Mission Accomplished speech

On May 1, 2003, United States president George W. Bush gave a televised speech on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

Bush, who had launched the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq six weeks earlier, mounted a podium in front of a White House-produced banner that read "Mission Accomplished".

In modern cultural parlance, the phrase "Mission Accomplished" is frequently used to refer to the perils of declaring victory too early in crises.

[7] Originally, White House officials had said the carrier was too far off the California coast for a helicopter landing and a jet would be needed to reach it.

"[8] The Lincoln made a scheduled stop in Pearl Harbor shortly before the speech, docked in San Diego after the speech, and returned to her home port in Everett, Washington, on May 6, 2003.The S-3 that served as "Navy One" was retired from service and placed on display at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida, on July 17, 2003.

Media questions about the banner appeared to surprise U.S. government officials, who initially offered different accounts of its origin and its meaning.

"[11] According to John Dickerson of Time magazine, the White House later conceded that they hung the banner but still insisted it had been done at the request of the crew members.

[12]Subsequently, the White House released a statement saying that the sign and Bush's visit referred to the initial invasion of Iraq.

The banner came to symbolize the irony of Bush giving a victory speech only a few weeks after the beginning of the fifth longest war in American history.

[15][16][17] In a less publicized incident, Rumsfeld also declared an end to major combat operations in Afghanistan on May 1, a few hours before Bush's announcement.

[22] Iraq War opponents have used the phrase "mission accomplished" in an ironic sense, while others have non-politically cited it as an example of a general public relations failure.