298 e lusive v ictories
Th e unraveling of the WMD story, though, would come later. For
the moment, the administration reveled in the scenes of happy Iraqis.
Rumsfeld’s boss also took a victory lap, though in time he would rue
how it was staged. Bush was fl own out to the returning aircraft carrier
USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, where he announced the end of
major combat operations and praised the troops. An early draft of the
speech had included the phrase “mission accomplished,” but Rumsfeld
judged it premature and struck it from the text. Unfortunately, no one
thought to change the large banner in front of which the president
spoke to the ship’s crew. The photographs that appeared across the
globe the following day all featured “Mission Accomplished,” and it
would be the only thing people remembered about the event. For the
moment the banner seemed to do no harm. Later the words would
haunt the president.
Success Unwound
For the next three-plus years, from mid-2003 until late 2006, George
W. Bush vainly pursued his other war goals as Iraq plunged into deep-
ening violence. American civilian offi cials in Baghdad and Washington
committed monumental blunders, while military commanders
stumbled as they tried to respond to a rising insurgency. Initial sporadic
attacks on American and other coalition occupying forces became more
widespread and increasingly lethal. Once so determined to control
every aspect of Iraq war policy, Rumsfeld soon distanced himself from
responsibility for the worsening postwar conditions. Th e president,
wedded to his particular management style and convinced that wartime
leadership demanded unwavering commitment, declined for too long
to grab the reins. By 2006 his central peace-building goal of a demo-
cratic Iraq lay in tatters.
Signs that creating a new Iraq would be a greater challenge than the
Pentagon optimists had admitted emerged even before the initial
fi ghting ended. Th e widespread looting suggested a general erosion or
absence of restraining social norms, while the failure by American
troops to clamp down sent a dangerous signal of indiff erence about
what would happen next. Harassing attacks on American supply
convoys continued, an indication that Baathist hard-liners were not