Mission Accomplished: 4 Years of GOP Iraq Talking Points

PERRspectives Blog: Mission Accomplished: 4 Years of GOP Iraq Talking Points

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Mission Accomplished: 4 Years of GOP Iraq Talking Points

On Tuesday May 1st, the United States will mark the fourth anniversary of President Bush's declaration of "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. But as the carnage continues and the war funding debate rages, President Bush and allies in the conservative amen corners can only offer the American people new and recycled talking points to sell his catastrophically ill-conceived war without end.

Here, then, is a look back at four years of wartime marketing gone bad. What follows below is by no mean an exhaustive list of the talking points, sound bites, slogans and rallying cries the President and the Republicans used to justify their war, demonize Saddam Hussein and tar the Democratic Party.

Perhaps most disturbing among this catalog of deceit is the Republicans' continued reliance on claims long since proven untrue. This Sunday, for example, Secretary of State Condi Rice tried to parry the George Tenet book by clinging to the "imminent threat" canard, three years after the Iraq Survey Group concluded Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. Just two weeks ago, Vice President Cheney reiterated the demonstrably false claim "Saddam harbored Al Qaeda," based on the pre-war presence of Zarqawi in Kurdish-held areas beyond Baghdad's control. And President Bush continues to warn that the Iraqi insurgents will "follow us home," despite the total rejection of that premise by U.S. intelligence analysts and former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke.

The following GOP Iraq talking points appear to still be in use:

• "Surrender Date"


• "White Flag"


• "Micromanage the War"


• "Embolden the Enemy"


• "How Can Congress Confirm General Petraeus But Oppose His Mission?"


• "Don't Tell the Generals How to Run the War"


• "Handcuffing Our Generals"


• "Follow Us Home"


• "Islamofascists"


• "Mixed Messages (to Syria)"


• "Mixed Messages (to the Troops)"


• "Mixed Messages (to Iraq)"


• "Slow Bleed"


• "Surge"


• "The World is Safer Without Saddam"


• "Saddam Killed His Own People"


• "Pre-9/11 Worldview/Mindset"


• "Cut and Run"


• "As They Stand up, We'll Stand Down"


• "Govern Itself, Defend Itself and Sustain Itself"


• "Better to Fight Them There Than Here"


• "It's Hard Work"


• "Slam Dunk"


• Al Qaeda Link: "Al Qaeda was Present in Iraq"


• "Freedom is God's Gift to Humanity"


• "Iraq is the Central Front in the Global War on Terror"

Many other Iraq sound bites of yore, however, have mercifully ended up on the dustbin of history.

• "We're Making Progress"


• "Augmentation"


• "New Way Forward"


• "Adapting to Win"


• "Stay the Course"


• "Turning the Corner"


• "Fresh Eyes"


• "Last Throes"


• "Purple Fingers"


• "Rewriting History (is Irresponsible)"


• "(Saddad Was) An Ally of Al Qaeda"


• 9/11 Link: "Pretty Well Confirmed (Atta Went to Prague)"


• "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism"


• "Uranium in Africa"


• "Pay for Itself"


• "Mission Accomplished"


• "Imminent Threat"


• "Gathering Threat"


• "Greeted as Liberators"


• "Smoking Gun, Mushroom Cloud"


• "Weapons of Mass Destruction"


• "Axis of Evil"

For a look back at the changing Top 10 GOP sound bites over time, visit the archives here. And to access a repository of all the key Iraq war intelligence documents, commission reports, key memos, essential analyses and other required reading, visit the Perrspectives Iraq WMD and Intelligence Resource Center.