Bush to Declare End of Major Iraq Combat

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) will address the nation Thursday evening from deck of on an aircraft carrier to say that major combat in Iraq (news - web sites) has ended, his spokesman said Wednesday. But the president will neither declare victory in so many words, nor declare the war to be over, said White House press secretary Ari Fleischer (news - web sites). Bush will make the speech from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln as it steams toward its home port in San Diego. The speech will be given while the carrier is still more than a hundred miles off the California coast, Fleischer said. "He will address the nation just as he did at the beginning of the conflict," Fleischer said. He said the White House has requested time from the television networks to broadcast the speech. It will be the first time that a president has spoken to the nation from the deck of a moving carrier. Bush will stop short of either declaring victory or saying the war is over because pockets of resistance remain and some key missions are unfulfilled, Fleischer said. Bush previously had said he wanted to hear from Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S.-led forces in Iraq, before addressing the nation on the progress of the war. "Yesterday the president spoke with General Franks," Fleischer said. "General Franks told the president that major combat operations have ended and that the next phase has begun, which is the reconstruction of Iraq." The carrier is based in Everett, Washington, but was stopping first at San Diego. The carrier will be so far out to sea that it will beyond the reach of helicopters, Fleischer said. Thus, the president will fly in a small plane that will make a cable-assisted landing on the deck of the carrier, Fleischer said. The president will spend the night on the carrier, but then leave Friday before it arrives in San Diego. The USS Lincoln has been at sea for nine months.

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030430-105257-3215r

Bush to announce end of major fighting

By Richard Tomkins
UPI White House Correspondent
From the Washington Politics & Policy Desk
Published 4/30/2003 11:19 AM

WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush will address the nation Thursday night from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln as it streams toward California following 10 months in the Persian Gulf, and he will declare that major combat operations in Iraq are over, the White House announced Wednesday.

The announcement follows conversations Tuesday with Gen. Tommy Franks, in charge of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and ushers in Phase Two in Iraq following the U.S.-led ouster of the Saddam Hussein regime. The U.S.-led coalition will now focus on Iraq's reconstruction and will help pave the way for the establishment of an interim government.

"What the president will talk about is that the major combat operations have ended," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "He will talk about the purpose of the mission, the security of the United States, the liberation of the Iraqi people and the reconstruction of Iraq."

Fleischer said U.S. forces were still being fired upon, so "... this is not, from a legal point of view, the end of hostilities."

A formal, legal declaration of an end to hostilities would result in the United States having to act under international law as a formal occupying force. That would mean it would be responsible for all law and order and services. It would also have to release all prisoners of war.

The White House has officially requested all television networks broadcast the speech live from the Abraham Lincoln, which is hundreds of miles at sea. It was scheduled for 9 p.m. EDT.

Bush will fly to the carrier aboard a small plane from shore since it would be too far at sea to be reached by Marine One, the president's helicopter. The president was expected to spend the night aboard the carrier and helicopter back to San Diego the next day.

Planes from the Abraham Lincoln flew more than 16,000 sorties during its deployment.

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