WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Biden Names Warship After George W. ‘Mission Accomplished’ Bush

The former U.S. president famously staged a premature publicity stunt on an aircraft carrier to claim combat in his disastrous occupation of Iraq was over.

President Joe Biden has announced that a new aircraft carrier will be named after former President George W. Bush, who infamously made a premature “Mission Accomplished” declaration on a similar ship to tout his administration’s disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Biden, who voted for the Iraq invasion and was one of its biggest cheerleaders in the United States Senate, said in a statement that Bush knows “firsthand the weight of the responsibilities that come with being Commander-in-Chief.”

He also said another aircraft carrier would be named after former President Bill Clinton. Both ships, he said, “will begin construction in the years ahead.”

One of the most well-known moments of Bush’s presidency—and arguably one of the most embarrassing moments in presidential history—happened on an aircraft carrier.

On May 1, 2003, he staged a massive public relations stunt on the USS Abraham Lincoln, prematurely declaring “major combat operations in Iraq have ended” six weeks after he ordered an invasion of the country.

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Surrounded by an audience of military personnel, Bush spoke in front of a White House-commissioned banner, hung from the ship’s main mast, that read “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.”

“In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed,” Bush said in his remarks.

Like some of the intelligence that was used to argue in favor of the Iraq invasion, his statement would not turn out to be true.

Bush’s claim that combat operations were largely over became laughable in the following years, as the situation in Iraq devolved into a protracted sectarian war.

The majority of military and civilian casualties suffered by the U.S. and Iraq as a result of the invasion occurred after the speech. The United States did not withdraw from the country until 2011.

The Iraq invasion was launched by a U.S.-led coalition in March 2003, after the Bush administration and U.S. intelligence agencies wrongly claimed Iraq was developing an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and alleged false ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.

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Mainstream American media, notably the New York Times, offered up softball coverage of the intelligence agencies' claims. The Times, and the Washington Post, were the most notable publications to later admit their reporting was slanted in favor of U.S. officials' claims.

Biden also bought the Bush administration’s talking points and, as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, offered a leading Democratic voice to its chorus of supporters. He went so far as to coordinate with the White House in organizing a round of Senate hearings that trumpeted the administration’s talking points about (non-existent) Iraqi WMDs.

U.N. weapons inspectors on the ground, meanwhile, warned that U.S. officials were wrong.

The Iraq Body Count project estimates as many as 210,000 civilians died due to violence in Iraq as a result of the U.S.-led invasion.

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