On May 1, 2003, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of San Diego, President George W. Bush gave his infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech (1) stating major combat operations in Iraq had ended. Today, four years later, nationally renowned spoken word artist Steven Connell (2) joins forces with Robert Greenwald (3) and Brave New Foundation (4) to ask what, exactly, was ever accomplished.


1 https://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/01/iraq/main551946.shtml
2 https://www.stevenconnell.com/
3 https://www.robertgreenwald.org/
4 https://www.bravenewfoundation.org/

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King George (Mission Accomplished)
Words by Steve Connell

Same crime different time
King George is back
To bomb Iraq despite how the world reacts
So now media gets greedier, controls the facts
That makes you wonder if the facts is so white and black
They're much grayer.
Say your prayers, George. He doesn't want calm
He wants to bring this generation to the next Vietnam
Ain't content to let what's gone by be bygones
Until he turns Baghdad into Saigon
The bombs, they drop, don't stop till Saddam gone
Choked, rotten from the hangman's tourniquet.
Case ya'll forgotten -- he's the bin Laden surrogate.
See, Osama, he's Brer Rabbit. The Briar Patch, that's Iraq
He masterminded an attack to get us to fight back
He preyed on the fact we wouldn't think, just react
Like a kid who's been slapped--
Angry, lashing out at the bully who taunts us
We go forward not knowin' we're goin' jus' where he wants us
There's ghosts all around now, but they're not here to haunt us
They're here to beg us to do better than the people who wronged us
They warn us: the greatest trick the devil ever conceived
Is make the people believe that what they strive to achieve,
That's connected to the bliss that God wants to exist
While the devil sits back laughing crossin' things off his list
Saying, "God! I got 'em duped. They think they're talkin' to you.
I got 'em eager to do everything I need 'em to
They go to war for peace, make love with hate
They kill to protect life, and if they don't feel safe
Then they surround themself with danger, then there's no danger left
How could you create life on a foundation of death?
At least 53,000 dead, and rising. Countless numbers in the hospital
We've gone from "mission accomplished" to "mission impossible"
To "someone please tell me the mission that we're on
Tell me we haven't spent the last 6 years goin' wrong."
The good name of America that's entirely gone
In the eyes of the world, we're just as bad as Saddam
There's a game of chess bein' played,
An' it's been played for too long, and I'm afraid,
'Cause our king is startin' to look like their pawn
And Osama's happy to keep playing,
'Cause he's playin' for both sides
'Cause to the victor goes the genocide,
So he doesn't care who gets it, he brazenly admits it
He's happy in the Briar Patch, he's darin' us to visit
His mission was to make America his accomplice
If we don't end the war in Iraq now--
Then Mission Accomplished.

By Steve Connell,
copyright 2007