For us to read the fine print, you actually have to print it.

Today is the 5th anniversary of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech, which was delivered from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln. Since that speech, nearly 4,000 Americans have died in Iraq. Today, the administration is doing some backtracking on this subject. They are now stating that the banner (the big one that said Mission Accomplished) was not specific enough, and that the speech and the banner referred only to the mission of that particular carrier, which was just a few miles off of San Diego at the time, returning home from a tour in the Persian Gulf.

"President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said 'mission accomplished' for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday. "And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year."

First, God forbid that the media brings up the fact that there have been almost 4,000 deaths since our president claimed that major combat operations were at an end five years ago (keeping in mind that we were only involved in WWI for 1.5 years, and WWII for less than 4 years). And second, does anybody really think that the speech referred only to that aircraft carrier? The quote above indicates that the entire misconception is due to the wording on the banner. Let's examine the speech itself, shall we?

Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.

Why would he address "my fellow Americans" to tell everybody that the carrier is home?

This nation thanks all of the members of our coalition who joined in a noble cause. We thank the armed forces of the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland who shared in the hardships of war. We thank all of the citizens of Iraq who welcomed our troops and joined in the liberation of their own country.

All of this past-tense formulation ("shared," "joined") certainly indicate that this sharing and joining is not going to go on any more, because it is no longer necessary.

And tonight, I have a special word for Secretary Rumsfeld, for General Franks and for all the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States: America is grateful for a job well done.

I think it is pretty clear that the president was referring to combat operations for everyone when he says, in the first third of his speech, "job well done" explicitly directed at "all the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States." I don't think that Dana Perino can justifiably state that there was an implied additional clause after "United States" that should have been "and happen to be sailors on the USS Lincoln."

The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001 and still goes on.

Victory! Victory in Iraq! OK, seriously, again we are supposed to believe that this was implicitly directed only at this group of sailors?

In these 19 months that changed the world, our actions have been focused and deliberate and proportionate to the offense. We have not forgotten the victims of September the 11th, the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States, and war is what they got.

I didn't want to get into much anti-war sentiment in this post since that isn't the point, but does anybody still believe that our invasion of Iraq was "proportionate to the offense" when the didn't actually do anything to us? Our "proportionate" response to nothing is an invasion that leads to the deaths of nearly 100,000 Iraqi civilians (from Iraq Body Count)?

Only at the end of the speech did Bush actually talk directly about the sailors on board the Lincoln. The administration has tried to set itself free from the "Mission Accomplished" sign, correctly stating that that particular phrase was never actually used in the speech. But you make a speech that indicates that the military was victorious already, and you hang a "Mission Accomplished" banner in the background, and what do you expect? I have to believe (for my own sense of well-being) that the people that run our country are not actually dumb, and understand the full ramification of what they are doing; in this light I believe that the "Mission Accomplished" banner was there to give the American people something simple to see and identify with so that we would feel good about the war. Instead, the press secretary states that they regret not adding some (what would have been) fine print to the banner. Not buying it Perino, try again.

P.S. I love the implications of the following quote from today's news article, considering Bush's military record:

After being landed on the deck of the carrier in an S-3B Viking 30 miles off the coast San Diego (Ari Fleischer said the president "could have helicoptered," but "he wanted to see a landing the way aviators see a landing"), Mr. Bush appeared in a flight suit to the cheers of the ship's personnel and the glare of television lights.