WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.560 picture this you're uh you're watching a basketball 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:05.480 game your team is up by two points there's still 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:08.279 a full quarter left on the clock and the person 00:00:08.279 --> 00:00:11.519 sitting next to you confidently leans back cracks 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:14.439 open a beverage and says mission accomplished 00:00:14.439 --> 00:00:17.339 oh man you just cringe immediately you completely 00:00:17.339 --> 00:00:20.010 cringe you might even like physically back away 00:00:20.010 --> 00:00:22.010 from them. Because we all know exactly what happens 00:00:22.010 --> 00:00:24.589 next. The universe punishes that kind of hubris. 00:00:24.670 --> 00:00:26.449 Right. The other team immediately goes on a 20 00:00:26.449 --> 00:00:28.789 -point run and you lose. Exactly. We use that 00:00:28.789 --> 00:00:31.210 exact phrase today to describe the ultimate jinx. 00:00:31.289 --> 00:00:34.929 It's the universal shorthand for the danger of 00:00:34.929 --> 00:00:38.310 celebrating a victory way, way too early. But 00:00:38.310 --> 00:00:40.289 have you ever stopped to think about where that 00:00:40.289 --> 00:00:43.500 highly recognizable culturally loaded phrase 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:46.560 actually comes from. It really is embedded in 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:48.619 our everyday language now, isn't it? You hear 00:00:48.619 --> 00:00:50.600 it in corporate boardrooms when a project launches. 00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:53.520 You see it used sarcastically on social media. 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:55.719 You hear it in casual conversation. Yeah, everywhere. 00:00:56.170 --> 00:00:58.469 But the origin of that specific cautionary tale 00:00:58.469 --> 00:01:00.929 isn't just some abstract concept or, you know, 00:01:00.950 --> 00:01:04.209 an old proverb. It is tied to a very specific, 00:01:04.370 --> 00:01:06.750 highly televised and incredibly consequential 00:01:06.750 --> 00:01:10.790 day in modern history. May 1st, 2003. May 1st, 00:01:10.790 --> 00:01:13.370 2003. Let's set the scene for you. Imagine looking 00:01:13.370 --> 00:01:15.930 out at a massive... nuclear -powered aircraft 00:01:15.930 --> 00:01:19.129 carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln. It's this absolutely 00:01:19.129 --> 00:01:21.609 gorgeous sun -drenched day floating on the Pacific 00:01:21.609 --> 00:01:23.829 Ocean. Perfect weather for the cameras. Perfect. 00:01:24.109 --> 00:01:27.810 The crew is lined up in pristine uniforms. And 00:01:27.810 --> 00:01:30.489 we are about to witness an unprecedented presidential 00:01:30.489 --> 00:01:32.950 stunt that would ultimately create one of the 00:01:32.950 --> 00:01:35.650 most infamous images in modern political history. 00:01:36.140 --> 00:01:38.480 OK, let's unpack this. On this deep dive, we're 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:40.620 going to explore the historic timeline of President 00:01:40.620 --> 00:01:43.459 George W. Bush's 2003 address to the nation. 00:01:43.700 --> 00:01:45.579 We're going to look at the intense public relations 00:01:45.579 --> 00:01:47.920 scramble that immediately fall in it and the 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:50.219 lasting cultural legacy of a single banner that 00:01:50.219 --> 00:01:52.120 changed the way we view political optics forever. 00:01:52.599 --> 00:01:54.780 And what makes this exploration so essential 00:01:54.780 --> 00:01:57.379 is that it forces us to look past the iconic 00:01:57.379 --> 00:02:00.739 surface level photos. The core theme we are really 00:02:00.739 --> 00:02:03.019 dealing with today is the violent collision between 00:02:03.019 --> 00:02:06.299 carefully crafted optics and chaotic reality. 00:02:06.500 --> 00:02:09.060 Right. We're going to examine how a highly produced 00:02:09.060 --> 00:02:11.979 visual, a literal painted banner, managed to 00:02:11.979 --> 00:02:14.740 completely overwrite spoken nuance and how it 00:02:14.740 --> 00:02:17.500 ultimately became a symbol of a complex, decades 00:02:17.500 --> 00:02:20.379 long conflict. I mean, it is practically a masterclass 00:02:20.379 --> 00:02:23.139 in how political messaging can break containment 00:02:23.139 --> 00:02:26.139 and take on a life of its own. So let's jump 00:02:26.139 --> 00:02:28.159 right into the event itself, because the sheer 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:31.520 spectacle of this arrival is wild. It was designed 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:33.759 from the ground up to be cinematic. Oh, absolutely. 00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:36.340 On that day, President George W. Bush became 00:02:36.340 --> 00:02:38.360 the first sitting president to arrive in an arrested 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:41.319 landing in a fixed -wing aircraft on an aircraft 00:02:41.319 --> 00:02:43.240 carrier. Now, wait, before we go any further, 00:02:43.340 --> 00:02:45.960 for those of us who aren't Top Gun pilots, what 00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:48.340 does an arrested landing actually entail? Why 00:02:48.340 --> 00:02:51.120 is that such a big deal? It's an incredibly violent, 00:02:51.319 --> 00:02:54.460 highly technical maneuver. An arrested landing 00:02:54.460 --> 00:02:57.039 means you are taking a jet traveling at well 00:02:57.039 --> 00:03:00.300 over 100 miles an hour and slamming it onto a 00:03:00.300 --> 00:03:02.780 very short moving runway in the middle of the 00:03:02.780 --> 00:03:05.539 ocean. That sounds terrifying. It really is. 00:03:05.620 --> 00:03:08.060 To stop the plane from just rolling off the edge 00:03:08.060 --> 00:03:10.500 of the ship and into the water, the jet has a 00:03:10.500 --> 00:03:13.139 steel tail hook on the back that has to perfectly 00:03:13.139 --> 00:03:15.360 catch one of the heavy steel cables stretched 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:18.599 across the flight deck. Wow. It essentially yanks 00:03:18.599 --> 00:03:21.659 a 40 ,000 -pound aircraft to a dead stop in a 00:03:21.659 --> 00:03:24.379 matter of seconds. The G -forces are intense, 00:03:24.740 --> 00:03:28.000 it is loud, it is dangerous, and it requires 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:31.639 extraordinary precision. Okay, so it is the ultimate... 00:03:32.180 --> 00:03:34.639 macho adrenaline -fueled entrance. He didn't 00:03:34.639 --> 00:03:36.960 just take the standard safe presidential helicopter. 00:03:37.319 --> 00:03:40.520 He flew in on a Lockheed S3 Viking jet. Right, 00:03:40.659 --> 00:03:42.960 which they literally dubbed Navy One for the 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:45.680 occasion. Navy One. And when the canopy opens, 00:03:45.860 --> 00:03:48.180 he emerges wearing a full olive green military 00:03:48.180 --> 00:03:50.960 flight suit, holding a helmet, posing for photographs 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:52.740 with the pilots and the members of the ship's 00:03:52.740 --> 00:03:54.319 crew. I mean, it was designed to look like a 00:03:54.319 --> 00:03:56.169 blockbuster summer movie. What's fascinating 00:03:56.169 --> 00:03:58.590 here is the immediate disconnect between the 00:03:58.590 --> 00:04:01.270 theatricality of that stunt and the actual logistics 00:04:01.270 --> 00:04:04.870 of the situation. How so? Well, the visual strongly 00:04:04.870 --> 00:04:07.509 implies a commander in chief returning directly 00:04:07.509 --> 00:04:10.610 from a grueling combat mission. But the reality, 00:04:10.849 --> 00:04:13.729 President Bush was a passenger in the co -pilot 00:04:13.729 --> 00:04:16.459 seat of that jet. Not the pilot flying the plane. 00:04:16.620 --> 00:04:18.740 Right. He was just sitting there. Now, to be 00:04:18.740 --> 00:04:21.860 perfectly fair to his military record, he did 00:04:21.860 --> 00:04:25.079 train and serve as a jet pilot in the Air National 00:04:25.079 --> 00:04:29.259 Guard back in the day. But he flew F -102 fighter 00:04:29.259 --> 00:04:31.560 interceptors. Which is a completely different 00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:34.399 beast. Entirely different. An F -102 is designed 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:37.100 to fly fast in a straight line to intercept bombers. 00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:40.060 He was never trained to land a plane on a pitching 00:04:40.060 --> 00:04:42.610 aircraft carrier. That is a highly specialized 00:04:42.610 --> 00:04:45.589 skill set that takes naval aviators years to 00:04:45.589 --> 00:04:47.490 perfect. Yeah, you don't just wing that. Definitely 00:04:47.490 --> 00:04:50.930 not. In fact, that specific S3 Viking that served 00:04:50.930 --> 00:04:53.410 as Navy One was actually retired from service 00:04:53.410 --> 00:04:56.689 shortly after that flight. By July of 2003, it 00:04:56.689 --> 00:04:58.709 was placed on permanent display at the National 00:04:58.709 --> 00:05:02.009 Museum of Naval Aviation in Florida. And if you 00:05:02.009 --> 00:05:04.649 go look at the museum's display placard today, 00:05:04.910 --> 00:05:07.829 it explicitly makes it clear to visitors that 00:05:07.829 --> 00:05:10.170 the president was a passenger. That is amazing. 00:05:10.829 --> 00:05:13.569 The museum literally has to clarify, hey, just 00:05:13.569 --> 00:05:15.509 for the record, he didn't fly this thing onto 00:05:15.509 --> 00:05:17.230 the ship. They had to set the record straight. 00:05:17.509 --> 00:05:19.750 But the visual of him in the flight suit on the 00:05:19.750 --> 00:05:22.389 deck of the carrier was so powerful that the 00:05:22.389 --> 00:05:26.310 technicalities almost didn't matter. But here's 00:05:26.310 --> 00:05:29.370 where we see the very first major crack in the 00:05:29.370 --> 00:05:31.949 administration's public relations strategy. The 00:05:31.949 --> 00:05:34.560 location of the ship. Yes. The White House had 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:37.639 to explain to the press why he arrived in a fighter 00:05:37.639 --> 00:05:40.639 jet instead of the usual perfectly safe Marine 00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:43.480 One helicopter. Initially, the official claim 00:05:43.480 --> 00:05:45.439 from the administration was that the USS Abraham 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:48.199 Lincoln was just too far off the California coast 00:05:48.199 --> 00:05:50.620 for a helicopter to reach safely. Right. Which 00:05:50.620 --> 00:05:52.759 would make the dramatic tailhook jet landing 00:05:52.759 --> 00:05:55.600 an absolute logistical necessity. Yeah. Which 00:05:55.600 --> 00:05:58.740 sounds perfectly reasonable. If the ship is hundreds 00:05:58.740 --> 00:06:02.060 of miles out to sea, you need a jet. The problem 00:06:02.060 --> 00:06:04.480 arose when journalists actually checked the facts 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:07.079 on the water. Critics quickly pointed out the 00:06:07.079 --> 00:06:09.100 actual location of the carrier on the day of 00:06:09.100 --> 00:06:11.839 the speech. And where was it? It was only 30 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:14.519 miles off the coast of San Diego. 30 miles? You 00:06:14.519 --> 00:06:16.540 could practically see the beach from the deck. 00:06:16.759 --> 00:06:19.120 Exactly. That is well within the standard range 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:21.779 of a presidential helicopter. The jet wasn't 00:06:21.779 --> 00:06:24.980 a necessity at all. It was a pure aesthetic choice. 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:27.120 Yeah, it was all for the cameras. Think about 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:29.920 how this applies today. Have you ever seen a 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:33.500 company or a brand or a politician stick to a 00:06:33.500 --> 00:06:37.339 flashy pre -planned PR stunt, even when the reality 00:06:37.339 --> 00:06:39.939 on the ground has completely changed to make 00:06:39.939 --> 00:06:42.839 it unnecessary? It is the ultimate sunk cost 00:06:42.839 --> 00:06:44.920 fallacy. It really is. And the administration 00:06:44.920 --> 00:06:48.040 eventually had to execute an awkward pivot. The 00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:50.040 White House spokesman at the time, Ari Fleischer, 00:06:50.220 --> 00:06:52.480 had to come out and admit the truth to the press 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:54.879 corps. What did he say? He said that the president 00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:57.300 could have helicoptered, but the plan was already 00:06:57.300 --> 00:07:00.319 in place. Plus, he wanted to see a landing the 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:04.259 way aviators see a landing. Wow. They just admitted 00:07:04.259 --> 00:07:07.100 it. That admission perfectly illustrates the 00:07:07.100 --> 00:07:10.060 administration's clear prioritization of optics. 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:13.480 They had a script. They had a very specific visual 00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:15.720 in mind. And even when the physical location 00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:18.160 of the ship changed to make the jet completely 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:21.600 unnecessary, they stuck to the theatrical plan. 00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:24.420 They wanted the imagery of the aviator's landing 00:07:24.420 --> 00:07:27.279 regardless of the logistical reality. And that 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:29.819 deeply ingrained desire for the perfect visual 00:07:29.819 --> 00:07:32.360 perfectly sets the stage for the main event. 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:35.120 The speech itself. Because we have to look at 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:37.100 what was actually spoken versus what was shown. 00:07:37.259 --> 00:07:39.879 Right. The actual text. If you read the transcripts 00:07:39.879 --> 00:07:41.920 from that evening, you can see exactly what President 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:44.519 Bush said at the podium. His exact words were, 00:07:44.600 --> 00:07:47.639 Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In 00:07:47.639 --> 00:07:49.800 the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our 00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:52.459 allies have prevailed because the regime is no 00:07:52.459 --> 00:07:55.600 more. Those are undeniably strong definitive 00:07:55.600 --> 00:07:58.519 words. But it is crucial to note that the speech 00:07:58.519 --> 00:08:02.420 did contain nuance. The text wasn't a pure, unadulterated 00:08:02.420 --> 00:08:05.540 declaration of absolute victory. Bush did include 00:08:05.540 --> 00:08:08.720 specific caveats. He did. He went on to say, 00:08:08.759 --> 00:08:11.019 We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We are 00:08:11.019 --> 00:08:12.839 bringing order to parts of that country that 00:08:12.839 --> 00:08:15.939 remain dangerous. And he explicitly stated, Our 00:08:15.939 --> 00:08:18.579 mission continues. The war on terror continues. 00:08:18.899 --> 00:08:21.939 Yet it is not. Endless. He literally says the 00:08:21.939 --> 00:08:26.459 words our mission continues out loud on national 00:08:26.459 --> 00:08:29.360 television. He does. But and this is a massive 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:31.839 but almost no one remembers those caveats. Why? 00:08:32.139 --> 00:08:34.179 Because of what was hanging directly behind and 00:08:34.179 --> 00:08:36.320 above him on the bridge of the ship. A massive, 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:38.820 brilliantly lit White House produced banner featuring 00:08:38.820 --> 00:08:40.820 just two enormous words. Mission accomplished. 00:08:41.179 --> 00:08:42.659 You have the president saying we have difficult 00:08:42.659 --> 00:08:45.179 work to do while standing directly under a giant 00:08:45.179 --> 00:08:48.320 sign that says the work is done. It's wild. But 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:50.740 wait, with all the military brass involved in 00:08:50.740 --> 00:08:52.779 planning an event of this scale, it's hard to 00:08:52.779 --> 00:08:54.860 believe no one saw this messaging disaster coming. 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:57.840 Did anyone raise a red flag? Actually, yes, someone 00:08:57.840 --> 00:09:00.740 did see it coming from miles away, and it was 00:09:00.740 --> 00:09:03.779 the person managing the actual war. Really? Yes. 00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:07.080 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld caught this 00:09:07.080 --> 00:09:09.929 exact issue in advance. According to journalist 00:09:09.929 --> 00:09:12.470 Bob Woodward, who interviewed Rumsfeld extensively 00:09:12.470 --> 00:09:15.669 later on, Rumsfeld had received an advance draft 00:09:15.669 --> 00:09:17.830 of the speech while he was physically over in 00:09:17.830 --> 00:09:20.809 Baghdad. And Rumsfeld said that when he saw the 00:09:20.809 --> 00:09:23.509 draft, he thought, my God, it's too conclusive. 00:09:24.389 --> 00:09:27.330 Rumsfeld, looking at the dusty, dangerous reality 00:09:27.330 --> 00:09:30.230 on the ground in Iraq, took care to personally 00:09:30.230 --> 00:09:32.409 remove any use of the phrase mission accomplished 00:09:32.409 --> 00:09:35.590 from the actual text of the speech itself. He 00:09:35.590 --> 00:09:38.690 sent the revised, toned -down draft back to Washington. 00:09:39.009 --> 00:09:41.389 So Rumsfeld literally edits it out of the script. 00:09:41.590 --> 00:09:43.750 Completely removes it. But then Rumsfeld later 00:09:43.750 --> 00:09:46.370 said to Woodward regarding his edicts, they fixed 00:09:46.370 --> 00:09:49.330 the speech, but not the sign. I mean, that is 00:09:49.330 --> 00:09:51.370 just incredible. They fixed the speech, but not 00:09:51.370 --> 00:09:54.070 the sign. It's unbelievable. You have the Secretary 00:09:54.070 --> 00:09:56.850 of Defense essentially screaming, we cannot say 00:09:56.850 --> 00:09:59.490 the mission is accomplished. And the PR operatives 00:09:59.490 --> 00:10:02.669 in D .C. update the teleprompter, but decide 00:10:02.669 --> 00:10:05.809 to leave the giant physical banner. dominating 00:10:05.809 --> 00:10:08.370 the television frame. It highlights a massive 00:10:08.370 --> 00:10:11.210 glaring disconnect between two completely different 00:10:11.210 --> 00:10:13.929 worlds. You have the caution of the military 00:10:13.929 --> 00:10:16.779 leadership. who are dealing with the highly volatile 00:10:16.779 --> 00:10:20.139 life or death reality on the battlefield, colliding 00:10:20.139 --> 00:10:22.580 directly with the visual strategy of the political 00:10:22.580 --> 00:10:25.059 PR team who are trying to craft a triumphant 00:10:25.059 --> 00:10:27.700 narrative for the evening news cycle. Two totally 00:10:27.700 --> 00:10:29.399 different goals. Exactly. And the psychology 00:10:29.399 --> 00:10:31.899 behind why the PR team won that moment is actually 00:10:31.899 --> 00:10:34.440 deeply rooted in how our brains work. There is 00:10:34.440 --> 00:10:37.100 a psychological concept called the picture superiority 00:10:37.100 --> 00:10:40.299 effect. Human beings are hardwired to remember 00:10:40.299 --> 00:10:43.279 images far more effectively than words. That 00:10:43.279 --> 00:10:45.549 makes a lot of sense. You can write the most 00:10:45.549 --> 00:10:48.470 carefully caveated speech in the world. But if 00:10:48.470 --> 00:10:51.549 the visual backdrop contradicts the nuance, the 00:10:51.549 --> 00:10:54.110 human brain is going to lash onto the giant bold 00:10:54.110 --> 00:10:56.870 text. The PR team understood that the sign would 00:10:56.870 --> 00:10:59.509 win. But history would show that the military 00:10:59.509 --> 00:11:02.330 leadership's caution was entirely justified. 00:11:02.669 --> 00:11:04.450 Here's where it gets really interesting. And 00:11:04.450 --> 00:11:06.389 I want to shift gears here because the facts 00:11:06.389 --> 00:11:09.629 we are about to explore are incredibly sobering. 00:11:09.629 --> 00:11:12.700 Yes. We have to look at the stark. factual contrast 00:11:12.700 --> 00:11:15.000 between the triumphant declaration on that banner 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:17.600 and the grim reality of the war that followed. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:20.679 If you look at the raw casualty numbers, on May 00:11:20.679 --> 00:11:23.759 1, 2003, the day President Bush stood under that 00:11:23.759 --> 00:11:25.860 mission -accomplished banner, American military 00:11:25.860 --> 00:11:28.940 deaths in the Iraq War totaled 104. Under and 00:11:28.940 --> 00:11:31.179 forth. Keep that number in mind. Because after 00:11:31.179 --> 00:11:33.539 that speech declaring an end to major combat 00:11:33.539 --> 00:11:36.419 operations, the conflict did not end. It evolved. 00:11:36.620 --> 00:11:39.440 It metastasized into an outright sectarian war 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:41.779 and a grueling insurgency. Right. And just to 00:11:41.779 --> 00:11:43.360 clarify what that means for anyone unfamiliar 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:45.460 with the military terminology, an insurgency 00:11:45.460 --> 00:11:47.440 means you are no longer fighting a traditional 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:50.200 uniformed army on a defined battlefield. It's 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:52.879 much more chaotic. Highly chaotic. The Iraqi 00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:55.039 government's formal military had fallen, but 00:11:55.039 --> 00:11:57.460 then various factions, militias, and guerrilla 00:11:57.460 --> 00:12:00.919 groups turned on each other and on U .S. forces. 00:12:01.080 --> 00:12:05.080 The danger was everywhere. IEDs on roads, ambushes 00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:06.940 in cities. It was a completely different kind 00:12:06.940 --> 00:12:09.120 of war. Over the next eight years, a further 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:13.500 3 ,424 Americans were killed. And that is before 00:12:13.500 --> 00:12:16.019 American combat operations officially halted 00:12:16.019 --> 00:12:19.059 in February of 2011. The vast, vast majority 00:12:19.059 --> 00:12:22.240 of the casualty's coalition forces, Iraqi military 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:25.419 and civilian, occurred after the victory speech 00:12:25.419 --> 00:12:27.879 was given. It's staggering to think about. You 00:12:27.879 --> 00:12:30.460 have this pristine image of triumph broadcast 00:12:30.460 --> 00:12:33.419 to the world, followed immediately by eight years 00:12:33.419 --> 00:12:36.799 of brutal, grinding conflict. And as the violence 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:39.080 escalated, as the insurgency gained terrifying 00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:41.419 pace in the weeks and months immediately following 00:12:41.419 --> 00:12:43.559 the speech, the media and the public started 00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:45.860 asking really pointed questions about that banner. 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:49.039 who authorized it. And the White House response 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:52.840 was absolute panic. It became a scramble to explain 00:12:52.840 --> 00:12:56.179 it away. It's a timeline of frantic damage control 00:12:56.179 --> 00:12:58.700 where government officials were literally offering 00:12:58.700 --> 00:13:02.259 totally different conflicting accounts of where 00:13:02.259 --> 00:13:04.759 this banner even came from. So the Pentagon goes 00:13:04.759 --> 00:13:07.179 first. They try to say it's just about the boat. 00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:09.759 Right. Navy Commander Conrad Chun stated that 00:13:09.759 --> 00:13:11.899 the banner had nothing to do with the war as 00:13:11.899 --> 00:13:14.440 a whole. He claimed it referred strictly to the 00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:17.029 ship itself. Just the ship. Thus the ship. The 00:13:17.029 --> 00:13:19.730 USS Abraham Lincoln was returning from a 10 -month 00:13:19.730 --> 00:13:22.190 deployment, which was actually the longest aircraft 00:13:22.190 --> 00:13:25.110 carrier deployment since the Vietnam War. So 00:13:25.110 --> 00:13:28.250 Chun argued it truly did signify a mission accomplished 00:13:28.250 --> 00:13:30.490 for the crew. Did the press actually buy that? 00:13:30.649 --> 00:13:33.370 Not for a second. The reporters kept pushing, 00:13:33.509 --> 00:13:35.610 noting that it was perfectly framed behind the 00:13:35.610 --> 00:13:37.929 president during a speech about the broader war. 00:13:38.149 --> 00:13:40.789 That forced the White House into a corner, leading 00:13:40.789 --> 00:13:43.549 to their next, even weaker defense. They came 00:13:43.549 --> 00:13:46.070 out and claimed, hey, the crew of the ship actually 00:13:46.070 --> 00:13:49.169 requested the banner, but they just didn't have 00:13:49.169 --> 00:13:50.769 the facilities on board to produce something 00:13:50.769 --> 00:13:53.029 that big. So they were just doing the humble 00:13:53.029 --> 00:13:55.669 sailors a favor. Wait, so the White House produced 00:13:55.669 --> 00:13:58.450 this massive, expensive, perfectly lit banner, 00:13:58.570 --> 00:14:01.769 shipped it to an aircraft carrier, but their 00:14:01.769 --> 00:14:05.259 official defense was, hey. The sailors hung it 00:14:05.259 --> 00:14:08.620 up, not us. What was the claim? That is PR deflection 00:14:08.620 --> 00:14:11.179 at its absolute worst. They literally tried to 00:14:11.179 --> 00:14:13.799 blame the Navy's stagehands. And the media kept 00:14:13.799 --> 00:14:16.399 digging, which leads to, excuse number three, 00:14:16.580 --> 00:14:19.139 the inevitable confession. Finally. White House 00:14:19.139 --> 00:14:22.049 spokesman Scott McClellan. finally had to admit 00:14:22.049 --> 00:14:25.250 to CNN the reality of the situation. He said, 00:14:25.309 --> 00:14:26.889 we took care of the production of it. We have 00:14:26.889 --> 00:14:29.389 people to do those things. But the Navy actually 00:14:29.389 --> 00:14:31.429 put it up. Still trying to pass the buck a little 00:14:31.429 --> 00:14:34.350 bit. Exactly. And even that wasn't entirely true 00:14:34.350 --> 00:14:36.529 because journalists like John Dickerson noted 00:14:36.529 --> 00:14:38.590 that the White House later conceded that their 00:14:38.590 --> 00:14:41.429 own advanced staff even hung the banner themselves. 00:14:42.110 --> 00:14:44.870 It was an entirely White House production from 00:14:44.870 --> 00:14:47.610 start to finish. They built the set. They printed 00:14:47.610 --> 00:14:49.350 the sign. They hung it up. And then they tried 00:14:49.350 --> 00:14:51.980 to blame the crew. when the reviews turned sour. 00:14:52.259 --> 00:14:55.279 The disconnect is just profound. It's fascinating 00:14:55.279 --> 00:14:57.340 how long it took for the administration to fully 00:14:57.340 --> 00:14:59.679 walk it back. I mean, they couldn't just ignore 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:01.960 it. The phrase was everywhere. It was a cultural 00:15:01.960 --> 00:15:05.299 touchstone. So how did they finally address the 00:15:05.299 --> 00:15:07.799 elephant in the room? It took years, but they 00:15:07.799 --> 00:15:09.480 eventually had to eat their words. They did. 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:13.220 By April of 2008, which is five grueling years 00:15:13.220 --> 00:15:15.580 after the speech, White House Press Secretary 00:15:15.580 --> 00:15:18.399 Dana Perino explicitly acknowledged the failure. 00:15:18.679 --> 00:15:21.259 She said, President Bush is well aware that the 00:15:21.259 --> 00:15:23.159 banner should have been much more specific and 00:15:23.159 --> 00:15:25.240 said, mission accomplished for these sailors 00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:27.200 who are on this ship on their mission. And we 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:29.159 have certainly paid a price for not being more 00:15:29.159 --> 00:15:31.320 specific on that banner. Paid a price. Yeah. 00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:34.000 That is a very candid admission for a press secretary. 00:15:34.279 --> 00:15:36.169 And President Bush himself eventually. had to 00:15:36.169 --> 00:15:38.669 go on the record about it too, right? Yes. Towards 00:15:38.669 --> 00:15:41.330 the very end of his presidency, in late 2008 00:15:41.330 --> 00:15:43.690 and early 2009, as he was preparing to leave 00:15:43.690 --> 00:15:46.289 office, Bush gave interviews where he expressed 00:15:46.289 --> 00:15:49.210 direct regret. What did he say? He told CNN, 00:15:49.470 --> 00:15:52.529 to some it said, well, Bush thinks the war in 00:15:52.529 --> 00:15:54.950 Iraq is over, when I didn't think that. It conveyed 00:15:54.950 --> 00:15:58.309 the wrong message. And in January 2009, he was 00:15:58.309 --> 00:16:01.549 even more blunt, stating flatly, clearly, putting 00:16:01.549 --> 00:16:03.669 mission accomplished on an aircraft carrier was 00:16:03.669 --> 00:16:06.419 a mistake. A mistake that completely cemented 00:16:06.419 --> 00:16:09.279 itself into modern parlance. The media made sure 00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:11.960 that phrase would live on as a permanent warning. 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:14.740 You can look back at the cover of Time magazine 00:16:14.740 --> 00:16:17.759 from October 6, 2003, just a few months after 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:20.200 the speech, as the reality of the insurgency 00:16:20.200 --> 00:16:22.559 was truly setting in. I remember that cover. 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:25.360 The massive headline was, Mission Not Accomplished. 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:27.440 The phrase was immediately turned back around 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:29.570 on the administration like a weapon. If we connect 00:16:29.570 --> 00:16:31.950 this to the bigger picture, you can see exactly 00:16:31.950 --> 00:16:34.750 why this specific photo op became the ultimate 00:16:34.750 --> 00:16:38.389 symbol for critics of the war. Anti -war activists 00:16:38.389 --> 00:16:41.230 and political opponents looked at this heavily 00:16:41.230 --> 00:16:44.509 produced, tightly controlled visual event, and 00:16:44.509 --> 00:16:47.169 they used it to question the integrity and realism 00:16:47.169 --> 00:16:50.049 of the entire administration. It was just too 00:16:50.049 --> 00:16:53.029 perfect a target. It came to symbolize the sheer 00:16:53.029 --> 00:16:55.970 irony of giving a triumphant victory speech just 00:16:55.970 --> 00:16:57.929 a few weeks into what would eventually become 00:16:57.929 --> 00:17:01.009 the fifth longest war in American history. And 00:17:01.009 --> 00:17:03.889 its legacy persists today. It is now the standard 00:17:03.889 --> 00:17:06.170 political shorthand for a premature declaration 00:17:06.170 --> 00:17:08.690 of victory. And where is the physical banner 00:17:08.690 --> 00:17:11.250 today? Is it hanging in a museum somewhere? No, 00:17:11.329 --> 00:17:14.490 it's essentially hidden. In 2010, it was transferred 00:17:14.490 --> 00:17:16.509 from the National Archives to the collection 00:17:16.509 --> 00:17:19.190 of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. But 00:17:19.190 --> 00:17:21.069 you won't see it if you visit. Really? Yeah. 00:17:21.150 --> 00:17:23.549 The banner is not on public display. It's locked 00:17:23.549 --> 00:17:25.950 away in the archives. Yet it still haunts political 00:17:25.950 --> 00:17:29.529 discourse. In April 2018, when President Donald 00:17:29.529 --> 00:17:32.089 Trump tweeted the exact phrase, mission accomplished, 00:17:32.430 --> 00:17:35.630 following a U .S.-led airstrike on Syria, critics 00:17:35.630 --> 00:17:38.450 instantly pounced. Oh, I bet they did. They immediately 00:17:38.450 --> 00:17:41.130 drew the historical parallels to Bush's 2003 00:17:41.130 --> 00:17:44.750 speech. The cultural memory of that banner is 00:17:44.750 --> 00:17:47.410 so strong that just typing the words on social 00:17:47.410 --> 00:17:49.809 media triggers an immediate historical backlash. 00:17:50.089 --> 00:17:51.950 It's like a political third rail now. You just 00:17:51.950 --> 00:17:54.150 do not say it. So what does this all mean for 00:17:54.150 --> 00:17:56.599 you listening today? Think about how often we 00:17:56.599 --> 00:17:58.920 are bombarded with carefully curated visuals 00:17:58.920 --> 00:18:02.039 on our feeds, on the news, from corporations 00:18:02.039 --> 00:18:05.019 and politicians. Constantly. In an age of absolute 00:18:05.019 --> 00:18:08.359 information overload, this deep dive really proves 00:18:08.359 --> 00:18:12.279 that a single powerful image can completely override 00:18:12.279 --> 00:18:15.680 whatever nuance is actually being spoken. You 00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:17.680 can say the mission continues. But if you're 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:19.420 standing in front of a giant sign that says, 00:18:19.519 --> 00:18:22.619 mission accomplished, the sign wins. Every single 00:18:22.619 --> 00:18:24.880 time. Absolutely. PR spin can build a beautiful 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:28.000 stage, but when it collides violently with historical 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:31.160 reality, the messy facts on the ground will eventually 00:18:31.160 --> 00:18:33.519 tear that stage down. This raises an important 00:18:33.519 --> 00:18:35.779 question, and I want to leave you with one final, 00:18:35.839 --> 00:18:38.359 deeply fascinating detail from the historical 00:18:38.359 --> 00:18:40.859 record to mull over. Let's hear it. We've spent 00:18:40.859 --> 00:18:43.359 this entire time talking about the optics surrounding 00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:47.039 the war in Iraq, but on that exact same day, 00:18:47.259 --> 00:18:51.400 May 1st, 2003, Just a few hours before President 00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:54.000 Bush stood on that aircraft carrier, Defense 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:56.220 Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was in a different 00:18:56.220 --> 00:18:58.400 part of the world entirely. Okay, where was he? 00:18:58.519 --> 00:19:01.359 He was in Kabul, and he declared an end to major 00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:03.960 combat operations in Afghanistan. On the exact 00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:06.559 same day. He did it twice. The exact same day, 00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:10.240 May 1, 2003. It was a less publicized incident, 00:19:10.319 --> 00:19:12.680 but he made the same technical declaration for 00:19:12.680 --> 00:19:15.099 Afghanistan hours before Bush made it for Iraq. 00:19:16.109 --> 00:19:17.890 I want you to consider how governments use the 00:19:17.890 --> 00:19:20.670 highly technical military definition of major 00:19:20.670 --> 00:19:23.430 combat operations to try and politically close 00:19:23.430 --> 00:19:25.990 chapters of history. Wow. They use these narrow 00:19:25.990 --> 00:19:27.930 definitions to tell the public the big part is 00:19:27.930 --> 00:19:30.650 over, even while the actual grinding, deeply 00:19:30.650 --> 00:19:33.970 deadly wars are, in reality, just getting started. 00:19:34.069 --> 00:19:36.549 That is heavy. And it perfectly encapsulates 00:19:36.549 --> 00:19:38.809 why we do these deep dives. You have to look 00:19:38.809 --> 00:19:40.349 at the fine print, you have to understand the 00:19:40.349 --> 00:19:42.450 timeline, and you always have to look past the 00:19:42.450 --> 00:19:44.470 banner to examine the actual facts on the ground. 00:19:44.920 --> 00:19:47.059 Thank you so much for joining us as we unpacked 00:19:47.059 --> 00:19:50.079 this piece of history. Stay curious, keep questioning 00:19:50.079 --> 00:19:52.420 the visuals, and we will catch you on the next 00:19:52.420 --> 00:19:53.119 deep dive.