Five years later, John McCain attempts to rewrite history on his "mission accomplished" statement

I'm not surprised that it took the peace Senator five whole years to do this.

In 2003, during a Fox News interview...
CAVUTO: ... Senator -- after a conflict means after the conflict, and many argue the conflict isn't over.

MCCAIN: Well, then why was there a banner that said 'mission accomplished' on the aircraft carrier? ... the conflict -- the major conflict is over, the regime change has been accomplished..."

In 2008, on the fifth anniversary of Bush's carrier appearance...
"I don't know if you could ever say, quote 'mission accomplished,' as much as you could say 'Americans are out of harm's way.'"

So McCain was referring to the regime change, not the occupation, in 2003, but he still said that the major conflict is over, so at best he had poor judgment and at worst he sold out his short-lived life as a maverick to become a Bush hack so that he could get the nomination. In late 2007, he hit the Bush administration for deceiving the public about how easy the war would be, saying that "People were lead to believe that this would be a walk in the park...". McCain shouldn't be able to spin his "mission accomplished" statement as referring only to the ousting Saddam, and argue that he's been a pro-war maverick who's critical of the Bush Administration's handling of the war, since in 2003 he also said that "the end is very much in sight." Us Democrats can nail him for that.

In fact, Barack Obama nailed him for those words today, saying "Five years after George Bush declared 'mission accomplished' and John McCain told the American people that 'the end is very much in sight' in Iraq, we have lost thousands of lives, spent half a trillion dollars, and we're no safer."


The infamous words:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSIrSNf0m7Q
Another time in 2003, McCain said "This is a mission accomplished."

The retraction:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24418639/