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Standing on the deck of the supercarrier USS Abraham Lincoln last week, President Bush declared an end to "major combat" in Iraq. After his speech a clearly emotional Bush toured the audience of naval aviators and sailors. Watching him do so, I felt so proud of our president. I used to get this feeling a lot when Ronald Reagan was in office. I have not felt it since--until last night. Ronald Reagan made me feel good about the presidency. He made me realize that we should all be proud of America. Whereas Jimmy Carter made us feel ashamed in so...

President Bush’s address to the nation Thursday night was more than just an inspired photo op and a tribute to the troops. It also was a welcome elaboration of the president’s vision of what in an earlier administration was called “the new world order.” American forces accomplished two key objectives in Iraq: Saddam Hussein — a ticking time bomb — was defused, and the people of Iraq were liberated from a tyrant they hadn’t the power to overthrow on their own. “In this battle,” said the president, “we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of...

'Battle of Iraq' turns tide in World War IV "My fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." But, President George W. Bush said on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, Iraq was just one battle in a war that stretches around the world. "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001 -- and still goes on," the president said. Four times, the president referred to the recent Iraq action as a "battle"...

<p>SAN DIEGO — President Bush symbolically closed a crucial chapter of his presidency last night by declaring "victory" in Iraq aboard an aircraft carrier returning combat forces to the United States.</p> <p>"The tyrant has fallen and Iraq is free," Mr. Bush told 5,000 cheering sailors and Marines, who interrupted his 22-minute address with 25 rounds of applause and six standing ovations.</p>

Following is the text of US President George W Bush's address to the nation late today from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln nuclear aircraft carrier. Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, and my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country. In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. Our Nation and our coalition are proud...

<p>President Bush plans to make history today by landing in a small plane on a moving aircraft carrier hundreds of miles from shore to declare an end to the combat phase of the war in Iraq.</p> <p>The White House downplayed any danger to the president, whose four-person Navy S-3B Viking anti-submarine aircraft will hook onto a steel cable after landing to prevent it from plunging off the flight deck and into the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Bush will be in the co-pilot's seat.</p>

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...

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) -- ``We brought everyone home alive.'' For Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, that was the best of a string of accomplishments as his troops in the 82nd Airborne Division prepared to leave Iraq. They cleared several cities of Saddam Hussein's paramilitary. They protected supply lines from snipers and rearguard ambushes. They coordinated security for a Shiite Muslim pilgrimage by some 1 million faithful. This week, some 1,200 soldiers of the 82nd -- a group trained for rapid deployment known as America's 911 force -- began heading for Kuwait, expecting to be stateside by mid-May. They are the first...

Friday's Times carried a front-page picture of a skull, with a group of Iraqis gathered around it. The skull was of a political prisoner from Saddam Hussein's regime, and the grieving Iraqis were relatives who had exhumed it from a graveyard filled with other victims of Saddam's torture. Just under the picture was an article about President Bush vowing that weapons of mass destruction will be found in Iraq, as he promised. As far as I'm concerned, we do not need to find any weapons of mass destruction to justify this war. That skull, and the thousands more that will...

By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) will soon declare an official end to combat in Iraq (news - web sites), White House officials said Friday, previewing an address that also will outline his plans to rebuild the war-torn nation and sustain the global war on terrorism. AP Photo The speech may come as early as next week when the president visits an aircraft carrier returning to San Diego from Iraq war duty, officials said. There has been little fighting in Iraq for days and work is already under way to...

U.S. Army Occupies Key Buildings in Mosul By KIMBERLY HEFLING .c The Associated Press MOSUL, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. Army occupied Mosul from the air and on the ground Tuesday with little resistance except scattered small-arms fire, taking custody of a northern city they said was in good shape for quick rehabilitation once the security situation improves. Troops occupied key government buildings, medical clinics, a television station and power plants as they moved in. Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, is home to several ethnic groups, including Arabs and ethnic Kurds, who share it uneasily. Marines had been holding parts of...

KUWAIT CITY April 21 — After winning some of the Iraq war's hardest fighting, Britain's Royal Marine Commandos began packing up hovercraft and landing vessels Monday to begin a long journey home. The departure over the next few weeks of the 2,000 troops of the 3rd Commando Brigade among the British army's best-trained forces is quiet proof that the war is over. Relative stability has come to the British sector in the southern city of Basra, the Faw peninsula and the vital port of Umm Qasr. Reconstruction and peace-building will be left to engineers and civil affairs troops. Still grimy...

<p>Two U.S. congressmen were in Syria on Sunday, and said President Bashar Assad told them his government will not give asylum to Iraqis wanted for war crimes and will expel any Iraqis who cross into Syria.</p> <p>Reps. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., and Darrell Issa, R-Calif., were the first American officials to meet Assad since the recent escalation of U.S.-Syrian tensions.</p>

The era of American weakness and doubt in response to terrorism is over. AMERICA WAS ATTACKED a little over a year and a half ago. This assault was the product of two decades of American weakness in the face of terror and three decades of American fecklessness in the Middle East. From the barely-responded-to bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 to the host of subsequent, little-noticed or quickly forgotten attacks in the later 1980s and in the 1990s, we came to be seen as a "weak horse." That characterization was Osama bin Laden's, and he made it...

April 15, 2003 Pentagon Asserts the Main Fighting Is Finished in IraqBy ERIC SCHMITT with BERNARD WEINRAUB ASHINGTON, April 14 — The Pentagon declared today that major combat operations in Iraq were over after United States forces took control of Tikrit, the last bastion of the old government. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, meanwhile, accused Syria of harboring fleeing officials of Saddam Hussein's government and threatened Damascus with economic or diplomatic sanctions. Other administration officials accused Syria of backing terrorists and amassing chemical and biological weapons. The White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, used even harsher language, calling Syria "a...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Iraqi fighters have not mounted "a coherent defense" and major combat there is essentially over, an Army major general said Monday. "I think we will move into a phase where it is smaller, but sharp fights," Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal told reporters during a Defense Department briefing. Two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and the ships in their battle groups will leave the Persian Gulf this week and return to their home ports, he added. While there is still a lot of work to be done, McChrystal said, "I would anticipate that the major combat operations are...

LONDON, April 14 (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair was set to brief members of Britain's parliament Monday on the fall of Saddam Hussein and the rebuilding of Iraq before the House of Commons rises for an Easter break. Blair was to address parliament at 1:30 pm (1230 GMT) as Foreign Secretary Jack Straw continued a four-nation swing through the Gulf ahead of an EU summit in Athens on Wednesday. Straw's deputy for Middle East issues, Mike O'Brien, was meanwhile due Monday in Damascus, amid stern US warnings to Syria not to give safe haven to fleeing members of Saddam...

UK's Blair says Saddam's forces have collapsed LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday that Saddam Hussein's army had collapsed across Iraq and that those who were still fighting against U.S. and British forces were foreigners. "In essence, all over Iraq, Saddam's forces have collapsed. Much of the remaining fighting, particularly in Baghdad, is being carried out by foreign irregular forces," Blair said in a statement to parliament. He said U.S. troops were in control of most of Baghdad's capital, but not yet all of it. The south of the country was largely under...

Blair sees Iraqi elections in little over a year LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday he hoped elections could be held in Iraq within a year of an interim authority being established. Reporting to parliament, Blair said once the military campaign was over, the United States and Britain would initially be responsible for Iraq's security and humanitarian needs. But he said "a few weeks after the end of the conflict," he wanted to see a broad-based Iraqi interim authority established. "Once established, the interim authority will progressively assume more of the functions of...

SURELY there has never been a war like it: so compressed, so minutely covered, short-lived by the standards of past wars, but seeming to last an eternity. Finally, however, with Saddam Hussein gone, American and British troops are wrapping up a job which, in truth, started 12 years ago. Some talk of a historical triumph that will unlock a new and happier era for the entire Middle East. Others tremble at the prospect of exactly the reverse. But some survey the smouldering battlefield and wonder if somehow, despite the overthrow of a tyrant and all the destruction, we are not...