Perspective: On This Day In Iraq -- May 1st edition

May 1, 2003: A Marine stands guard outside the police station in al-Kut, part of the effort to bring a stop to the looting which had spread across Iraq since the invasion.


May 1, 2002:

Atta Didn't Meet With Iraqi Intelligence Agent as Once Alleged

WASHINGTON — U.S. investigators no longer believe suicide hijacker Mohammed Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Europe last year, eliminating the only known link between Saddam Hussein's government and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

American and Czech officials had believed the meetings between Atta, the alleged ringleader of the 19 hijackers, and Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani, an Iraqi diplomat widely believed to be an intelligence agent, took place in Prague in April 2001.

Some observers said the meetings suggested Iraq's complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks -- providing the United States with a reason to attack Saddam.

Read the rest at Fox News


May 1, 2003:

Bush Proclaims Victory in Iraq

ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN, May 1 -- President Bush proclaimed victory in Iraq tonight from aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier returning to home port, but he cautioned that much remains to be done in the broader war against terrorism.

"The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001, and still goes on," the president said in his national address beamed from the deck of the Lincoln.
Bush told the nearly 5,000 sailors gathered on the flight deck under a bright sun that they had fought "for the cause of liberty and for the peace of the world."

Portraying the anti-terrorist battles in the tradition of the Normandy invasion and Iwo Jima, Bush placed his own doctrine of overwhelming American strength and the use of preemptive force along side Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms, the Truman Doctrine of containment, and Ronald Reagan's challenge to the Soviet Union's "Evil Empire."

Read the rest at the Washington Post


May 1, 2004:

U.S. toll in April: 136 dead

WASHINGTON -- The deadliest month of the Iraq war for U.S. troops has taken an especially heavy toll on the Army National Guard and Army Reserve.

Overall, at least 136 U.S. troops died in Iraq in April -- more than in the previous three months combined -- including more than a dozen whose names have not been released because the Army has not notified their families. That compares with death totals of 50 in March, 21 in February and 46 in January.

The dead Americans ranged in age from 18 years to 49 years old. At least 13 were teenagers, and at least five were 40 years or older...

In all, 732 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since the conflict began, according to the Pentagon's official count yesterday. That figure, however, does not include at least some of the one dozen who have died in the past two days.

Read the rest at the Seattle Post Intelligencer


May 1, 2005:

As casualties soar, America's women face reality of front line

Facing the highest ever casualty rate for servicewomen in its history, America is considering making official what is already a reality - allowing women to fight on the front line in war.

The ground war in Iraq has made the historical tradition of not having women in combat unworkable. A total of 35 US servicewomen have now died in Iraq and 271 have been injured. It is a small percentage of the 1,500 US service personnel fatalities and the 11,600 wounded, but these women are being killed and injured under enemy fire.

Read the rest at the Observer


May 1, 2006:

'Mission' Gets Closer to 'Accomplished'

WASHINGTON -- Three years after delivering his "mission accomplished" speech on Iraq, President Bush on Monday declared another turning point had arrived with the establishment of a permanent government in Baghdad.

"We believe we've got partners to help the Iraqi people realize their dreams," Bush said of the recent emergence of new Iraqi leadership. "They need to know that we stand with them."

The president's May 1, 2003, appearance on the USS Abraham Lincoln is one of his most indelible war-related images.

The president's May 1, 2003, appearance on the USS Abraham Lincoln is one of his most indelible war-related images.

Clad in a flight suit, he emerged dramatically from a Navy jet that screamed in for a landing on the carrier's deck. Under a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner, Bush announced that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended."...

It didn't turn out that way.

Violence in Iraq continued instead of ebbed. In the six weeks from the start of the invasion to Bush's speech, 139 U.S. soldiers had died. In the three years since, as of Sunday, there have been another 2,258 U.S. military deaths in Iraq -- an average of 63 each month.

Read the rest at the Washington Post