But Iraq’s appeals for a military response have so far been rebuffed by the White House, which has been reluctant to open a new chapter in a conflict that President Obama has insisted was over when the United States withdrew the last of its forces from Iraq in 2011.

Mission Accomplished 2003Nearly two years after the end of his administration and over seven-and-a-half years after the “Mission Accomplished†speech, this admitted mistake remains an embarrassing one for Bush. The giant banner provided the backdrop as the president arrived on the carrier in full gear after participating in two flybys in the co-pilot’s seat of a Navy fighter jet and it was also prominently set for all coverage of Bush’s speech that followed, in which he celebrated the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime and announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq.
When American casualties continued to accumulate—eventually surpassing the total suffered before the mission was supposedly accomplished—Bush’s dramatic photo op came to be perceived among many as foolish bravado; a two-word, tragically ironic summary of a leader who did not understand the role securing the peace has in actually winning a war.

Mission Accomplished 2011Mission accomplished, really: US war in Iraq officially ends
Some 4,000 US forces will be exiting Iraq in the coming days. 'Iraq will be tested in days ahead,' warned Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, at an end-of-mission ceremony Thursday.
Today, “after a great deal of blood spilled by the Iraqis and the Americans, the mission of an Iraq that could govern and secure itself has become real,†he added.
Mr. Panetta, for his part, tackled a question in the course of his remarks that US troops will continue to wrestle with long after the war has come to an end: Was the sacrifice worth the cost?
He assured those forces assembled that it was. “Those lives were not lost in vain,†he said. “They gave birth to an independent, free, and sovereign Iraq.â€
Yet along with the assurances, Panetta issued a warning as well. “Let me be clear: Iraq will be tested in the days ahead, by terrorism, by those who would seek to divide,†he said. And “by the demands of democracy itself.â€
BUSH's FAULT!!!