Democratic Underground - I bought the NY TImes article covering the carrier speach

Here's an excerpt:

May 2, 2003, Friday

FOREIGN DESK

AFTEREFFECTS: THE PRESIDENT; Bush Declares 'One Victory in a War on Terror'
By DAVID E. SANGER (NYT)

SAN DIEGO, May 1 -- President Bush declared tonight that the military phase of the battle to topple Saddam Hussein's government was "one victory in a war on terror that began on Sept. 11th, 2001, and still goes on."

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Mr. Bush did not declare final victory tonight as the sailors of the Lincoln, some in blue work uniforms and others in dress whites, assembled on the four-and-a-half-acre flight deck at dusk. Much remained to be done, he said, in rebuilding Iraq, and he promised that allied forces would stay as long as necessary.

White House officials said they did not want to declare a final end to the war, in part because that would require them, under the Geneva Convention, to release more than 6,000 prisoners of war, many of whom are still being interviewed.

Still, he told the sailors and fliers that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended," and that "in the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."

Earlier in the day, in a visit to the carrier that the White House arranged for maximum political effect, it was hard to tell Mr. Bush from the troops he was visiting. He landed on the carrier in a Navy jet that the president, a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard three decades ago, helped pilot. The image of the president surrounded by beaming sailors was an image that White House officials clearly intend to use in the 2004 presidential campaign.

In his speech, Mr. Bush argued that the invasion and liberation of Iraq was part of the American response to the attacks of Sept. 11. He called the tumultuous period since those attacks "19 months that changed the world," and said Mr. Hussein's defeat was a defeat for Al Qaeda and other terrorists as well.

"The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror," he said. "We have removed an ally of Al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding. And this much is certain: no terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because that regime is no more."

Mr. Bush did more this evening than simply meld Mr. Hussein's fallen government with Qaeda terrorists. He both restated and amplified the "Bush doctrine," the aggressive commitment his administration has made to confront major threats before they reach American shores.

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