Happy Anniversary, Mission Accomplished!

From Military Families Speak Out:

Four years ago today, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and announced “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended,” with the backdrop of a banner declaring “Mission Accomplished,” in a carefully-choreographed photo op. It was May 1, 2003 – the 43rd day of the war in Iraq, and at that point 140 U.S. servicemen and women had died. Today is the 1,502nd day of the war in Iraq; over 3,200 more U.S. troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, women and men have died since May 1, 2003 when major combat operations were supposed to have ended. Over 100 troops died during the month of April, 2007 – one of the deadliest months since the war began.

On May 1, 2007 President Bush vetoed a supplemental appropriations bill that would have allowed him to continue the U.S. military occupation of Iraq into 2008, because he is not willing to accept even non-enforceable limitations on how, and for how long, he conducts this war based on lies.

It is indeed ironic that on fourth anniversary of the day he declared the end of major combat, President Bush is making the strongest statement he can, a Presidential veto of funding that he has asked for, to ensure that major combat can continue indefinitely in Iraq.

As military and Gold Star families who live every day with the heartache, fear and damage this war has brought, our message today is for Congress:

Fund our troops, and de-fund this war. Fully fund the safe and orderly withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, and the care they need when they get home. Do not bargain or compromise with the lives of our loved ones or the loved ones of others. Do not abandon our troops to an unjust and unjustifiable war. Strengthen your resolve, use your ‘power of the purse’ and end this war.