Then ... and now.

May 2, 2003:

President Bush made a landing aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln Thursday, arriving in the co-pilot's seat of a Navy S-3B Viking after making two fly-bys of the carrier...

Moments after the landing, the president, wearing a green flight suit and holding a white helmet, got off the plane, saluted those on the flight deck and shook hands with them. Above him, the tower was adorned with a big sign that read, "Mission Accomplished."

May 15, 2005:

The United States military said it had killed 125 insurgents as it ended its offensive in western Iraq on Saturday, but guerrillas struck again in Baghdad, assassinating a senior official and attacking police patrols...

The military said 9 of its troops had been killed and 40 wounded in the operation. Four died in an amphibious vehicle that hit an explosive device on Wednesday, the military said.

Guerrillas, mostly from Anbar Province in central Iraq, have stepped up suicide bombings and other attacks since Iraq announced a new government on April 28, killing more than 400 people, including security forces, officials and civilians.

In Baghdad, Jassim al-Muhammadawy, director general of administration in the Foreign Ministry, was shot outside his home.

The police said three soldiers were killed in clashes in the Aamiriya district of Baghdad.

A suicide car bomber blew himself up next to an Iraqi police patrol in central Baghdad, killing at least four people, police sources said.

Apparently, accomplishing a mission is ... well, it's hard work.