Lynn C. Woolsey: “last Sunday was the second anniversary of President Bush's now infamous ``Mission Accomplished'' speech in which he…”

“last Sunday was the second anniversary of President Bush's now infamous ``Mission Accomplished'' speech in which he declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq under an arrogant banner declaring that the mission had been ``accomplished.'' I do not know the President's definition of the word ``accomplished,'' but I think just about anyone who is asked would say that the mission is very far from being accomplished in Iraq. Let us consider the facts. To date, nearly 1,600 American soldiers have been killed in this war. Estimates of Iraqi sources suggest that between 21,000 and 25,000, at least, Iraqi civilians have been killed as well, with hundreds more injured and dying weekly. And nearly 12,000 American troops have suffered severe injuries as a result of the continuing major combat operations. The vast majority of all these casualties occurred and continue to occur after the President delivered his ``Mission Accomplished'' speech. We need to consider what is happening every single day on the ground in Iraq. The newspapers provide news daily of the latest disaster caused by vicious Iraqi militants. Every day dozens of innocent people are being killed. To my colleagues who claim that the newspapers are biased and do not present the positive news stories out of Iraq, I would say that it is pretty hard to be positive when they are surrounded by violence.…”