Ari Fleischer, press secretary for former President George W. Bush, suggested President Donald Trump refrain from using the words "Mission Accomplished" when describing Friday's airstrikes the U.S. conducted against Syria, the Washington Examiner reported Saturday.
"Um...I would have recommended ending this tweet with not those two words," Fleischer tweeted Saturday.
Saturday, Trump praised the airstrikes the U.S. conducted on Friday with allies France and the U.K. against targets identified with Syria's chemical weapons production, tweeting it was a "perfectly executed strike" and proclaiming "Mission Accomplished."
"A perfectly executed strike last night. Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!" Trump tweeted.
Fleischer explained in a series of tweets the "interesting back story" for why the words "Mission Accomplished" haunted Bush's presidency after he held a news conference in 2003 aboard the Naval aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Bush explained how Operation Iraqi Freedom was "a job well done." Behind him on the carrier was a banner that read "Mission Accomplished."
The Iraqi War, however, continued for another eight years, costing the lives of thousands of American troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens. Fleischer explained Navy sailors had asked the White House if they could fly the banner to reflect their return from what was then the longest deployment in Navy history.
"It's obviously too late and I get the symbolism that came back to bite us months later when the war turned and the insurrection grew, but there is an interesting back story to the 'Mission Accomplished' story," Fleischer began.
"After our advance crew boarded the ship in Hawaii days prior to Bush's landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln, the Navy crew told us they were returning from the longest deployment of any ship in Naval history. They were proud of what they had done.
"The crew asked the WH staff if it would be ok to hang a banner saying 'Mission Accomplished.' We readily agreed. We hung it in an obviously prominent place that also sent a message as Bush spoke to the nation.
"In his remarks, Bush stated the danger was not over and that difficult missions lay ahead, particularly in the Sunni triangle. The nuance of his remarks, however, couldn't compete with the message of this banner.
"After Bush left the ship and we took with us all the trappings of the presidency, the banner remained up. It was still up when the Abraham Lincoln pulled into its home port in Washington State.
"It was the crew's message from start to finish. It also was the backdrop for Bush's speech. In May 2003, everyone thought the mission had been accomplished. The insurgency did not fully develop until the Fall of 2003. The WH press corps in May did not criticize the banner.
"By the Fall, the shot of Bush with the banner became a symbol of what went wrong. And now you know the full story," Fleisher wrote.
Fleisher's account for the banner was corroborated on historycentral.com.
"As explained by Cmdr. Conrad Chun, a Navy spokesman, 'The banner was a Navy idea, the ship's idea. The idea popped up in one of the meetings aboard the ship preparing for its homecoming and thought it would be good to have a banner, 'Mission Accomplished.'
"The sailors then asked if the White House could get the sign made.... The banner signified the successful completion of the ship's deployment,' Cmdr. Chun continued noting that the Abraham Lincoln was deployed 290 days, longer than any other nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in history," the article read.
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