RETRO-GAGGLE: How will we know when the war is over?

White House Press Briefing With Ari Fleischer, April 9, 2003
(Whitehouse.gov)

Q: A lot of people are going to watch these events [the toppling of the Saddam statue] and assume that the war is over.

MR. FLEISCHER: The war is not over.

Q: Can you tell us what one, two, three, four, five, six things that need to happen before the President can address the country and say the war is over?

MR. FLEISCHER: Well, first of all, it's much too premature to even speculate about that. From the President's point of view --

Q: You've already said it's not over. I'm asking you what is it that would have to happen for him to be able to declare the war is over?

MR. FLEISCHER: The President urges all Americans to remember -- there are two reactions the President had to this morning's wonderful news and the signs of Iraqis in the streets celebrating freedom and toppling the statue of Saddam Hussein. The President's reaction is twofold and you cannot separate one from other. . . . [not everyone has surrendered. . . armed forces still in harm's way. . . Iraqis yearn to be free . . . this is an operation of liberation].

Q: I'm not asking you what time, and I'm not asking you when, and I'm not saying that the war is over. I'm not looking for a reaction to his events today. You already said that very articulately. What I want to know is, what specifically -- what other goals will have to be accomplished before he would declare that the war is over?

MR. FLEISCHER: You know, I think it goes back to what I said at the very beginning, Ron. The President has said that this is a military mission, that the military remains in harm's way, and until the military mission is accomplished, I don't think the President is going to be at that point in his own mind.

Q: What is the military mission that has to be accomplished?

MR. FLEISCHER: There still is fighting that could lay ahead.

End of exchange.