Saturday marked the first anniversary since President Bush helped fly a fighter jet onto the USS Abraham Lincoln to announce “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” Hanging above him was a massive sign that read “Mission Accomplished.” On May 2 of last year Pentagon advisor and a chief backer of the US invasion Richard Perle wrote in USA Today “Relax, celebrate victory.” Since that time 590 soldiers have died in Iraq, about four times as many that died during the so-called major combat operations. Bush marked the anniversary by claiming this weekend that the war had been “one of the swiftest, most successful and humane campaigns in military history.” Meanwhile in the London Independent, war correspondent Patrick Cockburn predicts the US can no longer win in Iraq and that the country may be facing “one of the most extraordinary defeats in history.”