Free Republic

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday the worst recession since the 1930s is probably over, although he cautioned that pain — especially for the nearly 15 million unemployed Americans — will persist. Bernanke said the economy likely is growing now, but he warned that won't be sufficient to prevent the unemployment rate, now at a 26-year high of 9.7 percent, from rising. "From a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over at this point," Bernanke said in responding to questions at the Brookings Institution. "It's still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time because...

Speaking at a town hall meeting in Raleigh, N.C., President Obama defended his stimulus plan and poked fun at Newsweek ... ... for its latest cover, declaring: "The Recession is Over." "I don't know whether you've seen the cover of the latest Newsweek magazine on the rack at the grocery store, but the cover says: 'The Recession is Over,'" Obama said, prompting chuckles in the audience. "I imagine you might have found that news a little startling," he continued, to more laughter. "I know I did."

US President Barack Obama defended his administration's response to the economic crisis over the last six months, declaring: "The fire is now out." "I think that we have stepped back from the abyss. I think we've put out the fire," he said in an interview with PBS, according to a transcript released by the TV station. But Obama, who is facing declining popularity ratings for the first time in his presidency, said a lot remains to be done to fix the recession-mired US economy. "The analogy I use sometimes is, we had this beautiful house. And there was a fire....

REVIEW & OUTLOOKFEBRUARY 28, 2009 Obama's Bush Vindication The President's good turn on Iraq. It was never very likely that President Obama would come out and praise George W. Bush for the latter's handling of the Iraq war, and in his speech yesterday to the Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C., he didn't. Then again, we didn't quite expect to find ourselves praising President Obama for his handling of Iraq. So here goes. Though the headlines from the President's speech mostly focused on his promise to end all U.S. combat operations in Iraq by August 31, 2010 -- and withdraw U.S....

From The Times February 28, 2009 Nightlife returns as Baghdad becomes secure US troops swap sentry duty for a night on the tiles at the al-Khyam bar in Baghdad, one of about 30 nightspots livening up the social scene Tim Albone in Baghdad Baghdad has never seen anything quite like it: in the newly reopened al-Khyam bar on the banks of the Tigris a group of American paratroopers, fully armed and dressed for battle, were linked arm in arm with drunken Iraqi revellers as they danced the night away. “It is good to get a bit of Iraqi culture,” said...

Obama told top leaders in Congress on Thursday that he will transition the mission in Iraq to training, advising and engaging in limited counter-terrorist operations.

http://www.mission1accomplished.com/

GEORGE W. BUSH understands how history works. While the victors may write the history, sometimes history undoes the victors, and their victory is shown to be more shallow than at first glance. Looking at the Bush's poll numbers in his waning days of office, one might be tempted to conclude he was a "failure," as just about everyone has triumphantly proclaimed. But this president's success or failure will not be determined by what Americans—and certainly not by what Europeans—think of the man and his policies today, but whether those policies produce the intended results tomorrow. I believe that they will.

Skip to comments.FR EXCLUSIVE: "Mission Accomplished" banner was ordered by the Navy, not by the White House NAVY WEBSITE ^ | 5-1-07 | DFU Posted on 05/01/2007 2:40:20 PM PDT by doug from upland Because today is the fourth anniversary of the commander in chief landing aboard the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN with the famous "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" banner, the enemies at home are going to attempt to use it for political purposes. I don't think I need to name the enemies at home. We all know them well. They are the ones who see defeat as politically beneficial to them and...

Every presidency is like a 15-round heavyweight boxing match, and every one ends with a split decision. John F. Kennedy took America to Camelot but also to the Bay of Pigs. Lyndon B. Johnson ushered in civil rights but also the Vietnam War. Jimmy Carter excited a weary America after Watergate but ended up mired in malaise. Ronald Reagan broke down the Berlin Wall but traded arms for hostages in Iran. And Bill Clinton delivered a balanced budget but also endured a scandalous impeachment. So, too, a split decision for President Bush. He kept Americans safe after the terrorist attacks...

Nineteen months after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared the war in Iraq "lost" and just nine months after Speaker Nancy Pelosi asserted the war has been a "failure" because it had not brought political change leading to reconciliation, it can now be said conclusively that both were wrong. One of the great military reversals in history is close to achieving victory. That is contributing to stability in Iraq, along with reconciliation between warring factions. These conclusions are contained in a report compiled by retired General Barry R. McCaffrey after a recent visit to Iraq during which he consulted with...

What up with AP? I know we cant post stuff from them, but I just read an article they put out about US winning the war. In it they gratutiously cycle thru all the lies. I stopped reading when they repeated the lie "when Bush declared Mission Accomplished". Surely anyone with a brain knows he did no such thing. He said the mission of the aircracft carrier was accomplished, but then went on to say the overall mission was not done and needed to continue. So here is my question, if they are knowingly and actively lying, arent they criminals...

Blackfive posted this email yesterday and has another supporting account (added below in an update) from another member of the military who was also present during Obama's carefully scripted P.R. World Tour. I think you should read it. Hello everyone, As you know I am not a very political person. I just wanted to pass along that Senator Obama came to Bagram Afghanistan for about an hour on his visit to "The War Zone". I wanted to share with you what happened. He got off the plan[sic] and got into a bullet proof vehicle, got to the area to meet...

As the US Democratic Presidential candidate, Barack Obama has drawn wide attention in the United States and elsewhere in the world from his first-ever overseas tour. During his ongoing trip, he has not been taken as an ordinary US Senator in a "routine" visit but is treated as a promising presidential hopeful. Special coverages filed by his accompanying reporters from mainstream US media organs on the great, high-profile reception he was accorded amid tight security arranged by the Afghanistan government is just an indisputable proof. Why should Senator Obama, who is now so busy and engrossed with his presidential race,...

A dozen top foreign policy advisers are either traveling with Obama or doing groundwork ahead of his arrival in each country. This group is supplemented by his usual contingent of almost a dozen traveling aides, including chief campaign strategist David Axelrod and communications director Robert Gibbs, and too many advance staff to count. With layers of Secret Service agents, they zipped through Amman Tuesday in a motorcade of 20 vehicles. The mix of policy and political advisers reflects the split dimension of the senator’s tour through Europe and the Middle East: Even as his closest aides insist that the trip...

US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) is saluted as he steps off an osprey upon arriving at Marka Airport in Amman, Jordan, July 22, 2008.

Obama Shows Hawkish Side On Mideast Trip July 22, 2008 (CBS) This story was written by CBSNews.com political reporter Brian Montopoli.Not long after he touched down at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan on Saturday, Barack Obama posed for pictures with three American officials, a pair of military men in uniform, and one rather imposing statue of a bald eagle. It was an ideal photo opportunity for a candidate looking to convince skeptics of his patriotism - just 37 percent of voters identified Obama as "very patriotic" in a recent CBS News/New York Times poll - and his toughness when it...

It's bad enough that Barack Obama's trip to the Middle East is getting an insane amount of MSM coverage (the three big network news anchors? Whoa!); now, NBC News believes it apt to compare Obama's sojourn to ... an actual military tour of duty.

It was a little over five years ago, on May 1, 2003, that President George W. Bush was set to speak aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. It was assumed the president would arrive on the aircraft carrier in the way a president arrives on an aircraft carrier -- via helicopter. Instead, the president of the United States, who in the 1970s flew fighter planes in the Texas Air Guard, entered via an SB-3B Viking, which he flew with two other pilots, leaving the landing -- one of the most dangerous feats in aviation, akin to parking a car at a...

President Bush will never live down “Mission Accomplished” — and should not. When the White House’s spinners spun that claim five years ago (remember the aircraft carrier?), it seemed cocky and premature. As Mr. Bush continues his $526 billion war-without-end in Iraq, it seems stunningly deceitful. The only mission that needs to be accomplished is an orderly exit from Iraq, and Mr. Bush is no closer to acknowledging that reality. Neither is Senator John McCain. All Congress seems capable of is hand-wringing. So it is up to Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to revive the national debate on...

Republican John McCain says President Bush should not be held responsible for the much-criticized "mission accomplished" banner five years ago, but he should be blamed for bungling the early months of the Iraq war. Thursday was the fifth anniversary of Bush's dramatic landing on an aircraft carrier where the banner hung. The certain GOP presidential nominee said he thought the banner was a mistake at the time.

WASHINGTON - The White House said Wednesday that President Bush has paid a price for the "Mission Accomplished" banner that was flown in triumph five years ago but later became a symbol of U.S. misjudgments and mistakes in the long and costly war in Iraq.

President Bush declares the end of major combat in Iraq as he speaks aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast, in this May 1, 2003 file photo. Over and over, President Bush confidently promised to 'solve problems, not pass them on to future presidents and future generations.' As the clock runs out on his eight-year presidency, a tall stack of troubles remain and Bush's words seem to ring hollow. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) Click here for the original AP photowire entry on Yahoo News.

Does anyone know what happened to them? Their website is gone .. they appear to be Missing In Action.

THIS week marked the fourth anniversary of President Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. In just six weeks, America and her allies had swept away one of the most brutal and evil regimes on Earth. Many of us thought the tough part was over. It turned out to be only the beginning. Instead of just saying, "mission accomplished," I wish the commander-in-chief had been more realistic. I wish Bush had said, "We have difficult work to do in Iraq." I wish Bush had said, "We're bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous." I wish...

Because today is the fourth anniversary of the commander in chief landing aboard the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN with the famous "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" banner, the enemies at home are going to attempt to use it for political purposes. I don't think I need to name the enemies at home. We all know them well. They are the ones who see defeat as politically beneficial to them and will do whatever they can to embolden the enemy and hurt our troops. To get to the truth of the story, I phoned the media office of the 2nd Fleet in Norfolk, VA. The...

The White House said Bush would veto the bill on his return to the White House and then go before television cameras at 6:10 p.m. EDT, just before the evening news shows, to make a statement, coincidentally on the fourth anniversary of his so-called Mission Accomplished speech.

The top of the hour ABC News radio broadcast perpetuated the never-ending myth that President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq four years ago, while speaking aboard an aircraft carrier. The President never "declared" anything. He was speaking in front of a banner making that declaration, but the banner was put there by the crew of the ship he was speaking on to indicate that THEIR mission had been accomplished, which indeed it had been. We can quibble as to whether the President might have found a better backdrop aboard ship, but to say he was declaring the Iraq mission...

Mrs Perino "And I also think that given that they say that they want to provide funding for the troops, it is curious why they didn't appoint conferees for two weeks, and I'm not sure if that had anything to do with this particular timing. I know that their on-the-record quotes are saying that it's just a coincidence, but certainly, the background chatter that they're providing to you anonymously would lead you to — would only lead me to conclude that they are using the troops for their own political PR stunts."

BAGHDAD (AP) -- An Iraqi military spokesman says the leader of the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, has been captured in a raid west of Baghdad. U.S. officials had no confirmation

Since it now seems very imminent, I decided that it was an appropriate time to start this up. Links to information and pictures (if we get them) can be posted here.

Just a headline right now.

Read Hot Air and Michelle Malkin regarding one truly unhinged liberal going about a conspiracy theory of how a video was supposedly doctored leaving out the "Mission Accomplished" banner on an aircraft carrier where President Bush gave his speech on May 1, 2003. Not so. Nothing was removed as you can see it here, a video portion, when compared to photos explained in Hot Air. You can see it exactly halfway through it as the camera pans away and up from President Bush and then zooms in on the "Mission Accomplished" banner. Though nothing mysterious about the black bar at...

"Mission Accomplished" vs. "Halp us jon carry - we r stuck hear n irak" (media bias) Compare the coverage in the liberal media of the "Halp us jon carry - we r stuck hear n irak" banner by our troops in Iraq this week vs. the feeding frenzy over the "Mission Accomplished" banner from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln returning from an extended deployment so they could participate in Iraqi Freedom back in March 2003. This morning ONE major newspaper decided to run a picture of the banner along with a cover story... The New York Post, ironically the only...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2006 – Three hundred one soldiers with an Alaska-based unit extended in Iraq will return to the combat zone to serve with their comrades in arms, Army officials announced yesterday. A total of 378 soldiers with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team had returned to Alaska in June and July at the end of their scheduled 12-month tour in Iraq. But before the rest of the 4,000-soldier unit could redeploy, officials halted their return to bolster Iraqi and coalition forces in Baghdad. Now, 301 of those soldiers who made it back to Alaska will return to their...

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had the phone numbers of senior Iraqi officials stored in his cell phone, according to an Iraqi legislator.

Three years ago on Monday, aboard the Everett-based USS Abraham Lincoln, "The tyrant has fallen and Iraq is free," President Bush declared, standing underneath a banner proclaiming: "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED." Those two words have lingered uneasily since. A look at Iraq today shows that despite progress toward democracy, billions spent on reconstruction and the best efforts of its own people and an international coalition, the battle for Iraq's future is far from over.

50 aircraft,1500 Iraqui/ US Troops in Samra (n of baghdad) , largest air and land assult since we went in.

U.S. urges leaders to avoid civil war Bombs and mortar blasts across Iraq killed at least 80 people in one of the country's bloodiest days for weeks as Washington urged leaders to form a coalition to avert a slide to civil war. At least 40 people were killed and 104 wounded when three car bombs exploded Sunday evening at crowded markets in the Sadr City Shiite district of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said quoting hospital figures. A fourth car bomb was defused. "People were torn to pieces," a witness, who declined to be named, said at the scene. The...

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2006 – While the threat of violence remains in Iraq, the main crisis caused by the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra has passed and the people have proven their determination to defeat terror, the commander of coalition forces in Iraq said today. "This is a difficult time, and there are fairly determined and ruthless terrorists that are out to halt Iraq's movement forward to a democratically elected, constitutionally based government," Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multinational Force Iraq, said in a news briefing from Iraq. "What I see here on...

Without American forces, the vision of American leadership and the quiet fortitude of the American people, Iraqis would be almost alone in the world. With its allies, the United States has provided Iraqis with an unprecedented opportunity. Iraqis have responded by enthusiastically embracing democracy and volunteering to fight for their country. By giving us the tools, your troops help us to defend Iraqi democracy and to finish the job of uprooting Baathist fascism.

Political operatives at the Democratic National Committee in Washington developed the plan to turn the memorial service for Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone into a political rally, top party sources tell Capitol Hill Blue. The party also urged the Wellstone family to ask Vice President Dick Cheney to not attend the service and concocted the excuse that security for the VP would disrupt the event even though Secret Service security was required for former president Bill Clinton, who was invited and who did attend. Rick Kahn, the Wellstone campaign worker and friend, worked the highly partisan crowd into a frenzy with...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - About 1,000 U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces launched attacks in western Iraq in an operation aimed at disrupting insurgents and foreign fighters in the Euphrates River valley, the U.S. military said Friday. ADVERTISEMENT The operation, dubbed Quick Strike, began Wednesday with Iraqi soldiers and Marines positioning their units, said a military statement. They focused on an area centered around the cities of Haditha, Haqlaniyah, and Parwana, about 130 miles northwest of Baghdad. On Wednesday, 14 Marines and their civilian translator were killed when their vehicle was hit by a massive roadside bomb near Haditha as they were...

As American post-conflict combat deaths in Iraq overtook the wartime number, the administration counseled patience. "The war on terror is a test of our strength. It is a test of our perseverance, our patience, and our will," President Bush told an American Legion convention. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice embellished the message with what former White House speechwriters immediately recognize as a greatest-generation pander. "There is an understandable tendency to look back on America's experience in postwar Germany and see only the successes," she told the Veterans of Foreign Wars in San Antonio, Texas, on Aug. 25. "But as some...

Mission accomplished for Black Watch By David Harrison with the Black Watch on the eastern Euphrates (Filed: 26/11/2004) Black Watch soldiers stormed across the Euphrates river into a suspected insurgent stronghold yesterday, bursting into houses in the middle of the night and arresting scores of males aged 14 and over. More than 700 soldiers and 116 vehicles, including 42 Warrior armoured assault vehicles, were deployed in a raid that lasted 12 hours from the time they left their base at Camp Dogwood, 25 miles south-west of Baghdad. It was one of the largest offensives launched by British soldiers since the...

I think this sign has been taken completely out of context. I think the Libs think "it's all about me" and therefore think Dubya was touting himself for a cheap photo op. I think the sign was for the troops because their mission, to liberate Iraq, was indeed accomplished. I think that's what a true CIC would do. Now, regards the flight suit. I think it was appropriate. I assume there are certain regulations about proper attire in specific venues. How else could one explain the bunny suit JFK wore on his visit to NASA?

"Every week, too many American families grieve for loved ones killed in Iraq by terrorist forces that weren't even there before the invasion, many of which got their weapons from the very ammo dumps* that George Bush didn't guard after we won the war -- after we won the military part of the war. " If you could hear Kerry in this interview, you would hear him catch himself after saying we won the war, but his correction really didn't change the point. There is a difference between the end of combat and fighting terrorism after the war is over.

Bush makes historic speech aboard warship Thursday, May 1, 2003 President Bush on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CNN) -- The following is an unedited transcript of President Bush's historic speech from the flight deck of the USS Lincoln, during which he declared an end to major combat in Iraq: Thank you. Thank you all very much. 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...

Reprinted from NewsMax.com Fly That Banner!John L. PerryTuesday, Sept. 28, 2004 Maybe Republicans should rethink the “Mission Accomplished” sign on the aircraft carrier. That’s right, don’t retreat from it. Feature it proudly in television commercials. Now! Violence in Iraq has grown bloodier. Inexcusable abuse of Iraqi prisoners has made things tougher for America on the Arab street. All that is being used to try to tarnish George W. Bush’s advantage as a wartime president. But America’s mission in Iraq and Afghanistan is no less valid today than it was on its first day. A stern reaffirmation of America’s military strength...

MADISON, WIS. -- Sen. John Kerry excoriated President Bush on Sunday for saying that he had no regrets about his declaration more than a year ago that the mission in Iraq was accomplished, when the country continues to be in a state of war. "I will never be a president who just says, 'Mission accomplished.' I will get the mission accomplished," Kerry told a couple of hundred supporters who greeted him in Madison before he went to a Spring Green resort to prepare for a presidential debate Thursday. Kerry was referring to an interview Bush gave Bill O'Reilly of Fox...