IRAQ -- FIVE YEARS AFTER 'MISSION ACCOMPLISHED,' WHITE HOUSE TRIES TO REWRITE HISTORY:  Five years ago, on May 1, 2003,  in what The New York Times that day called "a powerful, Reaganesque finale to a six-week war," President Bush landed aboard the U.S.S. Lincoln, stood under a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished," and declared, "major combat operations in Iraq have ended." Since that day, more than 3,900 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, representing more than 97 percent of total troop deaths there.

 

 

Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Bush was "well aware" that the banner "should have been much more specific," suggesting it should have read "Mission Accomplished For These Sailors Who Are On This Ship On Their Mission."

 

 

 Last year, Perino insisted that "we did prevail" in Iraq, while former press secretary Tony Snow claimed Bush "said just the opposite" of "mission accomplished." But Bush's meaning was quite clear, considering that one month after that May 2003 declaration, he told a group of soldiers in Qatar, "America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished."