots.

It's about as certain as anything that there isn't film of that Bush wasn't the pilot who landed the SB-3.

The nature of his "heroism"? Anyone?

[John Thullen]

"The nature of his 'heroism'? Anyone?"

He did it all without dramamine?

Actually, I think the nature of his heroism is a little like the nature of the heroism of my friend's father, who served in the Navy during WWII as a seaman, but not on a combat vessel.

The story goes like this:

Two or three decades ago, the Dad, who enjoyed his alcohol, called up his son, my friend, late at night and told him to turn on the TV, because the old swabbie's "ship" was being shown.

Sure enough, there was a WWII B movie, not of a troop carrier, but of an aircraft carrier with planes landing in heavy seas. Probably Dana Andrews, Van Johnson and the young Desi Arnez were piloting. June Allyson kept the scrapbook up to date on the home front.

My friend's Dad narrated the action to him on the phone as they both watched the movie.
Two or three planes landed roughly but safely. The Dad says drunkenly, "Here comes my plane!" Out of the clouds descends the next plane and there is a camera shot in the cockpit -- the Dad claims he is the co-pilot ... "We could fly that thing through the eye of a needle."

The plane hits the heaving deck with Dad slurring his narration into my buddy's ear... "Watch this!..." The plane misses the hook, veers off to the side and hits something on deck and explodes into a ball of flame.

The last shot is a close-up of the pilot and the co-pilot, both of whose faces and shoulders are burned beyond recognition into a crispy mess and my buddy says there was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone ...... and then this:

"Damn! I told that guy to pull up and try again!"

[Barry]

Maureen Dowd, 5/4/03:

"Out bounded the cocky, rule-breaking, daredevil flyboy, a man navigating the Highway to the Danger Zone, out along the edges where he was born to be, the further on the edge, the hotter the intensity."

I won't make comments about whether she had to change her more intimate garmets after writing that. I won't.

Somebody made comments about how the national press was basically high school cliques all over again, with not one bit more concern about truth or justice. Maureen was used as an example of that, which she certainly deserved.

[cleek]

The nature of his "heroism"? Anyone?

a couple of years ago, my wife and i took an aerial tour around Cape Lookout and Beaufort NC. very scenic. $70. well worth it. on the way back in, the pilot offered me the controls. the first thing that crossed my mind was the Shins song, Young Pilgrims, where the singer sings :

But I learned fast how to keep my head up 'cause I
Know there is this side of me that
Wants to grab the yoke from the pilot and just
Fly the whole mess into the sea.

i heroically grabbed the yoke and clenched as hard as i could so as to not move the thing a millimeter. i've crashed enough times in MS Flight Simulator to know i have no business taking chances with the lives of two other people.

so, maybe Bush is braver than i am. whatever. i didn't lead the country into a land war in Asia.

[nabalzbbfr]

This is just sour grapes. The US military, under the leadership of President Bush, did win a stunningly quick and virtually bloodless victory in Iraq in spring of 2003. President Bush was entitled to his moment of glory and to honor the valor and skill of our brave fighting men and women, which he did most eloquently. To keep carping about this years later, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, is in very poor taste to say the least. More importantly it denigrates our troops and encourages our enemies. If the Democrats think these cheap theatrics are a winning political strategy, then they are plain nuts. Can you say boomerang?

[hilzoy]

"boomerang".

And for my next trick --- ?

[Dantheman]

"Can you say boomerang?

"boomerang".

And for my next trick --- ?"

I'll say boomerang while drinking a glass of water.

[CaseyL]

"President Bush was entitled to his moment of glory phony photo-op triumphalism and to honor co-opt for his own vanity the valor and skill of our brave fighting men and women, which he his handlers did most eloquently. "

Fixed!

[bad Jim]

I seem to recall that the Republicans did think these cheap theatrics were a winning political strategy, and they did win the next election. But the photo-op did indeed eventually boomerang.

[merlallen]

I can't read Chris Matthews comments about chickengeorge without being embarrassed for him.
Boomerang. That was easy, mr 28%. Can you say bush worshipping fool?

[dmbeaster]

nabalzbbfr:

You need to read hilzoy's Lebanon Take 1 post and the linked Greenwald article -- the relevant portion in response to your comment:

Unlike our chest-beating, play-acting warriors here, war is not something that Israelis cheer on for fun like a video game from behind their computer monitor or sitting on their sofa watching CNN or Fox. When they advocate wars, they pay a price. As a result, they don't have the luxury of shutting their eyes and pretending that things are going well -- or exploiting accusations of treason in order to stifle war criticisms -- or cheering on failing wars for years for no reason other than to avoid having to admit error or feel weak.

All of that stands in such stark contrast to the shrinking though still-substantial faction in this country who see war as a fun and sterile video game that never requires them to pay any price -- no matter how profoundly the war fails. That is what enables them to cheer on those wars for years without end, to urge still new and more destructive ones, and to childishly insist that there is something noble and compulsory about keeping quiet, loyally cheering on the Leader's war, and pretending that things are going great and we are on the verge of success.

Yes -- it's just "sour grapes" when we deride Bush and his failed war. You cannot separate the "Mission Accomplished" moment from this failure of a war. The hubris and fraud of that appearance has been exposed by time.

[Phoenician in a time of Romans]

The US military, under the leadership of President Bush, did win a stunningly quick and virtually bloodless victory in Iraq in spring of 2003

One assumes that Arabs have oil or dirty water rather than blood running in their veins?

[Paul]

To keep carping about this years later, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, is in very poor taste to say the least.

Oh, Hilzoy, why must you be such a wet sack? Let's remember all the good times we had at war.

[judson]

How can any of these disastrous misconceptions of '03 be shoved into these arrogant pundits faces? Really, the 'news' gets away with murder.