'Mission Accomplished' Two Years Later- A Photo Essay

[chlamor]

Media strategists noted afterward that Mr. Sforza and his aides had choreographed every aspect of the event, even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush's right shoulder and the "Mission Accomplished" banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot. The speech was specifically timed for what image makers call "magic hour light," which cast a golden glow on Mr. Bush.




"Let's go."
Those were the words uttered by President Bush to Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, at 7:12 p.m. EST Wednesday 19. march 2003, that authorized the United
States to begin war with Iraq



"See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction." —Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003



American bombing, Fallujah, September 18.



“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” – President Bush, 5/1/03



After two years of occupation (and about $5 billion in 'reconstruction' funds spent on god knows what), many of Iraq’s largest cities (such as most parts of Baghdad, as above) have no functioning sewage, or sometimes even water, systems. Electricity is on several hours a day at best, gas lines reach miles long, and the only work available is to act as armed thug for the occupation.



Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear.
– General Douglas MacArthur



Three suicide carbombs targeting Iraqis working for Americans killed around 8 people on the 3rd. One of them seriously wounded this man’s brother, a bystander, at the Interior Ministry in Baghdad.



The pioneers of a warless world
are the youth that refuse military service.
-Albert Einstein



Basra, Iraq. March 11, 2005.



They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting
to die for one's country.
But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying.
You will die like a dog for no good reason.
- Ernest Hemingway



“We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories … And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." —Washington, D.C., May 30, 2003



"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace." —Washington, D.C. June 18, 2002

[Inland]

1. More pics not about to appear on Fox

[alittlelark]

17. She looks sooo much like my (Persian) best friends daughter

Those pic's just tear me up.......

[driver8]

18. Every time I see pictures of those innocent children suffering through

this criminal act, I hate Shrubby even more. How does that man sleep at night?? How can he say he is a "Christian" when thousands and thousands of innocent people are suffering because of his lies??

[jessicazi]

2. Recommended for greatest!

n/t

[babylonsister]

3. Thanks, chlamor. These pics are sad but invaluable.

The more people that see them, the more they might figure out what is truly wrong with the big picture we're not hearing about. Also nominated!

[understandinglife]

4. Thank you 'chlamor.' Nominated. May 2 2005 -- it is just THE BEGINNING....

...of MNA. www.missionnotaccomplished.us - for all those who care

[chlamor]

5. Keep the message out there

It Matters

[understandinglife]

6. MNA is UNRELENTING. We have just begun........

.....www.missionnotaccomplished.us -- time for each of you to learn how to not do the ordinary and prepare to not do the ordinary, repeatedly and peacefully.

That is a message no one can escape.

Peace.

[Radio_Lady]

8. Planning to rest around, read and clean house. I do have to drive

my grandson home but that about it. I feel sorry for those of you who cannot observe this pause because you have to work.

Will there be some media coverage for this effort?

[understandinglife]

14. MNA Day 1 will likely not have any 'media coverage'...by the time we...

....get to MNA Day 3 or 4, I suspect 'the media' will awaken to the message.

Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us - for all those who care

[understandinglife]

7. DUer 'Jara sang' has provided: "List of War Profiteers' Sites Around U.S."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Welcome this relatively new DUer and think about all the letters you can write on MNA May 2 2005

www.missionnotaccomplished.us -- for all those who care

[lonestarnot]

9. Thanks chlamor. War Peace...he knows know difference. Bushilter

biggest asshole on earth!

[G_j]

10. absolutely recommended

and a big thank you!

this can't go on

to the Hague with the war criminals

[seemslikeadream]

11. How Long?

When you look into a child's face
And you're seeing the human race
And the endless possibilities there
Where so much can come true
And you think of the beautiful things
A child can do
How long -- would the child survive
How long -- if it was up to you

When you think about the money spent
On defense by a government
And the weapons of destruction we've built
We're so sure that we need
And you think of the millions and millions
That money could feed
How long -- can you hear someone crying
How long -- can you hear someone dying
Before you ask yourself why?

And how long will we hear people speaking
About missiles for peace
And just let it go by
How long will they tell us these weapons
Are keeping us free
That's a lie
If you saw it from a satellite
With its green and its blue and white
The beauty of the curve of the earth
And its oceans below
You might think it was paradise
If you didn't know
You might think that it's turning
But it's turning so slow

How long -- can you hear someone crying
How long -- can you hear someone dying
Before you ask yourself why?
And how long will it be 'till we've turned
To the tasks and the skills
That we'll have to have learned
If we're going to find our place in the future
And have something to offer
Where this planet's concerned
How long?

[FreedomAngel82]

13. It's so heartbreaking

I just hope we can get justice and these assholes don't get away with it whether it be Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Blair. They deserve what they've done!

[savannahana]

12. profound thanks, chlamor

nominated, & i commit to tend this thread for the next two days.

yours posts and photo-essays are excellent and have meant
a great deal to me. thank you again.

[merh]

15. kick

[merh]

20. another kick

[NNN0LHI]

Thanks for the post chlamor. Real nice job n/t

[understandinglife]

16. "Be The Bu$h Opposition, 24/7"

www.missionnotaccomplished.us - JUST THE BEGINNING OF MNA

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Radio_Lady]

21. Kick this for the East Coast morning hours -- now almost 5 AM!

How about a little decision-making with your morning toast?

If we don't act, we could all be -- toast.

[leftchick]

22. From Today "Mission NOT Accomplished Day"

Thank you chlamor. Excellent Job.....




An Iraqi police man stands next to a pool of blood following a car bomb explosion in Baghdad May 2, 2005. Two car bombs exploded in Baghdad on Monday, one targeting a senior Interior Ministry official and the other exploding in a busy shopping district, killing at least four people, police said. REUTERS/Faleh Kheiber

[chlamor]

23. We will be Greeted as Liberators

“I think has been fairly significant success in terms of putting Iraq back together again…and certainly wouldn't lead me to suggest or think that the strategy is flawed or needs to be changed.” – Vice President Cheney, < 9/14/03 >

“We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. . . . I think it will go relatively quickly... (in) weeks rather than months.” – Vice President Cheney <3/16/03>



American soldiers staged a huge raid on a farm district in southern Baghdad that day, arresting and interrogating at least 52 people, most of whom were women and children. All but two were released later.

[babylonsister]

24. These need to be seen by everyone! nt

[DistressedAmerican]

25. As Usual An Excellent Post. Wish The MSM Had Your Kind Of Heart.

You always seem to cut right to the heart of the war issue.

Nominating.

[chlamor]

26. 'Bring 'em on'

"There are some who, uh, feel like that, you know, the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is: Bring 'em on. We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation. “ - George W. Bush, July 2, 2003.

[savannahana]

27. kick at mid-day n/t

[Octafish]

28. America is led by gangsters.

MONSTER

Once the religious, the hunted and weary
Chasing the promise of freedom and hope
Came to this country to build a new vision
Far from the reaches of kingdom and pope
Like good Christians, some would burn the witches
Later some got slaves to gather riches

But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
And she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light

And once the ties with the crown had been broken
Westward in saddle and wagon it went
And 'til the railroad linked ocean to ocean
Many the lives which had come to an end
While we bullied, stole and bought our a homeland
We began the slaughter of the red man

But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
And she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light

The blue and grey they stomped it
They kicked it just like a dog
And when the war over
They stuffed it just like a hog

And though the past has it's share of injustice
Kind was the spirit in many a way
But it's protectors and friends have been sleeping
Now it's a monster and will not obey

(Suicide)
The spirit was freedom and justice
And it's keepers seem generous and kind
It's leaders were supposed to serve the country
But now they won't pay it no mind
'Cause the people grew fat and got lazy
And now their vote is a meaningless joke
They babble about law and order
But it's all just an echo of what they've been told
Yeah, there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watchin'

Our cities have turned into jungles
And corruption is stranglin' the land
The police force is watching the people
And the people just can't understand
We don't know how to mind our own business
'Cause the whole worlds got to be just like us
Now we are fighting a war over there
No matter who's the winner
We can't pay the cost
'Cause there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watching

(America)
America where are you now?
Don't you care about your sons and daughters?
Don't you know we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster

-- Steppenwolf (1970)

[seemslikeadream]

32. We bled inside each other's wounds

Lay down lay down lay it all down
Let your white birds smile
At the ones who stand and frown
Lay down lay down lay it all down
Let your white birds smile
At the ones who stand and frown

We were so close there was no room
We bled inside each other's wounds
We all had caught the same disease
And we all sang the songs of peace

Lay down lay down lay it all down
Let your white birds smile
At the ones who stand and frown
Lay down lay down lay it all down
Let your white birds smile
At the ones who stand and frown

So raise candles high 'cause if you don't
We could stay black against the night
Oh raise them higher again
And if you do we could stay dry against the rain


Lay down lay down lay it all down
Let your white birds smile
At the ones who stand and frown
Lay down lay down lay it all down
Let your white birds smile
At the ones who stand and frown

We were so close there was no room
We bled inside each other's wounds
We all had caught the same disease
And we all sang the songs of peace

Some came to sing, some came to pray
Some came to keep the dark away
So raise candles high 'cause if you don't
We could stay black against the sky
Oh oh raise them higher again
And if you do we could stay dry against the rain

Lay down lay down lay it all down
Let your white birds smile
At the ones who stand and frown
Lay down lay down lay it all down
Let your white birds smile
At the ones who stand and frown

Lay down lay down lay it all down
Let your white birds smile
At the ones who stand and frown
Lay down lay down lay it all down
Let your white birds smile
At the ones who stand and frown.....

[savannahana]

33. "some came to sing, some came to pray,"

"some came to keep the dark away"

(thank you, SLAD)

kick at evening, against the Tyrants' darkness and delusion

[chlamor]

37. "All Wars are Fought for Money"

Socrates said: "All wars are fought for money."

[chlamor]

39. Liberators Indeed

This terrorist was wounded when American soldiers fired on her car.




“I think has been fairly significant success in terms of putting Iraq back together again…and certainly wouldn't lead me to suggest or think that the strategy is flawed or needs to be changed.” – Vice President Cheney, < 9/14/03 >

“We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. . . . I think it will go relatively quickly... (in) weeks rather than months.” – Vice President Cheney <3/16/03>

[DistressedAmerican]

29. Kick For Truth!

[G_j]

30. kick!

[Catamount]

31. Thanks Chlamor, I'm kicking through my tears!

[chlamor]

34. War Deadens the Spirit

American soldiers assemble for a prayer near Fallujah, shortly before the assault on the city begins. November 6



"War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood.
It degrades and stupefies with the sense that you are not responsible,
that 'tis not yours to think and reason why, but to do and die,'
like the hundred thousand others doomed like yourself.
War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness,
wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder."
- Alexander Berkman

[DistressedAmerican]

35. Kick!

[chlamor]

36. Here is the first image which disappeared overnight-"Yes, I Flew it"

Commander in Chief lands on USS Lincoln



ABOARD USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CNN) -- President Bush made a landing aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln Thursday, arriving in the co-pilot's seat of a Navy S-3B Viking after making two fly-bys of the carrier.

It was the first time a sitting president has arrived on the deck of an aircraft carrier by plane. The jet made what is known as a "tailhook" landing, with the plane, traveling about 150 mph, hooking onto the last of four steel wires across the flight deck and coming to a complete stop in less than 400 feet.

The exterior of the four-seat Navy S-3B Viking was marked with "Navy 1" in the back and "George W. Bush Commander-in-Chief" just below the cockpit window. On the plane's tail was the insignia of the squadron, the "Blue Wolves."

Moments after the landing, the president, wearing a green flight suit and holding a white helmet, got off the plane, saluted those on the flight deck and shook hands with them. Above him, the tower was adorned with a big sign that read, "Mission Accomplished."

Bush said he did take a turn at piloting the craft."Yes, I flew it. Yeah, of course, I liked it," said Bush, who was an F-102 fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard after graduating from Yale University in 1968.

[understandinglife]

38. MNA 1608: Day 2 of MissionNOTAccomplished

American Deaths since war began (March 19 2003) as of May 3 2005 midnight EDT is 1586

Source of information:
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties /

MNA Day 2 will be announced when the number of American deaths in Iraq is 1608

That day is designated MNA 1608

24 hours after receiving any form of communication containing the MNA logo:



YOU are requested To Do Two Things:

1. Do NOT do anything you normally would do for 24 hours, excepting essential activities (which includes communicating with all those who care);

2. Contact at least 10 other individuals and encourage them To Do # 1 and # 2.

For reference:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us -- Because "We The People" Care and Because "We The People" Are America<'b>

[DistressedAmerican]

40. Kick!

[savannahana]

41. kick !

[savannahana]

42. "where everybody's from and nobody goes"

JACK'S CROWS

John Gorka
Blues Palace Music, 1991

You know what crows are but you may not know who Jack is. Jack is a hardy rambling inspirational figure who hits the road and does not come back. He sits in corners. He waits in boxes. He jumps over candles, fetches water, and kills giants. He's found ruby red in the trunks of cars. He's an actor from New Jersey. He is made of steel and can break the ground with your bare hands. He ships off to Alaska and sticks to window glass. He goes to war and becomes the President. ... Some days I look up and find I am one of Jack's crows.


Jack's crows are loud in the morning
They're critical of other birds
Farmers don't appreciate 'em
Though they don't say it in so many words

Jack's crows Jack's crows
Where everybody's from
And nobody goes
That's where you're gonna find Jack's crows

Jack's crows have a bad reputation
Some of them are known as thieves
They're involved in strange celebrations
And magic on all hallow's eve

Jack's crows Jack's crows
Where everybody's from
And nobody goes
That's where you're gonna find Jack's crows

Jack's crows are all very ancient
No relation to the crows of Jim
Jim was driven to the shadows
But now you're seeing more of him

With Jack's crows Jack's crows
Where everybody's from
And nobody goes
That's where you're gonna find Jack's crows

Jack's crows are in for a murder
A murder is a gathering
Some watch some go a little further
Some eat what the others bring

To Jack's crows Jack's crows
Where everybody's from
And nobody goes
That's where you're gonna find Jack's crows

- John Gorka, 1991

[seemslikeadream]

43. Flowers of Guatemala

I took a picture that I'll have to send
People here are friendly and content
People here are colorful and bright
The flowers often bloom at night

Amanita is the name
The flowers cover everything
The flowers cover everything

There's something here I find hard to ignore
There's something that I've never seen before
Amanita is the name they cover over everything

The flowers cover everything
They cover over everything (Amanita is the name)
The flowers cover everything

Don't look into the sun
Don't look into the sun

There's something that I've never seen before
The flowers often bloom at night
Amanita is the name they cover over everything

REM




The flowers refer to flowers strewn on the mass graves.
Amanita is a type of mushroom which flourished due to the buried bodies

[savannahana]

44. thank you. (n/t)

[savannahana]

45. "latest fatality May 2nd, 2005"

please, take time to visit this site:

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties /


"page last updated 05/3/05 4:44 pm EDT"

American deaths

since war began (3/19/03): 1589

since handover (6/29/04): 723

since election (1/31/05): 157

...............................................................................

Quotations from Information Clearing House Newsletter
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info /


May 3, 2005


We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal."

~Martin Luther King, Jr.,
"Letter from Birmingham Jail,"
Why We Can't Wait, 1963

=

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

~Bishop Desmond Tutu


May 1, 2005


Justice is as strictly due between neighbor nations as between neighbor citizens. A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang.

Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Vaughan, 14 March 1785 (B 11:16-7)

=

God grant, that not only the love of liberty, but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man, may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface, and say, “This is my country.”

Benjamin Franklin to David Hartley, 4 December 1789 (S 10: 72)


April 30, 2005


"Peoples of Egypt, you will be told that I have come to destroy your religion. Do not believe it! Reply that I have come to restore your rights!"

(Napoleon Bonaparte, 1798)

=

The most shocking fact about war is that its victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own.

Aldous Huxley - English novelist and critic, 1894-1963

=

Only the winners decide what were war crimes.

Gary Wills - Author

[savannahana]

46. MNA Sting for the day, for chlamor's excellent photo-essay & thread

back to the GD front page
and the "future past"
until people read and feel
and reclaim their natural ability
to respond



Jeremiah Blues (Part 1)

It was midnight, midnight at noon
Everyone talked in rhyme
Everyone saw the big clock ticking
Nobody knew, nobody knew the time

Elegant debutantes smiled
Everyone fought for dimes
Newspapers screamed for blood
It was the best of times

Every place around the world it seemed the same
Can't hear the rhythm for the drums
Everybody wants to look the other way
When something wicked this way comes

Sometimes they tie a thief to the tree
Sometimes I stare
Sometimes it's me

Everyone told the truth
All that we heard were lies
A pope claimed that he'd been wrong in the past
This was a big surprise

Everyone fell in love
A cardinal's wife was jailed
The government saved a dying planet
When popular icons failed

Every place around the world it seemed the same
Can't hear the rhythm for the drums
Everybody wants to look the other way
When something wicked this way comes

Sometimes they tie a thief to the tree
Sometimes I stare
Sometimes it's me
Sometimes I stare
Sometimes it's me

-Sting
_The Soul Cages_ 1990 Magnetic Publishing, Ltd./Blue Turtle Music (ASCAP)

"This album is dedicated to John Dexter, Ethyl Eichelberger and my father." -- Sting

[chlamor]

47. Peace