So how would you conduct the war differently, Maverick?

@1, by staying there for 100 years!!!!! Or nuke the bastards!

So blatantly false propaganda is only okay when the president does it, but not by members of his admin.?

The banner was designed and paid for by the White House, not the ship.

why can't he be criticized for both?

5 years later and a lot of you are still hung up about a banner? talk about passive aggressive anti war tendencies, sheesh.

@6, I said that earlier and had a new asshole ripped into me. Better to attack the banner than all those politicians in DC who let the war go on (both Democrats and Republicans BTW).

its not the banner, its what it represents. the fucking lie about the banner, and the incessant, galling efforts of the WH to revise the history of this propaganda event.

if we let it go, the WH version of "mission accomplished" becomes the truth in the tiny, pig-ignorant minds of the american lumpen proletariat that wine-sipping elitists like me look down on.

Seven Years of Lying
Five Years of Dying
Three Candidates to Choose From
One President to Win With

(apologies to Cialis spokesman Sen McCain)

Are we also supposed to forget about "[t]he war in Iraq will pay for itself" and "I think we'll be greeted as liberators. Please pass me another baby to suck the blood out of."?

Andrew @7, I think most people ARE criticizing both the banner and the politicians complicit to the situation in Iraq. It's entirely appropriate to revisit the banner and what it represented then and now, 5 years on, in a quagmire that doesn't appear to be ending anytime in the foreseeable future.

Remember all, this is not a war.
This is an occupation.

Nothing to win.
Just leave.