WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush will address the nation Thursday night from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln as it streams toward California following 10 months in the Persian Gulf, and he will declare that major combat operations in Iraq are over, the White House announced Wednesday.
The announcement follows conversations Tuesday with Gen. Tommy Franks, in charge of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and ushers in Phase Two in Iraq following the U.S.-led ouster of the Saddam Hussein regime. The U.S.-led coalition will now focus on Iraq's reconstruction and will help pave the way for the establishment of an interim government.
"What the president will talk about is that the major combat operations have ended," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "He will talk about the purpose of the mission, the security of the United States, the liberation of the Iraqi people and the reconstruction of Iraq."
Fleischer said U.S. forces were still being fired upon, so "... this is not, from a legal point of view, the end of hostilities."
A formal, legal declaration of an end to hostilities would result in the United States having to act under international law as a formal occupying force. That would mean it would be responsible for all law and order and services. It would also have to release all prisoners of war.
The White House has officially requested all television networks broadcast the speech live from the Abraham Lincoln, which is hundreds of miles at sea. It was scheduled for 9 p.m. EDT.
Bush will fly to the carrier aboard a small plane from shore since it would be too far at sea to be reached by Marine One, the president's helicopter. The president was expected to spend the night aboard the carrier and helicopter back to San Diego the next day.
Planes from the Abraham Lincoln flew more than 16,000 sorties during its deployment.
