President Bush on Thursday praised the toppling of Saddam Hussein as “a job well done,” but he warned that the battle in Iraq was but “one victory in a war on terror.” Bush, addressing the nation not from the White House but from the dramatic setting of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, announced: “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” Standing on the giant flight deck, with a banner reading “Mission Accomplished” overhead on the bridge, the commander-in-chief saluted the men and women of the U.S. military. “Because of you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free,” was his message. “America is grateful for a job well done.” Bush arrived at the huge carrier off the California coast on a Navy plane, sitting in the co-pilot’s seat. The ship will arrive in San Diego on Friday after a 10-month deployment, including service in the Iraq and Afghanistan war theaters. Reviewing the quick progress of the 6-week-old Operation Iraqi Freedom, Bush said it “was carried out with a combination of precision, speed and boldness the enemy did not expect — and the world had not seen before.” Full Story
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