Mission Accomplished speech

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Mission Accomplished is the name given to a televised speech made on May 1, 2003, by United States president George W. Bush on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln near the coast of California. Bush, who had launched the United States invasion of Iraq six weeks earlier, mounted a podium in front of a White House-produced banner that read "Mission Accomplished". Reading from a prepared text, he said, "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed ... because the regime [of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein] is no more." Although Bush went on to say that "Our mission continues" and "We have difficult work to do in Iraq", his words implied that the Iraq War was over and the United States-led Coalition forces had won. Bush's assertions—and the sign itself—became controversial as the Iraqi insurgency gained pace and developed into an outright sectarian war, with the vast majority of casualties—Coalition forces and Iraqi, military...

Read on Wikipedia · Image U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Juan E. Diaz. (RELEASED), Public domain