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Dem '08ers Attack Bush on "Mission Accomplished" Anniversary

May 01, 2007 11:18 AM

ABC News' Paul Fidalgo Reports: On the fourth anniversary of President Bush’s declaration of the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq -- a declaration that featured the famous "Mission Accomplished" banner looming in the background -- leading contenders for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination commemorated the event with some harsh words for the president.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., released a statement Tuesday calling the president’s declaration, "One of the most shameful episodes in American history."

Clinton, who voted to authorize the initial use of force in 2002, excoriated the President’s presentation aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying, "Never before in our history has a President said 'mission accomplished' when the mission had barely begun.  Never before has a President landed on the deck of an aircraft carrier to proclaim the end of major combat operations to a war that rages on four years later. Never before has a President pulled a political stunt when so many American lives were and remain in harm’s way." 

In his own statement, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., bemoaned that four years after the declaration, "we are still in a war where more than one hundred American service members have died in just the month of April," and used the occasion to urge the president to sign the Iraq war funding bill being sent the White House the same day, urging the president "to avoid making another tragic mistake by signing the bill that will end this war and bring our troops home. We are now one signature away from ending this war."

Obama, who has repeatedly asserted his opposition to the war since its inception, said, "The majority of the American people and their Congress now agree that there is no military solution to the conflict in Iraq," and advocated for the phased withdrawal of troops by the end of March, 2008.

Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., also released a statement saying, "All the photo ops in the world can't hide the truth -- his disastrous mismanagement of the war has left our troops in harm's way and made Iraq a breeding ground for terrorists."

"Now, the American people have given Congress a mission to end the war, but it hasn't been accomplished yet," said Edwards, who like Clinton voted for the 2002 war resolution, but has since called the vote a mistake. 

Edwards stated that if the president follows through with his threat to veto the Iraq supplemental bill, "it is George Bush who is not supporting our troops, and nobody else.  Congress needs to stand firm and strong. When Bush vetoes the bill, Congress should send him another bill with a timetable for withdrawal and if he vetoes that one, Congress should send him another and another until we end this war and bring our troops home."

May 1, 2007 in Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (0)

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