In a political season when the mainstream media have ceased all pretension of hiding their bias against President Bush, here’s another milestone. The al-Reuters wire service quotes President Bush in their headline and first paragraph as having said “Mission accomplished,” in his speech from May 1, 2003 aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln: Bush: Would Give ‘Mission Accomplished’ Speech Again.

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush said he had no regrets about donning a flight suit to give his “Mission Accomplished” speech on Iraq in May 2003 and would do it all over again if he had the chance, according to excerpts from an television interview released on Sunday.

This is one of the persistent lies of the left, continually repeated even though there is not one single grain of truth in it.

Even if they are not quoting Bush directly, but have unilaterally adopted “Mission Accomplished” as a “title” for that speech, it’s still a lie.

Here’s the President’s actual speech, in which the words “mission accomplished” do not appear once. On the contrary, the President was very careful not to say that all combat was finished: President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.