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2003 invasion of Iraq2003 invasion of Iraq

Part of the Iraq War

U.S. Army M1A1 Abrams tanks and their crewspose for a photo in front of the "Hands of Victory"monument at Baghdad's Ceremony Square inNovember 2003.

BelligerentsCoalition forces:

United States United Kingdom Denmark Australia Poland

With political andmilitary support from:

Iraqi NationalCongress[2][3][4]

Islamic Dawa PartyIraqi National Accord

Peshmerga

KurdistanDemocratic Party

Patriotic Unionof Kurdistan

Iraq

Iraqi Army andsecurity andirregular forces(includingFedayeen Saddamparamilitaries andBa'ath Partymilitias)

Arabvolunteers[5][6]

With military supportfrom:

Ansar al-Islam Islamic Group of

Kurdistan Mujahideen

Commanders and leaders George W. Bush Tommy Franks Saddam Hussein

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Tony Blair Brian Burridge

John Howard Aleksander

Kwaśniewski Massoud Barzani Babakir Zebari Jalal Talabani Kosrat Rasul Ali Ahmad Chalabi

Qusay Hussein † Uday Hussein † Ali Hassan al-

Majid (POW) Barzan Ibrahim Izzat Ibrahim al-

Douri Ra'ad al-Hamdani Mizban Khuthair al-

Hadi

Strength265,000

United States:148,000

United Kingdom:45,000

Australia: 2,000 Poland: 194[7]

Peshmerga:70,000[8]

Iraqi NationalCongress: 620

375,000 Iraqi Army50,000 RepublicanGuard44,000 paramilitary650,000 reserves[9][10]

Casualties and losses

Coalition:172 killed (139 U.S., 33U.K.)[11][12]

551 wounded (U.S.)[13]

Peshmerga:24+ killed[14]

Total:196+ killed

Estimated Iraqicombatant fatalities:30,000 (figure attributedto General TommyFranks)

7,600–11,000 (4,895–6,370 observed andreported) (Project onDefense Alternativesstudy)[15][16]

13,500–45,000(extrapolated fromfatality rates in unitsserving aroundBaghdad)[17]

Estimated Iraqi civilian fatalities:

601,027 violent deaths out of 654,965 excessdeaths ( 2003-2006 ) - Lancet surveys of Iraq Warcasualties 115,503 – 126,796 civilian deaths in

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the whole conflict as of December 12, 2012.[18]

3,200–4,300 (Project on Defense Alternativesstudy)[15]

The 2003 invasion of Iraq lasted from 19 March 2003 to 1 May 2003 and signaledthe start of the conflict that later came to be known as the Iraq War, which wasdubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the United States. The invasion consisted of 21days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from theUnited States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland, invaded Iraq and deposedthe Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. The invasion phase consisted primarilyof a conventionally-fought war which concluded with the capture of the Iraqi capitalof Baghdad by American forces.

Four countries participated with troops during the initial invasion phase, which lastedfrom 19 March to 9 April 2003. These were the United States (148,000), UnitedKingdom (45,000), Australia (2,000), and Poland (194). 36 other countries wereinvolved in its aftermath. In preparation for the invasion, 100,000 U.S. troops were

assembled in Kuwait by 18 February.[19] The coalition forces also received supportfrom Kurdish irregulars in Iraqi Kurdistan.

According to U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair,the coalition mission was "to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end

Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people."[20] Formerchief counter-terrorism adviser on the National Security Council Richard A. Clarke

believes Bush took office with a predetermined plan to invade Iraq.[21] GeneralWesley Clark, the former Supreme NATO Allied Commander and Joint Chiefs of StaffDirector of Strategy and Policy, describes in his 2003 book, Winning Modern Wars,his conversation with a military officer in the Pentagon shortly after 9/11 regarding aplan to attack seven Middle Eastern countries in five years: "As I went back throughthe Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time fora chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more.This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there werea total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran,

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Somalia and Sudan." [22] Others place a much greater emphasis on the impact of the11 September 2001 attacks, and the role this played in changing U.S. strategic

calculations, and the rise of the freedom agenda.[23][24] According to Blair, the triggerwas Iraq's failure to take a "final opportunity" to disarm itself of alleged nuclear,chemical, and biological weapons that U.S. and British officials called an immediate

and intolerable threat to world peace.[25] In 2005, the Central Intelligence Agencyreleased a report saying that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq.[26]

In a January 2003 CBS poll, 64% of Americans had approved of military actionagainst Iraq; however, 63% wanted Bush to find a diplomatic solution rather than goto war, and 62% believed the threat of terrorism directed against the U.S. would

increase due to war.[27] The invasion of Iraq was strongly opposed by some long-standing U.S. allies, including the governments of France, Germany, New Zealand,

and Canada.[28][29][30] Their leaders argued that there was no evidence of weapons ofmass destruction in Iraq and that invading the country was not justified in the contextof UNMOVIC's 12 February 2003 report. On 15 February 2003, a month before theinvasion, there were worldwide protests against the Iraq War, including a rally ofthree million people in Rome, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the

largest ever anti-war rally.[31] According to the French academic Dominique Reynié,between 3 January and 12 April 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in

almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war.[32]

The invasion was preceded by an air strike on the Presidential Palace in Baghdad on19 March 2003. The following day, coalition forces launched an incursion into BasraProvince from their massing point close to the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border. While the specialforces launched an amphibious assault from the Persian Gulf to secure Basra and thesurrounding petroleum fields, the main invasion army moved into southern Iraq,occupying the region and engaging in the Battle of Nasiriyah on 23 March. Massiveair strikes across the country and against Iraqi command and control threw thedefending army into chaos and prevented an effective resistance. On 26 March, the

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173rd Airborne Brigade was airdropped near the northern city of Kirkuk, where theyjoined forces with Kurdish rebels and fought several actions against the Iraqi army tosecure the northern part of the country.

The main body of coalition forces continued their drive into the heart of Iraq and metwith little resistance. Most of the Iraqi military was quickly defeated and Baghdadwas occupied on 9 April. Other operations occurred against pockets of the Iraqi armyincluding the capture and occupation of Kirkuk on 10 April, and the attack andcapture of Tikrit on 15 April. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the centralleadership went into hiding as the coalition forces completed the occupation of thecountry. On 1 May, an end of major combat operations was declared, ending theinvasion period and beginning the military occupation period.

As of December 2011, the 2003 invasion of Iraq was the most recent armed conflict

between standing national armies causing at least 1,000 battle deaths.[33]

Prelude to the invasion

The first Gulf war ended on 28 February 1991, with a cease-fire negotiated between

the UN Coalition and Iraq.[34] The U.S. and its allies tried to keep Saddam in checkwith military actions such as Operation Southern Watch, which was conducted byJoint Task Force Southwest Asia (JTF-SWA) with the mission of monitoring andcontrolling airspace south of the 32nd Parallel (extended to the 33rd Parallel in 1996)as well as using economic sanctions. It was revealed that a biological weapons (BW)

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program in Iraq had begun in the early 1980s with help from the U.S. and Europe inviolation of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) of 1972. Details of the BWprogram—along with a chemical weapons program—surfaced in the wake of the GulfWar (1990–91) following investigations conducted by the United Nations SpecialCommission (UNSCOM) which had been charged with the post-war disarmament ofSaddam's Iraq. The investigation concluded that there was no evidence the programhad continued after the war. The U.S. and its allies then maintained a policy of"containment" towards Iraq. This policy involved numerous economic sanctions bythe UN Security Council; the enforcement of Iraqi no-fly zones declared by the U.S.and the UK to protect the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan and Shias in the south from aerialattacks by the Iraqi government; and ongoing inspections. Iraqi military helicopters

and planes regularly contested the no-fly zones.[35][36]

In October 1998, removing the Hussein regime became official U.S. foreign policywith enactment of the Iraq Liberation Act. Enacted following the expulsion of UNweapons inspectors the preceding August (after some had been accused of spying forthe U.S.), the act provided $97 million for Iraqi "democratic oppositionorganizations" to "establish a program to support a transition to democracy in Iraq."[37] This legislation contrasted with the terms set out in United Nations SecurityCouncil Resolution 687, which focused on weapons and weapons programs and made

no mention of regime change.[38] One month after the passage of the Iraq LiberationAct, the U.S. and UK launched a bombardment campaign of Iraq called OperationDesert Fox. The campaign’s express rationale was to hamper Saddam Hussein'sgovernment's ability to produce chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, but U.S.

intelligence personnel also hoped it would help weaken Hussein’s grip on power.[39]

With the election of George W. Bush as president in 2000, the U.S. moved towards amore aggressive policy toward Iraq. The Republican Party's campaign platform in the2000 election called for "full implementation" of the Iraq Liberation Act as "a starting

point" in a plan to "remove" Hussein.[40] After leaving the George W. Bushadministration, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said that an attack on Iraq had beenplanned since Bush's inauguration, and that the first United States National Security

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Council meeting involved discussion of an invasion. O'Neill later backtracked, sayingthat these discussions were part of a continuation of foreign policy first put into place

by the Clinton administration.[41]

Despite the Bush administration's stated interest in liberating Iraq, little formalmovement towards an invasion occurred until the 11 September 2001 attacks. Forexample, the administration prepared Operation Desert Badger to respondaggressively if any Air Force pilot was shot down while flying over Iraq, but this didnot happen. Rumsfeld dismissed National Security Agency (NSA) intercept dataavailable by midday of the 11th that pointed to al-Qaeda's culpability, and by mid-

afternoon ordered the Pentagon to prepare plans for attacking Iraq.[42] According toaides who were with him in the National Military Command Center on that day,Rumsfeld asked for: "best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit Saddam Hussein

at same time. Not only Osama bin Laden."[43] A memo written by Rumsfeld in

November 2001 considers an Iraq war.[44] The rationale for invading Iraq as aresponse to 9/11 has been widely questioned, as there was no cooperation between

Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.[45]

Shortly after 11 September 2001 (on 20 September), Bush addressed a joint session ofCongress (simulcast live to the world), and announced his new "War on Terror". Thisannouncement was accompanied by the doctrine of "pre-emptive" military action,later termed the Bush Doctrine. Allegations of a connection between Saddam Husseinand al-Qaeda were made by some U.S. Government officials who asserted that ahighly secretive relationship existed between Saddam and the radical Islamistmilitant organization al-Qaeda from 1992 to 2003, specifically through a series ofmeetings reportedly involving the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS). Some Bush advisersfavored an immediate invasion of Iraq, while others advocated building aninternational coalition and obtaining United Nations authorization. Bush eventuallydecided to seek UN authorization, while still reserving the option of invading without

it.[46]

Preparations for war

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While there had been some earlier talk of action against Iraq, the Bush administrationwaited until September 2002 to call for action, with White House Chief of StaffAndrew Card saying, "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new

products in August."[47] Bush began formally making his case to the internationalcommunity for an invasion of Iraq in his 12 September 2002 address to the UN

Security Council.[48]

Key U.S. allies in NATO, such as the United Kingdom, agreed with the U.S. actions,while France and Germany were critical of plans to invade Iraq, arguing instead forcontinued diplomacy and weapons inspections. After considerable debate, the UNSecurity Council adopted a compromise resolution, UN Security Council Resolution1441, which authorized the resumption of weapons inspections and promised "seriousconsequences" for non-compliance. Security Council members France and Russiamade clear that they did not consider these consequences to include the use of force

to overthrow the Iraqi government.[49] Both the U.S. ambassador to the UN, JohnNegroponte, and the UK ambassador, Jeremy Greenstock, publicly confirmed thisreading of the resolution, assuring that Resolution 1441 provided no "automaticity" or"hidden triggers" for an invasion without further consultation of the Security Council.[50]

Resolution 1441 gave Iraq "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmamentobligations" and set up inspections by the United Nations Monitoring, Verificationand Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic EnergyAgency (IAEA). Hussein accepted the resolution on 13 November and inspectorsreturned to Iraq under the direction of UNMOVIC chairman Hans Blix and IAEADirector General Mohamed ElBaradei. As of February 2003, the IAEA "found noevidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq";the IAEA concluded that certain items which could have been used in nuclearenrichment centrifuges, such as aluminum tubes, were in fact intended for other uses.[51] UNMOVIC "did not find evidence of the continuation or resumption of programsof weapons of mass destruction" or significant quantities of proscribed items.UNMOVIC did supervise the destruction of a small number of empty chemical rocket

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warheads, 50 liters of mustard gas that had been declared by Iraq and sealed byUNSCOM in 1998, and laboratory quantities of a mustard gas precursor, along withabout 50 Al-Samoud missiles of a design that Iraq stated did not exceed the permitted150 km range, but which had travelled up to 183 km in tests. Shortly before theinvasion, UNMOVIC stated that it would take "months" to verify Iraqi compliance

with resolution 1441.[52][53][54]

In October 2002, the U.S. Congress passed a "Joint Resolution to Authorize the Useof United States Armed Forces Against Iraq". The resolution authorized the Presidentto "use any means necessary" against Iraq. Americans polled in January 2003 widelyfavored further diplomacy over an invasion. Later that year, however, Americansbegan to agree with Bush's plan. The U.S. government engaged in an elaboratedomestic public relations campaign to market the war to its citizens. Americansoverwhelmingly believed Hussein did have weapons of mass destruction: 85% said so,even though the inspectors had not uncovered those weapons. Of those who thoughtIraq had weapons sequestered somewhere, about half responded that said weaponswould not be found in combat. By February 2003, 64% of Americans supported

taking military action to remove Hussein from power.[27]

The Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division (SAD) teams, consistingof the paramilitary operations officers and 10th special forces group soldiers, were thefirst U.S. forces to enter Iraq, in July 2002, before the main invasion. Once on theground, they prepared for the subsequent arrival of U.S. Army Special Forces toorganize the Kurdish Peshmerga. This joint team (called the Northern Iraq Liaison

Element (NILE))[55] combined to defeat Ansar al-Islam, a group with ties to al-Qaeda, in Iraqi Kurdistan. This battle was for control of the territory that wasoccupied by Ansar al-Islam and took place before the invasion. It was carried out byParamilitary Operations Officers from SAD and the Army's 10th Special ForcesGroup. This battle resulted in the defeat of Ansar and the capture of a chemical

weapons facility at Sargat.[55] Sargat was the only facility of its type discovered in the

Iraq war.[56][57]

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SAD teams also conducted missions behind enemy lines to identify leadership targets.These missions led to the initial air strikes against Hussein and his generals. Althoughthe strike against Hussein was unsuccessful in killing him, it effectively ended hisability to command and control his forces. Strikes against Iraq's generals were moresuccessful and significantly degraded the Iraqi command's ability to react to, and

maneuver against, the U.S.-led invasion force.[55][58] SAD operations officers werealso successful in convincing key Iraqi Army officers into surrendering their units

once the fighting started.[56]

NATO member Turkey refused to allow the U.S. forces across its territory intonorthern Iraq. Therefore, joint SAD and Army Special forces teams and thePershmerga constituted the entire Northern force against the Iraqi army. Theymanaged to keep the northern divisions in place rather than allowing them to aid

their colleagues against the U.S.-led coalition force coming from the south.[59] Four of

these CIA officers were awarded the Intelligence Star for their actions.[56][57]

In the 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush said "we know that Iraq, in

the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs".[60] On 5 February 2003,U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the United Nations General Assembly,continuing U.S. efforts to gain UN authorization for an invasion. His presentation tothe UN Security Council, which contained a computer generated image of a mobilebiological weapons laboratory. However, this information was based on claims of

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Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi codenamed "Curveball", an Iraqi emigrant living inGermany who later admitted that his claims had been false.

Powell also presented evidence alleging Iraq had ties to al-Qaeda. As a follow-up toPowell’s presentation, the United States, United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, Australia,Denmark, Japan, and Spain proposed a resolution authorizing the use of force inIraq, but NATO members like Canada, France, and Germany, together with Russia,strongly urged continued diplomacy. Facing a losing vote as well as a likely veto fromFrance and Russia, the US, UK, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Italy, Japan, and Australia

eventually withdrew their resolution.[61][62]

Opposition to the invasion coalesced in the worldwide 15 February 2003 anti-warprotest that attracted between six and ten million people in more than 800 cities, thelargest such protest in human history according to the Guinness Book of World

Records.[63]

In March 2003, the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, Poland,Denmark, and Italy began preparing for the invasion of Iraq, with a host of publicrelations and military moves. In his 17 March 2003 address to the nation, Bushdemanded that Hussein and his two sons, Uday and Qusay, surrender and leave Iraq,

giving them a 48-hour deadline.[64] But the U.S. began the bombing of Iraq on theday before the deadline expired. On 18 March 2003, the bombing of Iraq by theUnited States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Poland, Australia, and Denmarkbegan. Unlike the first Gulf War or the war in Afghanistan (2001–present), this warhad no explicit UN authorisation.

The UK House of Commons held a debate on going to war on 18 March 2003 where

the government motion was approved 412 to 149.[65] The vote was a key moment inthe history of the Blair administration, as the number of government MPs whorebelled against the vote was the greatest since the repeal of the Corn Laws. Threegovernment ministers resigned in protest at the war, John Denham, Lord Hunt ofKings Heath, and the then Leader of the House of Commons Robin Cook. In apassionate speech to the House of Commons after his resignation, he said, "What has

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come to trouble me is the suspicion that if the 'hanging chads' of Florida had gone theother way and Al Gore had been elected, we would not now be about to commitBritish troops to action in Iraq." During the debate, it was stated that the AttorneyGeneral had advised that the war was legal under previous UN Resolutions.

Attempts to avoid warMain article: Failed Iraqi peace initiatives

In December 2002, a representative of the head of Iraqi Intelligence, the GeneralTahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, contacted former Central Intelligence AgencyCounterterrorism Department head Vincent Cannistraro stating that Hussein "knewthere was a campaign to link him to 11 September and prove he had weapons of massdestruction (WMDs)." Cannistraro further added that "the Iraqis were prepared tosatisfy these concerns. I reported the conversation to senior levels of the statedepartment and I was told to stand aside and they would handle it." Cannistrarostated that the offers made were all "killed" by the George W. Bush administrationbecause they allowed Hussein to remain in power, an outcome viewed asunacceptable. It has been suggested that Saddam Hussein was prepared to go into

exile if allowed to keep $1 billion USD.[66]

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's national security advisor, Osama El-Baz, sent amessage to the U.S. State Department that the Iraqis wanted to discuss theaccusations that the country had weapons of mass destruction and ties with al-Qaeda.Iraq also attempted to reach the U.S. through the Syrian, French, German, andRussian intelligence services.

In January 2003, Lebanese-American Imad Hage met with Michael Maloof of theU.S. Department of Defense's Office of Special Plans. Hage, a resident of Beirut, hadbeen recruited by the department to assist in the War on Terror. He reported thatMohammed Nassif, a close aide to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, had expressedfrustrations about the difficulties of Syria contacting the United States, and hadattempted to use him as an intermediary. Maloof arranged for Hage to meet with

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civilian Richard Perle, then head of the Defense Policy Board.[67][68]

In January 2003, Hage met with the chief of Iraqi intelligence's foreign operations,Hassan al-Obeidi. Obeidi told Hage that Baghdad did not understand why they werebeing targeted, and that they had no WMDs. He then made the offer for Washingtonto send in 2000 FBI agents to confirm this. He additionally offered petroleumconcessions, but stopped short of having Hussein give up power, instead suggestingthat elections could be held in two years. Later, Obeidi suggested that Hage travel to

Baghdad for talks; he accepted.[67]

Later that month, Hage met with General Habbush and Iraqi Deputy Prime MinisterTariq Aziz. He was offered top priority to U.S. firms in oil and mining rights, UN-supervised elections, U.S. inspections (with up to 5,000 inspectors), to have al-Qaedaagent Abdul Rahman Yasin (in Iraqi custody since 1994) handed over as a sign ofgood faith, and to give "full support for any U.S. plan" in the Arab-Israeli peaceprocess. They also wished to meet with high-ranking U.S. officials. On 19 February,Hage faxed Maloof his report of the trip. Maloof reports having brought the proposalto Jamie Duran. The Pentagon denies that either Wolfowitz or Rumsfeld, Duran's

bosses, were aware of the plan.[67]

On 21 February, Maloof informed Duran in an email that Richard Perle wished tomeet with Hage and the Iraqis if the Pentagon would clear it. Duran responded "Mike,working this. Keep this close hold." On 7 March, Perle met with Hage inKnightsbridge, and stated that he wanted to pursue the matter further with people inWashington (both have acknowledged the meeting). A few days later, he informedHage that Washington refused to let him meet with Habbush to discuss the offer(Hage stated that Perle's response was "that the consensus in Washington was it wasa no-go"). Perle told The Times, "The message was 'Tell them that we will see them in

Baghdad.' "[citation needed]

Casus belli and rationaleMain article: Rationale for the Iraq War

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George Bush, speaking in October 2002, said that "The stated policy of the UnitedStates is regime change... However, if Hussein were to meet all the conditions of theUnited Nations, the conditions that I have described very clearly in terms that

everybody can understand, that in itself will signal the regime has changed".[69]

Citing reports from certain intelligence sources, Bush stated on 6 March 2003 that he

believed that Hussein was not complying with UN Resolution 1441.[70]

In September 2002, Tony Blair stated, in an answer to a parliamentary question, that"Regime change in Iraq would be a wonderful thing. That is not the purpose of our

action; our purpose is to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction..."[71] InNovember of that year, Blair further stated that, "So far as our objective, it isdisarmament, not régime change – that is our objective. Now I happen to believe theregime of Saddam is a very brutal and repressive regime, I think it does enormousdamage to the Iraqi people... so I have got no doubt Saddam is very bad for Iraq, buton the other hand I have got no doubt either that the purpose of our challenge fromthe United Nations is disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, it is not regime

change."[72]

At a press conference on 31 January 2003, Bush again reiterated that the singletrigger for the invasion would be Iraq’s failure to disarm, "Saddam Hussein mustunderstand that if he does not disarm, for the sake of peace, we, along with others,

will go disarm Saddam Hussein."[73] As late as 25 February 2003, it was still theofficial line that the only cause of invasion would be a failure to disarm. As Blair madeclear in a statement to the House of Commons, "I detest his regime. But even now hecan save it by complying with the UN's demand. Even now, we are prepared to go the

extra step to achieve disarmament peacefully."[74]

Additional justifications used at various times included Iraqi violation of UNresolutions, the Iraqi government's repression of its citizens, and Iraqi violations of

the 1991 cease-fire.[20]

The main allegations were: that Hussein possessed or was attempting to produce

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weapons of mass destruction, which Saddam Hussein had used in places such as

Halabja,[75][76] possessed, and made efforts to acquire, particularly considering twoprevious attacks on Baghdad nuclear weapons production facilities by both Iran andIsrael which were alleged to have postponed weapons development progress; and,further, that he had ties to terrorists, specifically al-Qaeda.

While it never made an explicit connection between Iraq and the 11 Septemberattacks, the George W. Bush administration repeatedly insinuated a link, therebycreating a false impression for the U.S. public. Grand jury testimony from the 1993World Trade Center attack trials cited numerous direct linkages from the bombers toBaghdad and Department 13 of the Iraqi Intelligence Service in that initial attackmarking the second anniversary to vindicate the surrender of Iraqi armed forces inOperation Desert Storm. For example, The Washington Post has noted that,

While not explicitly declaring Iraqi culpability in the September 11, 2001,terrorist attacks, administration officials did, at various times, imply a link. Inlate 2001, Cheney said it was "pretty well confirmed" that attack mastermindMohamed Atta had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official. Later, Cheneycalled Iraq the "geographic base of the terrorists who had us under assault

now for many years, but most especially on 9/11."[77]

Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at theUniversity of Maryland, observed in March 2003 that "The administration hassucceeded in creating a sense that there is some connection [between 11 Sept. andSaddam Hussein]". This was following a New York Times/CBS poll that showed 45%of Americans believing Saddam Hussein was "personally involved" in the 11September atrocities. As the Christian Science Monitor observed at the time, while"Sources knowledgeable about U.S. intelligence say there is no evidence that Husseinplayed a role in the 11 Sept. attacks, nor that he has been or is currently aiding AlQaeda... the White House appears to be encouraging this false impression, as it seeksto maintain American support for a possible war against Iraq and demonstrateseriousness of purpose to Hussein's regime." The CSM went on to report that, whilepolling data collected "right after 11 Sept. 2001" showed that only 3 percent

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mentioned Iraq or Saddam Hussein, by January 2003 attitudes "had beentransformed" with a Knight Ridder poll showing that 44% of Americans believed

"most" or "some" of the 11 September hijackers were Iraqi citizens.[78]

According to General Tommy Franks, the objectives of the invasion were, "First, endthe regime of Saddam Hussein. Second, to identify, isolate and eliminate Iraq’sweapons of mass destruction. Third, to search for, to capture and to drive outterrorists from that country. Fourth, to collect such intelligence as we can related toterrorist networks. Fifth, to collect such intelligence as we can related to the globalnetwork of illicit weapons of mass destruction. Sixth, to end sanctions and toimmediately deliver humanitarian support to the displaced and to many needy Iraqicitizens. Seventh, to secure Iraq’s oil fields and resources, which belong to the Iraqipeople. And last, to help the Iraqi people create conditions for a transition to a

representative self-government.”[79]

The BBC has also noted that, while President Bush "never directly accused the formerIraqi leader of having a hand in the attacks on New York and Washington", he"repeatedly associated the two in keynote addresses delivered since 11 September",adding that "Senior members of his administration have similarly conflated the two."For instance, the BBC report quotes Colin Powell in February 2003, stating that"We've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisonsand deadly gases. And we know that after September 11, Saddam Hussein's regimegleefully celebrated the terrorist attacks on America." The same BBC report alsonoted the results of a recent opinion poll, which suggested that "70% of Americans

believe the Iraqi leader was personally involved in the attacks."[80]

Also in September 2003, the Boston Globe reported that "Vice President Dick Cheney,anxious to defend the White House foreign policy amid ongoing violence in Iraq,stunned intelligence analysts and even members of his own administration this weekby failing to dismiss a widely discredited claim: that Saddam Hussein might have

played a role in the 11 Sept. attacks."[81] A year later, presidential candidate JohnKerry alleged that Cheney was continuing "to intentionally mislead the American

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public by drawing a link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 in an attempt to make the

invasion of Iraq part of the global war on terror."[82]

Throughout 2002, the Bush administration insisted that removing Hussein frompower to restore international peace and security was a major goal. The principalstated justifications for this policy of "regime change" were that Iraq's continuingproduction of weapons of mass destruction and known ties to terrorist organizations,as well as Iraq's continued violations of UN Security Council resolutions, amounted toa threat to the U.S. and the world community.

The Bush administration's overall rationale for the invasion of Iraq was presented indetail by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to the United Nations Security Councilon 5 February 2003. In summary, he stated,

We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of massdestruction; he's determined to make more. Given Saddam Hussein's historyof aggression... given what we know of his terrorist associations and given hisdetermination to exact revenge on those who oppose him, should we take therisk that he will not some day use these weapons at a time and the place andin the manner of his choosing at a time when the world is in a much weakerposition to respond? The United States will not and cannot run that risk to theAmerican people. Leaving Saddam Hussein in possession of weapons of massdestruction for a few more months or years is not an option, not in a post–

September 11 world.[83]

Since the invasion, the U.S. and British government statements concerning Iraqiweapons programs and links to terrorist organizations have been discredited. Whilethe debate of whether Iraq intended to develop chemical, biological, and nuclearweapons in the future remains open, no WMDs have been found in Iraq since the

invasion despite comprehensive inspections lasting more than 18 months.[84] InCairo, on 24 February 2001, Colin Powell had predicted as much, saying, "[Hussein]has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass

destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours."[85]

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Similarly, assertions of operational links between the Iraqi regime and al-Qaeda havelargely been discredited by the intelligence community, and Secretary Powell himself

later admitted he had no proof.[86]

In September 2002, the Bush administration said attempts by Iraq to acquirethousands of high-strength aluminum tubes pointed to a clandestine program tomake enriched uranium for nuclear bombs. Powell, in his address to the UN SecurityCouncil just before the war, referred to the aluminum tubes. A report released by theInstitute for Science and International Security in 2002, however, reported that it washighly unlikely that the tubes could be used to enrich uranium. Powell later admittedhe had presented an inaccurate case to the United Nations on Iraqi weapons, based

on sourcing that was wrong and in some cases "deliberately misleading."[87][88][89]

The Bush administration asserted that the Hussein government had sought to

purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger.[90] On 7 March 2003, the U.S. submittedintelligence documents as evidence to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Thesedocuments were dismissed by the IAEA as forgeries, with the concurrence in thatjudgment of outside experts. At the time, a US official stated that the evidence wassubmitted to the IAEA without knowledge of its provenance and characterized anymistakes as "more likely due to incompetence not malice".

Iraqi drones

In October 2002, a few days before the US Senate vote on the Authorization for Use ofMilitary Force Against Iraq Resolution, about 75 senators were told in closed sessionthat the Iraqi government had the means of delivering biological and chemicalweapons of mass destruction by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) drones that could belaunched from ships off the US' Atlantic coast to attack US eastern seaboard cities.Colin Powell suggested in his presentation to the United Nations that UAVs weretransported out of Iraq and could be launched against the United States. In fact, Iraq

had no offensive UAV fleet or any capability of putting UAVs on ships.[91] Iraq's UAV

fleet consisted of less than a handful of outdated Czech training drones.[92] At the

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time, there was a vigorous dispute within the intelligence community whether theCIA's conclusions about Iraq's UAV fleet were accurate. The US Air Force agency

denied outright that Iraq possessed any offensive UAV capability.[93]

Human rights

As evidence supporting U.S. and British charges about Iraqi WMDs and links toterrorism weakened, some supporters of the invasion have increasingly shifted their

justification to the human rights violations of the Hussein government.[94] Leadinghuman rights groups such as Human Rights Watch have argued, however, that theybelieve human rights concerns were never a central justification for the invasion, nordo they believe that military intervention was justifiable on humanitarian grounds,most significantly because "the killing in Iraq at the time was not of the exceptional

nature that would justify such intervention."[95]

Legality of invasionMain article: Legality of the Iraq War

The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 waspassed by congress with Republicans voting 98% in favor in the Senate, and 97% infavor in the House. Democrats supported the joint resolution 58% and 39% in the

Senate and House respectively.[96][97] The resolution asserts the authorization by theConstitution of the United States and the Congress for the President to fight anti-United States terrorism. Citing the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, the resolutionreiterated that it should be the policy of the United States to remove the SaddamHussein regime and promote a democratic replacement.

The resolution "supported" and "encouraged" diplomatic efforts by President GeorgeW. Bush to "strictly enforce through the U.N. Security Council all relevant SecurityCouncil resolutions regarding Iraq" and "obtain prompt and decisive action by theSecurity Council to ensure that Iraq abandons its strategy of delay, evasion, andnoncompliance and promptly and strictly complies with all relevant Security Council

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resolutions regarding Iraq." The resolution authorized President Bush to use theArmed Forces of the United States "as he determines to be necessary andappropriate" to "defend the national security of the United States against thecontinuing threat posed by Iraq; and enforce all relevant United Nations SecurityCouncil Resolutions regarding Iraq."

The legality of the invasion of Iraq has been challenged since its inception on anumber of fronts, and several prominent supporters of the invasion in all the invadingnations have publicly and privately cast doubt on its legality. It is argued that theinvasion was fully legal because authorization was implied by the United Nations

Security Council.[98][99] International legal experts, including the InternationalCommission of Jurists, a group of 31 leading Canadian law professors, and the U.S.-based Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, have denounced both of these

rationales.[100][101][102]

On Thursday 20 November 2003, an article published in the Guardian alleged thatRichard Perle, a senior member of the administration's Defense Policy Board

Advisory Committee, conceded that the invasion was illegal but still justified.[103][104]

The United Nations Security Council has passed nearly 60 resolutions on Iraq andKuwait since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The most relevant to this issue isResolution 678, passed on 29 November 1990. It authorizes "member states co-operating with the Government of Kuwait... to use all necessary means" to (1)implement Security Council Resolution 660 and other resolutions calling for the endof Iraq's occupation of Kuwait and withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwaiti territoryand (2) "restore international peace and security in the area." Resolution 678 has notbeen rescinded or nullified by succeeding resolutions and Iraq was not alleged after1991 to invade Kuwait or to threaten do so.

Resolution 1441 was most prominent during the run up to the war and formed themain backdrop for Secretary of State Colin Powell's address to the Security Council

one month before the invasion.[105] According to an independent commission ofinquiry set up by the government of the Netherlands, UN resolution 1441 "cannot

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reasonably be interpreted (as the Dutch government did) as authorising individualmember states to use military force to compel Iraq to comply with the SecurityCouncil's resolutions." Accordingly, the Dutch commission concluded that the 2003

invasion violated international law.[106]

At the same time, Bush Administration officials advanced a parallel legal argumentusing the earlier resolutions, which authorized force in response to Iraq's 1990invasion of Kuwait. Under this reasoning, by failing to disarm and submit to weaponsinspections, Iraq was in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions 660 and 678,and the U.S. could legally compel Iraq's compliance through military means.

Critics and proponents of the legal rationale based on the U.N. resolutions argue thatthe legal right to determine how to enforce its resolutions lies with the SecurityCouncil alone, not with individual nations.

In February 2006, Luis Moreno Ocampo, the lead prosecutor for the InternationalCriminal Court, reported that he had received 240 separate communicationsregarding the legality of the war, many of which concerned British participation in the

invasion.[107] In a letter addressed to the complainants, Mr. Moreno Ocampoexplained that he could only consider issues related to conduct during the war andnot to its underlying legality as a possible crime of aggression because no provisionhad yet been adopted which "defines the crime and sets out the conditions underwhich the Court may exercise jurisdiction with respect to it." In a March 2007interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Moreno Ocampo encouraged Iraq to sign up

with the court so that it could bring cases related to alleged war crimes.[108]

United States Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich held a press conference on theevening of 24 April 2007, revealing US House Resolution 333 and the three articles ofimpeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney. He charged Cheney withmanipulating the evidence of Iraq's weapons program, deceiving the nation aboutIraq's connection to al-Qaeda, and threatening aggression against Iran in violation ofthe United Nations Charter.

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Military aspectsUnited States military operations were conducted under the codename Operation

Iraqi Liberation (OIL).[109] The codename was later changed to Operation IraqiFreedom, due to the freudian slip shown in the acronym. The United Kingdommilitary operation was named Operation Telic.

Multilateral support

In November 2002, President George W. Bush, visiting Europe for a NATO summit,declared that, "should Iraqi President Saddam Hussein choose not to disarm, the

United States will lead a coalition of the willing to disarm him."[110]

Thereafter, the Bush administration briefly used the term Coalition of the Willing torefer to the countries who supported, militarily or verbally, the military action in Iraqand subsequent military presence in post-invasion Iraq since 2003. The original list

prepared in March 2003 included 49 members.[111] Of those 49, only six besides theU.S. contributed troops to the invasion force (the United Kingdom, Spain, Australia,Poland, Portugal, and Denmark), and 33 provided some number of troops to supportthe occupation after the invasion was complete. Six members have no military,meaning that of the 49, 3 withheld troops completely.

Invasion force

Approximately 148,000 soldiers from the United States, 45,000 British soldiers,2,000 Australian soldiers and 194 Polish soldiers from the special forces unit GROM

were sent to Kuwait for the invasion.[7] The invasion force was also supported by

Iraqi Kurdish militia troops, estimated to number upwards of 70,000.[8] In the latterstages of the invasion, 620 troops of the Iraqi National Congress opposition group

were deployed to southern Iraq.[4]

A U.S. Central Command, Combined Forces Air Component Commander report,indicated that, as of 30 April 2003, there were a total of 466,985 U.S. personnel

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deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom. This included USAF, 54,955; USAF Reserve,2,084; Air National Guard, 7,207; USMC, 74,405; USMC Reserve, 9,501; USN, 61,296(681 are members of the U.S. Coast Guard); USN Reserve, 2,056; and US Army,

233,342; US Army Reserve, 10,683; and Army National Guard, 8,866.[112]

Plans for opening a second front in the north were severely hampered when Turkey

refused the use of its territory for such purposes.[113] In response to Turkey's decision,the United States dropped several thousand paratroopers from the 173rd AirborneBrigade into northern Iraq, a number significantly less than the 15,000-strong 4thInfantry Division that the U.S. originally planned to use for opening the northern

front.[114]

Preparation

CIA Special Activities Division (SAD) Paramilitary teams entered Iraq in July 2002before the 2003 invasion. Once on the ground they prepared for the subsequentarrival of US military forces. SAD teams then combined with US Army Special Forcesto organize the Kurdish Peshmerga. This joint team combined to defeat Ansar al-Islam, an ally of Al Qaida, in a battle in the northeast corner of Iraq. The US side wascarried out by Paramilitary Officers from SAD and the Army's 10th Special Forces

Group.[55][56][57]

SAD teams also conducted high-risk special reconnaissance missions behind Iraqilines to identify senior leadership targets. These missions led to the initial strikesagainst Saddam Hussein and his key generals. Although the initial strikes against

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Hussein were unsuccessful in killing the dictator or his generals, they were successfulin effectively ending the ability to command and control Iraqi forces. Other strikesagainst key generals were successful and significantly degraded the command's abilityto react to and maneuver against the U.S.-led invasion force coming from the south.[55][57]

SAD operations officers were also successful in convincing key Iraqi army officers tosurrender their units once the fighting started and/or not to oppose the invasion

force.[56] NATO member Turkey refused to allow its territory to be used for theinvasion. As a result, the SAD/SOG and US Army Special Forces joint teams and theKurdish Peshmerga constituted the entire northern force against government forcesduring the invasion. Their efforts kept the 5th Corps of the Iraqi army in place todefend against the Kurds rather than moving to contest the coalition force.

According to General Tommy Franks, April Fool, an American officer workingundercover as a diplomat, was approached by an Iraqi intelligence agent. April Foolthen sold to the Iraqi false "top secret" invasion plans provided by Franks' team. Thisdecoy deception successfully misled the Iraqi military into deploying major forces inNorthern and Western Iraq in anticipation of attacks by way of Turkey or Jordan,which never took place. This greatly reduced the defensive capacity in the rest of Iraqand significantly facilitated the actual attacks via Kuwait and the Persian Gulf in thesoutheast.

Defending force

The number of personnel in the Iraqi military prior to the war was uncertain, but it

was believed to have been poorly equipped.[115][116][117] The International Institutefor Strategic Studies estimated the Iraqi armed forces to number 538,000 (IraqiArmy 375,000, Iraqi Navy 2,000, Iraqi Air Force 20,000 and air defense 17,000), theparamilitary Fedayeen Saddam 44,000, Republican Guard 80,000 and reserves

650,000.[118]

Another estimate numbers the Army and Republican Guard at between 280,000 to

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350,000 and 50,000 to 80,000, respectively,[119] and the paramilitary between

20,000 and 40,000.[120] There were an estimated thirteen infantry divisions, tenmechanized and armored divisions, as well as some special forces units. The Iraqi AirForce and Navy played a negligible role in the conflict.

During the invasion, foreign volunteers traveled to Iraq from Syria and took part inthe fighting, usually under the command of the Fedayeen Saddam. It is not known forcertain how many foreign fighters fought in Iraq in 2003, however, intelligenceofficers of the U.S. First Marine Division estimated that 50% of all Iraqi combatants

in central Iraq were foreigners.[121][122]

In addition, the Kurdish Islamist militant group Ansar al-Islam controlled a smallsection of northern Iraq in an area outside of Saddam Hussein's control. Ansar al-Islam had been fighting against secular Kurdish forces since 2001. At the time of the

invasion they fielded approximately 600 to 800 fighters.[123] Ansar al-Islam was ledby the Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who would later become animportant leader in the Iraqi insurgency. Ansar al-Islam was driven out of Iraq in lateMarch by a joint American-Kurdish force during Operation Viking Hammer.

Invasion

Since the 1991 Gulf War, the U.S. and UK had been engaged in low-level attacks on

Iraqi air defenses which targeted them while enforcing Iraqi no-fly zones.[35][36]

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These zones, and the attacks to enforce them, were described as illegal by the formerUN Secretary General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and the French foreign ministerHubert Vedrine. Other countries, notably Russia and China, also condemned the

zones as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.[124][125][126] In mid-2002, the U.S. beganmore carefully selecting targets in the southern part of the country to disrupt themilitary command structure in Iraq. A change in enforcement tactics wasacknowledged at the time, but it was not made public that this was part of a planknown as Operation Southern Focus.

The amount of ordnance dropped on Iraqi positions by Coalition aircraft in 2001 and2002 was less than in 1999 and 2000 which was during the Clinton administration.[127] This information has been used to attempt to refute the theory that the Bushadministration had already decided to go to war against Iraq before coming to officeand that the bombing during 2001 and 2002 was laying the groundwork for theeventual invasion in 2003. However, information obtained by the UK LiberalDemocrats showed that the UK dropped twice as many bombs on Iraq in the secondhalf of 2002 as they did during the whole of 2001. The tonnage of UK bombs droppedincreased from 0 in March 2002 and 0.3 in April 2002 to between 7 and 14 tons permonth in May–August, reaching a pre-war peak of 54.6 tons in September – beforeCongress' 11 October authorization of the invasion.

The 5 September attacks included a 100+ aircraft attack on the main air defense sitein western Iraq. According to an editorial in New Statesman this was "Located at thefurthest extreme of the southern no-fly zone, far away from the areas that needed tobe patrolled to prevent attacks on the Shias, it was destroyed not because it was athreat to the patrols, but to allow allied special forces operating from Jordan to enter

Iraq undetected."[128]

Tommy Franks, who commanded the invasion of Iraq, has since admitted that thebombing was designed to "degrade" Iraqi air defences in the same way as the airattacks that began the 1991 Gulf War. These "spikes of activity" were, in the words ofthen British Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, designed to 'put pressure on the Iraqiregime' or, as The Times reported, to "provoke Saddam Hussein into giving the allies

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an excuse for war". In this respect, as provocations designed to start a war, leakedBritish Foreign Office legal advice concluded that such attacks were illegal under

international law.[129][130]

Another attempt at provoking the war was mentioned in a leaked memo from ameeting between George W. Bush and Tony Blair on 31 January 2003 at which Bushallegedly told Blair that "The US was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraftwith fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours. If Saddam fired on them, he

would be in breach."[131] On 17 March 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush gaveSaddam Hussein 48 hours to leave the country, along with his sons Uday and Qusay,or face war.

Opening salvo: the Dora Farms strike

On the early morning of 19 March 2003, U.S. forces abandoned the plan for initial,non-nuclear decapitation strikes against 55 top Iraqi officials, in light of reports thatSaddam Hussein was visiting his sons, Uday and Qusay, at Dora Farms, within the al-

Dora farming community on the outskirts of Baghdad.[132] At approximately 05:30

UTC two F-117 Nighthawks from the 8th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron[133]

dropped four enhanced, satellite-guided 2,000-pound GBU-27 'Bunker Busters' onthe compound. Complementing the aerial bombardment were nearly 40 Tomahawkcruise missiles fired from at least four ships, including the Ticonderoga-class cruiser

USS Cowpens (CG-63), credited with the first to strike,[134] Arleigh Burke-classdestroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG-75), and two submarines in the Red Sea and

Persian Gulf.[135]

One bomb missed the compound entirely and the other three missed their target,

landing on the other side of the wall of the palace compound.[136] Saddam Hussein

was not present nor were any members of the Iraqi leadership.[132][137] The attackkilled one civilian and injured fourteen others, including four men, nine women and

one child.[138][139] Later investigation revealed that Saddam Hussein had not visited

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the farm since 1995.[135]

Opening attack

On 20 March 2003 at approximately 02:30 UTC or about 90 minutes after the lapseof the 48-hour deadline, at 05:33 local time, explosions were heard in Baghdad.Special operations commandos from the CIA's Special Activities Division from theNorthern Iraq Liaison Element infiltrated throughout Iraq and called in the early air

strikes.[55] At 03:15 UTC, or 10:15 pm EST, George W. Bush announced that he had

ordered an "attack of opportunity" against targets in Iraq.[140] When this word wasgiven, the troops on standby crossed the border into Iraq.

Before the invasion, many observers had expected a lengthy campaign of aerialbombing before any ground action, taking as examples the 1991 Persian Gulf War orthe 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. In practice, U.S. plans envisioned simultaneous airand ground assaults to decapitate the Iraqi forces quickly (see Shock and Awe),attempting to bypass Iraqi military units and cities in most cases. The assumptionwas that superior mobility and coordination of Coalition forces would allow them toattack the heart of the Iraqi command structure and destroy it in a short time, andthat this would minimize civilian deaths and damage to infrastructure. It wasexpected that the elimination of the leadership would lead to the collapse of the IraqiForces and the government, and that much of the population would support the

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invaders once the government had been weakened. Occupation of cities and attackson peripheral military units were viewed as undesirable distractions.

Following Turkey's decision to deny any official use of its territory, the Coalition was

forced to modify the planned simultaneous attack from north and south.[141] SpecialOperations forces from the CIA and US Army managed to build and lead the KurdishPeshmerga into an effective force and assault for the North. The primary bases for theinvasion were in Kuwait and other Persian Gulf nations. One result of this was thatone of the divisions intended for the invasion was forced to relocate and was unable totake part in the invasion until well into the war. Many observers felt that the Coalitiondevoted sufficient numbers of troops to the invasion, but too many were withdrawnafter it ended, and that the failure to occupy cities put them at a major disadvantagein achieving security and order throughout the country when local support failed tomeet expectations.

The invasion was swift, leading to the collapse of the Iraqi government and themilitary of Iraq in about three weeks. The oil infrastructure of Iraq was rapidly seizedand secured with limited damage in that time. Securing the oil infrastructure wasconsidered of great importance. In the Gulf War, while retreating from Kuwait, theIraqi army had set many oil wells on fire in an attempt to disguise troop movementsand to distract Coalition forces. Before the 2003 invasion, Iraqi forces had minedsome 400 oil wells around Basra and the Al-Faw peninsula with explosives. Coalitiontroops launched an air and amphibious assault on the Al-Faw peninsula during theclosing hours of 19 March to secure the oil fields there; the amphibious assault wassupported by warships of the Royal Navy, Polish Navy, and Royal Australian Navy.

British 3 Commando Brigade, with the United States Marine Corps' 15th MarineExpeditionary Unit and the Polish Special Forces unit GROM attached, attacked theport of Umm Qasr. There they met with heavy resistance by Iraqi troops. A total of 14Coalition troops and 30–40 Iraqi troops were killed, and 450 Iraqis taken prisoner.The British Army's 16 Air Assault Brigade also secured the oil fields in southern Iraqin places like Rumaila while the Polish commandos captured offshore oil platformsnear the port, preventing their destruction. Despite the rapid advance of the invasion

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forces, some 44 oil wells were destroyed and set ablaze by Iraqi explosives or byincidental fire. However, the wells were quickly capped and the fires put out,preventing the ecological damage and loss of oil production capacity that hadoccurred at the end of the Gulf War.

In keeping with the rapid advance plan, the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division movedwestward and then northward through the western desert toward Baghdad, while the1st Marine Expeditionary Force moved along Highway 1 through the center of thecountry, and 1 (UK) Armoured Division moved northward through the easternmarshland.

During the first week of the war, Iraqi forces fired a Scud missile at the AmericanBattlefield Update Assessment center in Camp Doha, Kuwait. The missile wasintercepted and shot down by a Patriot missile seconds before hitting the complex.Subsequently, two A-10 Warthogs bombed the missile launcher.

Battle of Nasiriyah

Main article: Battle of Nasiriyah

Initially, the U.S. 1st Marine Division fought through the Rumaila oil fields, andmoved north to Nasiriyah—a moderate-sized, Shi'ite-dominated city with importantstrategic significance as a major road junction and its proximity to nearby TalilAirfield. It was also situated near a number of strategically important bridges over theEuphrates River. The city was defended by a mix of regular Iraqi army units, Ba'athloyalists, and Fedayeen from both Iraq and abroad. The United States Army 3rdInfantry Division defeated Iraqi forces entrenched in and around the airfield andbypassed the city to the west.

On 23 March, a convoy from the 3rd Infantry Division, including the female Americansoldiers Jessica Lynch and Lori Piestewa, was ambushed after taking a wrong turninto the city. Eleven U.S. soldiers were killed, and seven, including Lynch and

Piestewa, were captured.[142] Piestewa died of wounds shortly after capture, while theremaining five prisoners of war were later rescued. Piestewa, who was from Tuba

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City, Arizona, and an enrolled member of the Hopi Tribe, was believed to have been

the first Native American woman killed in combat in a foreign war.[143] On the sameday, U.S Marines from the Second Marine Division entered Nasiriyah in force, facingheavy resistance as they moved to secure two major bridges in the city. SeveralMarines were killed during a firefight with Fedayeen in the urban fighting. At theSaddam Canal, another 18 Marines were killed in heavy fighting with Iraqi soldiers.An Air Force A-10 was involved in a case of friendly fire that resulted in the death ofsix Marines when it accidentally attacked an American amphibious vehicle. Two othervehicles were destroyed when a barrage of RPG and small arms fire killed most of the

Marines inside.[144] A Marine from Marine Air Control Group 28 was killed by enemyfire, and two Marine engineers drowned in the Saddam Canal. The bridges weresecured and the Second Marine division set up a perimeter around the city.

On the evening of 24 March, a battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment pushed throughNasiriyah and established a perimeter 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) north of the city. Iraqireinforcements from Kut launched several counterattacks. The Marines managed torepel them using indirect fire and close air support. The last Iraqi attack was beatenoff at dawn. The battalion estimated that 200–300 Iraqi soldiers were killed, withouta single U.S. casualty. Nasiriyah was declared secure, but attacks by Iraqi Fedayeencontinued. These attacks were uncoordinated, and resulted in firefights in which largenumbers of Fedayeen were killed. Because of Nasiriyah's strategic position as a roadjunction, a significant gridlock occurred as U.S. forces moving north converged on thecity's surrounding highways.

With the Nasiriyah and Talil Airfields secured, Coalition forces gained an importantlogistical center in southern Iraq and established FOB/EAF Jalibah, some 10 miles(16 km) outside of Nasiriyah. Additional troops and supplies were soon broughtthrough this forward operating base. The 101st Airborne Division continued its attacknorth in support of the 3rd Infantry Division.

By 28 March, a severe sand storm slowed the Coalition advance as the 3rd InfantryDivision halted its northward drive half way between Najaf and Karbala. As a result ofheavy rains that occurred along with the sand storm, orange-colored mud fell on

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some parts of the invasion force in the area. Air operations by helicopters, poised tobring reinforcements from the 101st Airborne, were blocked for three days. There wasparticularly heavy fighting in and around the bridge near the town of Kufl.

Battle of Najaf

Main article: Battle of Najaf (2003)

Another fierce battle was at Najaf, where U.S. airborne and armored units withBritish air support fought an intense battle with Iraqi Regulars, Republican Guardunits, and paramilitary forces. It started with U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopter gunshipssetting out on a mission to attack Republican Guard armored units; while flying lowthe Apaches came under heavy anti-aircraft, small arms, and RPG fire which heavily

damaged many helicopters and shot one down, frustrating the attack.[145] Theyattacked again successfully on 26 March, this time after a pre-mission artillery

barrage and with support from F/A-18 Hornet jets, with no gunships lost.[146]

The 1st Brigade Combat Team's air defense battery moved in and after heavy fightingwith entrenched Iraqi Fedayeen seized a strategic bridge in Najaf, known as"Objective Jenkins". They then came under fierce counterattacks by Iraqi forces andFedayeen, who failed to dislodge U.S. forces from their positions. After 36 hours ofcombat at the bridge at Najaf, the Iraqis were defeated, and the key bridge was

secured, isolating Najaf from the north.[147]

The 101st Airborne Division on 29 March, supported by a battalion from the 1stArmored Division, attacked Iraqi forces in the southern part of the city, near the

Imam Ali Mosque and captured Najaf's airfield.[148] Four Americans were killed by asuicide bomber. On 31 March the 101st made a reconnaissance-in-force into Najaf. On1 April elements of the 70th Armored Regiment launched a "Thunder Run", anarmored thrust through Najaf's city center, and after several days of heavy fightingand with air support were able to defeat the Iraqi forces, securing the city by 4 April.[149][149]

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Battle of Basra

Main article: Battle of Basra (2003)

The Iraqi port city of Umm Qasr was the first British obstacle. A joint Polish-British-American force ran into unexpectedly stiff resistance, and it took several days to clearthe Iraqi forces out. Farther north, the British 7 Armoured Brigade ("The DesertRats"), fought their way into Iraq's second-largest city, Basra, on 6 April, comingunder constant attack by regulars and Fedayeen, while 3rd Battalion, The ParachuteRegiment cleared the 'old quarter' of the city that was inaccessible to vehicles.Entering Basra was achieved after two weeks of fierce fighting, which included thebiggest tank battle by British forces since World War II when the Royal ScotsDragoon Guards destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks on 27 March.

Elements of 1 (UK) Armoured Division began to advance north towards U.S. positionsaround Al Amarah on 9 April. Pre-existing electrical and water shortages continuedthroughout the conflict and looting began as Iraqi forces collapsed. While Coalitionforces began working with local Iraqi Police to enforce order, a joint team composedof Royal Engineers and the Royal Logistics Corps of the British Army rapidly set upand repaired dockyard facilities to allow humanitarian aid to begin to arrive fromships arriving in the port city of Umm Qasr.

After a rapid initial advance, the first major pause occurred near Karbala. There, U.S.Army elements met resistance from Iraqi troops defending cities and key bridgesalong the Euphrates River. These forces threatened to interdict supply routes asAmerican forces moved north. Eventually, troops from the 101st Airborne Division ofthe U.S Army secured the cities of Najaf and Karbala to prevent any Iraqicounterattacks on the 3rd Infantry Division's lines of communication as the divisionpressed its advance toward Baghdad.

A total of 11 British soldiers were killed, while 395–515 Iraqi soldiers, irregulars, andFedayeen were killed.

Battle of Karbala

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Main article: Battle of Karbala (2003)

The Karbala Gap was a 20-25-mile wide strip of land with the Euphrates River to theeast and Lake Razazah to the west. This strip of land was recognized by Iraqicommanders as a key approach to Baghdad, and was defended by some of the bestunits of the Iraqi Republican Guard. The Iraqi high command had originally

positioned two Republican Guard divisions blocking the Karbala Gap.[150] Here theseforces suffered heavy Coalition air attacks. However, the Coalition had since thebeginning of March been conducting a strategic deception operation to convince theIraqis that the U.S. 4th Infantry Division would be mounting a major assault into

northern Iraq from Turkey.[151]

This deception plan worked, and on 2 April Saddam's son Qusay Hussein declaredthat the American invasion from the south was a feint and ordered troops to be re-deployed from the Karbala front to the north of Baghdad. Lt. Gen. Raad al-Hamdani,who was in command of the Karbala region, protested this and argued that unlessreinforcements were rushed to the Karbala gap immediately to prevent a breach, U.S.forces would reach Baghdad within 48 hours, but his suggestions fell on deaf ears.American troops rushed through the gap and reached the Euphrates River at the townof Musayib. At Musayib, U.S. troops crossed the Euphrates in boats and seized thevital al-Kaed bridge across the Euphrates after Iraqi demolitions teams had failed todestroy it in time.

The 10th Armored Brigade from the Medina Division and the 22nd Armored Brigadefrom the Nebuchadnezzar Division, supported by artillery, launched night attacksagainst the U.S. bridgehead at Musayib. The attack was repulsed using tank fire andmassed artillery rockets, destroying or disabling every Iraqi tank in the assault. Thenext morning, Coalition aircraft and helicopters fired on the Republican Guard units,destroying many more vehicles as well as communications infrastructure. TheRepublican Guard units broke under the massed firepower and lost any sense ofcommand and cohesion and the U.S. forces poured through gap on to Baghdad.

Special operations

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The 2nd Battalion of the U.S. 5th Special Forces Group, United States Army SpecialForces (Green Berets) conducted reconnaissance in the cities of Basra, Karbala andvarious other locations.

In the North, the 10th Special Forces Group (10th SFG) and CIA paramilitary officersfrom their Special Activities Division had the mission of aiding the Kurdish parties,the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, de facto rulersof Iraqi Kurdistan since 1991, and employing them against the 13 Iraqi Divisionslocated near Kirkuk and Mosul. Turkey had officially prohibited any Coalition troopsfrom using their bases or airspace, so lead elements of the 10th SFG had to make adetour infiltration; their flight was supposed to take four hours but instead took ten.

Hours after the first of such flights, Turkey did allow the use of its air space and therest of the 10th SFG infiltrated in. The preliminary mission was to destroy the base ofthe Kurdish terrorist group Ansar al-Islam, believed to be linked to al-Qaeda.Concurrent and follow-on missions involved attacking and fixing Iraqi forces in thenorth, thus preventing their deployment to the southern front and the main effort ofthe invasion.

On 26 March 2003, the 173rd Airborne Brigade augmented the invasion's northernfront by parachuting into northern Iraq onto Bashur Airfield, controlled at the timeby elements of 10th SFG and Kurdish peshmerga. The fall of Kirkuk on 10 April 2003to the 10th SFG, CIA Paramilitary Teams and Kurdish peshmerga precipitated the173rd's planned assault, preventing the unit's involvement in combat against Iraqiforces during the invasion.

The successful occupation of Kirkuk came as a result of approximately two weeks offighting that included the Battle of the Green Line (the unofficial border of theKurdish autonomous zone) and the subsequent Battle of Kani Domlan Ridge (theridgeline running northwest to southeast of Kirkuk), the latter fought exclusively by3rd Battalion, 10th SFG and Kurdish peshmerga against the Iraqi I Corps. The 173rdBrigade would eventually take responsibility for Kirkuk days later, becoming involvedin the counterinsurgency fight and remain there until redeploying a year later.

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Further reinforcing operations in Northern Iraq, the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit(Special Operations Capable), serving as Landing Force Sixth Fleet, deployed in Aprilto Erbil and subsequently Mosul via Marine KC-130 flights. The 26 MEU (SOC)maintained security of the Mosul airfield and surrounding area until relief by the101st Airborne Division.

After Sargat was taken, Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 10th SFG and CIAparamilitary officers along with their Kurdish allies pushed south towards Tikrit andthe surrounding towns of Northern Iraq. Previously, during the Battle of the GreenLine, Bravo Company, 3/10 with their Kurdish allies pushed back, destroyed, orrouted the 13th Iraqi Infantry Division. The same company took Tikrit. Iraq was thelargest deployment of the U.S. Special Forces since Vietnam.

Fall of Baghdad (April 2003)

Main article: Battle of Baghdad (2003)

Three weeks into the invasion, U.S.-led Coalition forces moved into Baghdad. Units ofthe Iraqi Special Republican Guard led the defence of the city. The rest of thedefenders were a mixture of Republican Guard units, regular army units, FedayeenSaddam, and non-Iraqi Arab volunteers. Initial plans were for Coalition units tosurround the city and gradually move in, forcing Iraqi armor and ground units tocluster into a central pocket in the city, and then attack with air and artillery forces.

This plan soon became unnecessary, as an initial engagement of armored units southof the city saw most of the Republican Guard's assets destroyed and routes in thesouthern outskirts of the city occupied. On 5 April, Task Force 1–64 Armor of the U.S.Army's 3rd Infantry Division executed a raid, later called the "Thunder Run", to testremaining Iraqi defenses, with 29 tanks and 14 Bradley armored fighting vehiclesadvancing to the Baghdad airport. They met heavy resistance, but were successful inreaching the airport. U.S. troops faced heavy fighting in the airport, and were eventemporarily pushed out, but eventually secured the airport.

The next day, another brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division attacked into downtown

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Baghdad and occupied one of the palaces of Saddam Hussein in fierce fighting. U.S.Marines also faced heavy shelling from Iraqi artillery as they attempted to cross ariver bridge, but the river crossing was successful. The Iraqis managed to inflict somecasualties on the U.S. forces near the airport from defensive positions but sufferedsevere casualties from air bombardment. Within hours of the palace seizure and withtelevision coverage of this spreading through Iraq, U.S. forces ordered Iraqi forceswithin Baghdad to surrender, or the city would face a full-scale assault. Iraqigovernment officials had either disappeared or had conceded defeat, and on 9 April2003, Baghdad was formally occupied by Coalition forces. Much of Baghdadremained unsecured however, and fighting continued within the city and its outskirtswell into the period of occupation. Saddam had vanished, and his whereabouts wereunknown.

On 10 April, a rumor emerged that Saddam Hussein and his top aides were in amosque complex in the Al Az'Amiyah District of Baghdad. Three companies ofMarines were sent to capture him and came under heavy fire from rocket-propelledgrenades, mortars, and assault rifles. One Marine was killed and 20 were wounded,but neither Saddam or any of his top aides were found. U.S. forces supported bymortars, artillery, and aircraft continued to attack Iraqi forces still loyal to SaddamHussein and non-Iraqi Arab volunteers. U.S. aircraft flying in support were met withIraqi anti-aircraft fire. On 12 April, by late afternoon, all fighting had ceased. A totalof 34 American soldiers and 2,320 Iraqi fighters were killed.

Many Iraqis celebrated the downfall of Saddam by vandalizing the many portraits andstatues of him together with other pieces of his cult of personality. One widelypublicized event was the dramatic toppling of a large statue of Saddam in Baghdad'sFirdos Square. This attracted considerable media coverage at the time. As the BritishDaily Mirror reported,

For an oppressed people this final act in the fading daylight, the wrenchingdown of this ghastly symbol of the regime, is their Berlin Wall moment. Big

Moustache has had his day."[152]

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As Staff Sergeant Brian Plesich reported in On Point: The United States Army inOperation Iraqi Freedom,

The Marine Corps colonel in the area saw the Saddam statue as a target ofopportunity and decided that the statue must come down. Since we were rightthere, we chimed in with some loudspeaker support to let the Iraqis knowwhat it was we were attempting to do...

Somehow along the way, somebody had gotten the idea to put a bunch of Iraqikids onto the wrecker that was to pull the statue down. While the wrecker waspulling the statue down, there were Iraqi children crawling all over it. Finally

they brought the statue down.[153]

The fall of Baghdad saw the outbreak of regional, sectarian violence throughout thecountry, as Iraqi tribes and cities began to fight each other over old grudges. The Iraqicities of Al-Kut and Nasiriyah launched attacks on each other immediately followingthe fall of Baghdad to establish dominance in the new country, and the U.S.-ledCoalition quickly found themselves embroiled in a potential civil war. U.S.-ledCoalition forces ordered the cities to cease hostilities immediately, explaining thatBaghdad would remain the capital of the new Iraqi government. Nasiriyah respondedfavorably and quickly backed down; however, Al-Kut placed snipers on the mainroadways into town, with orders that invading forces were not to enter the city. Afterseveral minor skirmishes, the snipers were removed, but tensions and violencebetween regional, city, tribal, and familial groups continued.

U.S. General Tommy Franks assumed control of Iraq as the supreme commander ofthe coalition occupation forces. Shortly after the sudden collapse of the defense ofBaghdad, rumors were circulating in Iraq and elsewhere that there had been a dealstruck (a "safqua") wherein the U.S.-led Coalition had bribed key members of theIraqi military elite and/or the Ba'ath party itself to stand down. In May 2003, GeneralFranks retired, and confirmed in an interview with Defense Week that the U.S.-ledCoalition had paid Iraqi military leaders to defect. The extent of the defections andtheir effect on the war are unclear.

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U.S.-led Coalition troops promptly began searching for the key members of SaddamHussein's government. These individuals were identified by a variety of means, mostfamously through sets of most-wanted Iraqi playing cards. Later during the militaryoccupation period after the invasion, on 22 July 2003 during a raid by the U.S. 101stAirborne Division and men from Task Force 20, Saddam Hussein's sons Uday andQusay, and one of his grandsons were killed in a massive fire-fight. Saddam Husseinhimself was captured on 13 December 2003 by the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Divisionand members of Task Force 121 during Operation Red Dawn.

Other areas

In the north, Kurdish forces opposed to Saddam Hussein had already occupied foryears an autonomous area in northern Iraq. With the assistance of U.S. Special Forcesand air strikes, they were able to rout the Iraqi units near them and to occupy oil-richKirkuk on 10 April.

U.S. special forces had also been involved in the extreme south of Iraq, attempting tooccupy key roads to Syria and airbases. In one case two armored platoons were usedto convince Iraqi leadership that an entire armored battalion was entrenched in thewest of Iraq.

On 15 April, U.S. forces took control of Tikrit, the last major outpost in central Iraq,with an attack led by the Marines' Task Force Tripoli. About a week later the Marineswere relieved in place by the Army's 4th Infantry Division.

Bush declares "End of major combat operations" (May 2003)

On 1 May 2003, Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, in aLockheed S-3 Viking, where he gave a speech announcing the end of major combatoperations in the Iraq war. Bush's landing was criticized by opponents as anunnecessarily theatrical and expensive stunt. Clearly visible in the background was abanner stating "Mission Accomplished." The banner, made by White House staff and

supplied by request of the United States Navy,[154] was criticized as premature. TheWhite House subsequently released a statement that the sign and Bush's visit referred

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to the initial invasion of Iraq and disputing the charge of theatrics. The speech itselfnoted: "We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We are bringing order to parts of that

country that remain dangerous."[155] Post-invasion Iraq was marked by a long and

violent conflict between U.S.-led forces and Iraqi insurgents.[156]

Coalition and Allied contingent involvementMain article: Multi-National Force – Iraq

Members of the Coalition included Australia: 2,000 invasion, Poland: 200 invasion—2,500 peak, United Kingdom: 46,000 invasion, United States: 150,000 to 250,000invasion. Other members of the coalition were Afghanistan, Albania, Angola,Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Denmark,Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Honduras,Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, MarshallIslands, Micronesia, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Palau, Panama, thePhilippines, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Singapore, Slovakia, Solomon Islands,

South Korea, Spain, Tonga, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.[157] At least 15

other countries participated covertly.[158]

Australia

Main article: Australian contribution to the 2003 invasion of Iraq

Australia contributed approximately 2,000 Australian Defence Force personnel,including a special forces task group, three warships and 14 F/A-18 Hornet aircraft.[159] On 16 April 2003, Australian special operations forces captured Al Asad Airbasewest of Baghdad. The base would later become the second largest Coalition facilitypost-invasion.

Poland

Main article: Polish involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq

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The Battle of Umm Qasr was the first military confrontation in the Iraq War, with itsobjective the capture of the port. Polish GROM troops supported the amphibiousassault on Umm Qasrby with the British 3 Commando Brigade of the Royal Marines,

and the US 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.[160] After the waterway was de-mined bya Detachment from HM-14 and Naval Special Clearance Team ONE of the U.S. Navyand reopened, Umm Qasr played an important role in the shipment of humanitarian

supplies to Iraqi civilians.[161]

United Kingdom

Main article: Operation Telic

British troops, in what was codenamed Operation (or Op) TELIC participated inthe 2003 Invasion of Iraq. The 1st Armoured Division was deployed to the Gulf andcommanded British forces in the area, securing areas in southern Iraq, including thecity of Basra during the invasion. A total of 46,000 troops of all the British serviceswere committed to the operation at its start, including some 5,000 Royal Navy andRoyal Fleet Auxiliary sailors and 4,000 Royal Marines, 26,000 British Army soldiers,and 8,100 Royal Air Force airmen.

Summary of the invasionThe U.S.-led Coalition forces toppled the government and captured the key cities of alarge nation in only 21 days. The invasion did require a large army build-up like the1991 Gulf War, but many did not see combat and many were withdrawn after theinvasion ended. This proved to be short-sighted, however, due to the requirement fora much larger force to combat the irregular Iraqi forces in the aftermath of the war.General Eric Shinseki, U.S. Army Chief of Staff, recommended "several hundred

thousand"[162] troops be used to maintain post-war order, but then Secretary ofDefense Donald Rumsfeld—and especially his deputy, civilian Paul Wolfowitz—

strongly disagreed. General Abizaid later said General Shinseki had been right.[163]

The Iraqi army, armed mainly with Soviet-built equipment, was overall ill-equipped

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in comparison to the American and British forces. Attacks on U.S. supply routes byFedayeen militiamen were repulsed. The Iraqis' artillery proved largely ineffective,and they were unable to mobilize their air force to attempt a defense. The Iraqi T-72tanks, the most powerful armored vehicles in the Iraqi army, were both outdated andill-maintained, and when they were mobilized they were rapidly destroyed, thanks inpart to the Coalition air supremacy. The U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps and NavalAviation, and British Royal Air Force operated with impunity throughout the country,pinpointing heavily defended resistance targets and destroying them before groundtroops arrived. The main battle tanks of the U.S. and UK forces, the U.S. M1 Abramsand British Challenger 2, functioned well in the rapid advance across the country.Despite the many RPG attacks by irregular Iraqi forces, few U.S. and UK tanks werelost, and no tank crew-members were killed by hostile fire. The only tank losssustained by the British Army was a Challenger 2 of the Queen's Royal Lancers thatwas hit by another Challenger 2, killing two crew members.

The Iraqi army suffered from poor morale, even amongst the elite Republican Guard.Entire units disbanded into the crowds upon the approach of invading troops, oractually sought out U.S. and UK forces to surrender to. Many Iraqi commandingofficers were bribed by the CIA or coerced into surrendering. The leadership of theIraqi army was incompetent – reports state that Qusay Hussein, charged with thedefense of Baghdad, dramatically shifted the positions of the two main divisionsprotecting Baghdad several times in the days before the arrival of U.S. forces, and as aresult the units were confused, and further demoralized when U.S. forces attacked.The invasion force did not see the entire Iraqi military thrown against it; U.S. and UKunits had orders to move to and seize objective target points rather than seek toengage Iraqi units. This resulted in most regular Iraqi military units emerging fromthe war without having been engaged, and fully intact, especially in southern Iraq. Itis assumed that most units disintegrated to return to their homes.

According to the declassified Pentagon report, "The largest contributing factor to thecomplete defeat of Iraq's military forces was the continued interference by Saddam."The report, designed to help U.S. officials understand in hindsight how Saddam andhis military commanders prepared for and fought the invasion, paints a picture of an

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Iraqi government blind to the threat it faced, hampered by Saddam's inept militaryleadership and deceived by its own propaganda and inability to believe an invasionwas imminent without further Iraqi provocation. According to the BBC, the reportportrays Saddam Hussein as "chronically out of touch with reality – preoccupied with

the prevention of domestic unrest and with the threat posed by Iran."[164]

CasualtiesDeath toll

Estimates on the number of casualties during the invasion in Iraq vary widely. JohnTirman, the Executive Director and a Principal Research Scientist at MIT's Center for

International Studies, who has reviewed the various data and methodologies,[165][166]

has estimated "the number of war-related dead to be at least 600,000 and possibly as

much as one million".[167] Estimates on civilian casualties are more variable thanthose for military personnel. According to Iraq Body Count, a group that relies onpress reports, NGO-based reports and official figures to measure civilian casualties,approximately 7,500 civilians were killed during the invasion phase, while more than

60,000 civilians have been killed as of April 2007.[168] The Lancet Survey estimated654,965 "excess deaths" to June 2006; and the Opinion Research Business Surveyestimated 1,033,000 "deaths as a result of the conflict", to April 2009. John Tirman

has praised as "most accurate"[169] the review published in Conflict and Health 7

March 2008, "Iraq War mortality estimates: A systematic review".[170]

War crimes and allegations

Fedayeen Saddam militia, Republican Guard and Iraqi security forces were reportedto have executed Iraqi soldiers who tried to surrender on multiple occasions, as well

as threatening the families of those who refused to fight.[171][172][173] One such

incident was directly observed during the Battle of Debecka Pass.[174]

Many incidents of Fedayeen fighters using human shields were reported from various

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towns in Iraq.[175] Iraqi Republican Guard units were also reported to be using

human shields.[176] Some reports indicate that the Fedayeen used ambulances todeliver messages and transport fighters into combat. On 31 March, Fedayeen in a RedCrescent-marked ambulance attacked American soldiers outside of Nasiriyah,

wounding three.[176][177] During the Battle of Basra, British forces of the Black Watch(Royal Highland Regiment) reported that on 28 March, Fedayeen forces opened fire

on thousands of civilian refugees fleeing the city.[178][179]

After the ambush of the 507th Maintenance Company during the Battle of Nasiriyahon 23 March, the bodies of several U.S. soldiers who had been killed in the ambushwere shown on Iraqi television. Some of these soldiers had visible gunshot wounds tohead, leading to speculation that they had been executed. Except for Sgt. DonaldWalters, no evidence has since surfaced to support this scenario and it is generallyaccepted that the soldiers were killed in action. Five live prisoners of war were also

interviewed on the air, a violation of the Third Geneva Convention.[180][181] SergeantWalters was initially reported to have been killed in the ambush after killing severalFedayeen before running out of ammunition. However, an eyewitness later reportedthat he had seen Walters being guarded by several Fedayeen in front of a building.Forensics work later found Walters' blood in front of the building and blood spattersuggesting he died from two gunshot wounds to the back at close range. This led theArmy to conclude that Walters had been executed after being captured, and he was

posthumously awarded the Prisoner of War Medal in 2004.[182][183] It was alleged inthe authorized biography of Pfc. Jessica Lynch that she was raped by her captors afterher capture, based on medical reports and the pattern of her injuries, though this is

not supported by Ms Lynch.[184] Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief, who later helpedAmerican forces rescue Lynch, stated that he saw an Iraqi Colonel slap Lynch while

she was in her hospital bed.[185] The staff at the hospital where Lynch was held later

denied both stories, saying that Lynch was well cared for.[186] While Lynch suffersfrom amnesia due to her injuries, Lynch herself has denied any mistreatment whilstin captivity.

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Also on 23 March, a British Army engineering unit made a wrong turn near the townof Az Zubayr, which was still held by Iraqi forces. The unit was ambushed and SapperLuke Allsopp and Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth became separated from the rest.Both were captured and executed by Iraqi irregular forces. In 2006, a video of Allsopp

lying on the ground surrounded by Iraqi irregular forces was discovered.[187]

During the Battle of Nasiriyah, there was an incident where Iraqi irregulars feignedsurrender to approach an American Marine unit securing a bridge. After getting closeto the Marines, the Iraqis suddenly opened fire, killing 10 Marines and wounding 40.[176] In response, American forces reinforced security procedures for dealing with

prisoners of war.[188]

Marine Sergeant Fernando Padilla-Ramirez was reported missing from his supplyunit after an ambush north of Nasiriyah on 28 March. His body was later draggedthrough the streets of Ash-Shatrah and hung in the town square, and later takendown and buried by sympathetic locals. The corpse was discovered by U.S. forces on

10 April.[189][190][191]

Security, looting and war damage

Massive looting took place in the days following the 2003 invasion.[192] According toU.S. officials, the "reality of the situation on the ground" was that hospitals, waterplants, and ministries with vital intelligence needed security more than other sites.There were only enough U.S. troops on the ground to guard a certain number of themany sites that ideally needed protection, and so, apparently, some "hard choices"were made.

It was reported that the National Museum of Iraq was among the looted sites. TheFBI was soon called into Iraq to track down the stolen items. It was found that theinitial allegations of looting of substantial portions of the collection were heavilyexaggerated. Initial reports asserted a near-total looting of the museum, estimated atupwards of 170,000 inventory lots, or about 501,000 pieces. The more recentestimate places the number of stolen pieces at around 15,000, and about 10,000 of

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them probably were taken in an "inside job" before U.S. troops arrived, according to

Bogdanos. Over 5,000 looted items have since been recovered.[193] An assertion thatU.S. forces did not guard the museum because they were guarding the Ministry of Oiland Ministry of Interior is disputed by investigator Colonel Matthew Bogdanos in his2005 book Thieves of Baghdad. Bogdanos notes that the Ministry of Oil building wasbombed, but the museum complex, which took some fire, was not bombed. He alsowrites that Saddam Hussein's troops set up sniper's nests inside and on top of themuseum, and nevertheless U.S. Marines and soldiers stayed close enough to preventwholesale looting.

More serious for the post-war state of Iraq was the looting of cached weaponry andordnance which fueled the subsequent insurgency. As many as 250,000 tons of

explosives were unaccounted for by October 2004.[194] Disputes within the USDefense Department led to delays in the post-invasion assessment and protection ofIraqi nuclear facilities. Tuwaitha, the Iraqi site most scrutinized by UN inspectors

since 1991, was left unguarded and was looted.[195][196]

Zainab Bahrani, professor of Ancient Near Eastern Art History and Archaeology atColumbia University, reported that a helicopter landing pad was constructed in theheart of the ancient city of Babylon, and "removed layers of archeological earth fromthe site. The daily flights of the helicopters rattle the ancient walls and the windscreated by their rotors blast sand against the fragile bricks. When my colleague at thesite, Maryam Moussa, and I asked military personnel in charge that the helipad beshut down, the response was that it had to remain open for security reasons, for the

safety of the troops."[197] Bahrani also reported that in the summer of 2004, "the wallof the Temple of Nabu and the roof of the Temple of Ninmah, both sixth century BC,

collapsed as a result of the movement of helicopters."[197] Electrical power is scarce inpost-war Iraq, Bahrani reported, and some fragile artifacts, including the Ottoman

Archive, would not survive the loss of refrigeration.[197]

Media coverage

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Main article: 2003 invasion of Iraq media coverage

U.S. media coverage

The U.S. invasion of Iraq was the most widely and closely reported war in military

history.[198] Television network coverage was largely pro-war and viewers were six

times more likely to see a pro-war source as one who was anti-war.[199] The New YorkTimes ran a number of articles describing Saddam Hussein's attempts to buildweapons of mass destruction. The 8 September 2002 article titled "U.S. Says HusseinIntensifies Quest for A-Bomb Parts" would be discredited, leading The New YorkTimes to issue a public statement admitting it was not as rigorous as it should have

been.[200]

At the start of the war in March 2003, as many as 775 reporters and photographers

were traveling as embedded journalists.[201] These reporters signed contracts with

the military that limited what they were allowed to report on.[202] When asked whythe military decided to embed journalists with the troops, Lt. Col. Rick Long of theU.S. Marine Corps replied, "Frankly, our job is to win the war. Part of that isinformation warfare. So we are going to attempt to dominate the information

environment."[203]

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In 2003, a study released by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting stated the networknews disproportionately focused on pro-war sources and left out many anti-warsources. According to the study, 64% of total sources were in favor of the Iraq Warwhile total anti-war sources made up 10% of the media (only 3% of US sources wereanti-war). The study stated that "viewers were more than six times as likely to see apro-war source as one who was anti-war; with U.S. guests alone, the ratio increases to

25 to 1."[204]

A September 2003 poll revealed that seventy percent of Americans believed there was

a link between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of 9/11.[205] 80% of Fox Newsviewers were found to hold at least one such belief about the invasion, compared to

23% of PBS viewers.[206] Ted Turner, founder of CNN, charged that Rupert Murdoch

was using Fox News to advocate an invasion.[207] Critics have argued that thisstatistic is indicative of misleading coverage by the U.S. media since viewers in other

countries were less likely to have these beliefs.[208] A post-2008 election poll byFactCheck.org found that 48% of Americans believe Hussein played a role in the 9/11attacks, the group concluded that "voters, once deceived, tend to stay that way despite

all evidence."[209]

Independent media coverage

Independent media also played a prominent role in covering the invasion. TheIndymedia network, among many other independent networks including manyjournalists from the invading countries, provided reports in a way difficult to controlby any government, corporation or political party. In the United States DemocracyNow, hosted by Amy Goodman has been critical of the reasons for the 2003 invasionand the alleged crimes committed by the U.S. authorities in Iraq.

On the other side, among media not opposing to the invasion, The Economist statedin an article on the matter that "the normal diplomatic tools—sanctions, persuasion,pressure, UN resolutions—have all been tried, during 12 deadly but failed years" thengiving a mild conditional support to the war stating that "if Mr Hussein refuses to

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disarm, it would be right to go to war".[210]

Australian war artist George Gittoes collected independent interviews with soldierswhile producing his documentary Soundtrack To War. The war in Iraq provided thefirst time in history that military on the front lines were able to provide direct,uncensored reportage themselves, thanks to blogging software and the reach of theinternet. Dozens of such reporting sites, known as soldier blogs or milblogs, werestarted during the war. These blogs were more often than not largely pro-war andstated various reasons why the soldiers and Marines felt they were doing the right

thing.[211]

International media coverage

International coverage of the war differed from coverage in the U.S. in a number ofways. The Arab-language news channel Al Jazeera and the German satellite channelDeutsche Welle featured almost twice as much information on the political

background of the war.[212] Al Jazeera also showed scenes of civilian casualties whichwere rarely seen in the U.S. media.

CriticismMain article: Criticism of the Iraq War

Opponents of military intervention in Iraq have attacked the decision to invade Iraqalong a number of lines, including calling into question the evidence used to justifythe war, arguing for continued diplomacy, challenging the war’s legality, suggestingthat the U.S. had other more pressing security priorities, (i.e. Afghanistan and NorthKorea) and predicting that the war would destabilize the Middle East region. Thebreadth and depth of the criticism was particularly notable in comparison with thefirst Gulf War, which met with considerably less domestic and internationalopposition, although the geopolitical situation had evolved since the last decade.

Rationale based on faulty evidence

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The central U.S. justification for launching the Iraq War was that Saddam Hussein'salleged development of nuclear and biological weapons and purported ties to al-

Qaeda made his regime a "grave and growing"[213] threat to the United States and the

world community.[214] During the lead-up to the war and the aftermath of theinvasion, critics cast doubt on the evidence supporting this rationale. ConcerningIraq’s weapons programs, prominent critics included Scott Ritter, a former U.N.weapons inspector who argued in 2002 that inspections had eliminated the nuclearand chemical weapons programs, and that evidence of their reconstitution would"have been eminently detectable by intelligence services ...." Although it is popularlybelieved that Saddam Hussein had forced the IAEA weapons inspectors to leave Iraq,they were in fact withdrawn at the request of US Ambassador Peter Burleigh inadvance of Operation Desert Fox, the 1998 American bombing campaign. After thebuild-up of U.S. troops in neighboring states, Hussein welcomed them back andpromised complete cooperation with their demands. Experienced IAEA inspectionteams were already back in Iraq and had made some interim reports on its search for

various forms of WMD.[215][216][217][218][219] Joseph C. Wilson, an Americandiplomat investigated the contention that Iraq had sought uranium for nuclear

weapons in Niger and reported that the contention had no substance.[220][221]

Similarly, alleged links between Iraq and al-Qaeda were called into question duringthe lead up to the war, and were discredited by an 21 October 2004 report from U.S.Senator Carl Levin, which was later corroborated by an April 2006 report from the

Defense Department’s inspector general.[222] These reports further alleged that BushAdministration officials, particularly former undersecretary of defense Douglas J.

Feith, manipulated evidence to support links between al-Qaeda and Iraq.[223]

Lack of a U.N. mandate

One of the main questions in the lead-up to the war was whether the United NationsSecurity Council would authorize military intervention in Iraq. It became increasinglyclear that U.N. authorization would require significant further weapons inspections.Many criticized their effort as unwise, immoral, and illegal. Robin Cook, then the

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leader of the United Kingdom House of Commons and a former foreign secretary,resigned from Tony Blair's cabinet in protest over the UK’s decision to invade withoutthe authorization of a U.N. resolution. Cook said at the time that: "In principle Ibelieve it is wrong to embark on military action without broad international support.In practice I believe it is against Britain's interests to create a precedent for unilateral

military action."[224] In addition, senior government legal advisor ElizabethWilmshurst resigned, stating her legal opinion that an invasion would be illegal.[citation needed]

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in an interview with the BBC inSeptember 2004, "[F]rom our point of view and from the Charter point of view [the

war] was illegal."[225] This drew immediate criticism from the United States and was

immediately played down.[226] His annual report to the General Assembly for 2003included no more than the statement: "Following the end of major hostilities which

resulted in the occupation of Iraq..."[227] A similar report from the Security Councilwas similarly terse in its reference to the event: "Following the cessation of hostilities

in Iraq in April 2003..."[228] The United Nations Security Council has passed nearly60 resolutions on Iraq and Kuwait since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The mostrelevant to this issue is Resolution 678, passed on 29 November 1990. It authorizes"member states co-operating with the Government of Kuwait... to use all necessarymeans" to (1) implement Security Council Resolution 660 and other resolutionscalling for the end of Iraq's occupation of Kuwait and withdrawal of Iraqi forces fromKuwaiti territory and (2) "restore international peace and security in the area."

Military intervention vs diplomatic solution

Criticisms about the evidence used to justify the war notwithstanding, manyopponents of military intervention objected, saying that a diplomatic solution wouldbe preferable, and that war should be reserved as a truly last resort. This position wasexemplified by French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, who responded toU.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's 5 February 2003 presentation to the U.NSecurity Council by saying that: "Given the choice between military intervention and

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an inspections regime that is inadequate because of a failure to cooperate on Iraq's

part, we must choose the decisive reinforcement of the means of inspections."[229] Inresponse to Donald Rumsfeld's reference to European countries that did not support

the invasion of Iraq as 'Old Europe',[230] Dominique de Villepin ended his speechwith words that would later come to embody the French-German political, economic,and military alliance throughout the beginning of the 21st Century: "This messagecomes to you today from an old country, France, from a continent like mine, Europe,that has known wars, occupation and barbarity. (…) Faithful to its values, it wishesresolutely to act with all the members of the international community. It believes in

our ability to build together a better world."[231] The direct opposition betweendiplomatic solution and military intervention involving France and the United Stateswhich was personified by Chirac versus Bush and later Powell versus de Villepin,became a milestone in the Franco-American relations. Anti-French propangadaexploiting the classic Francophobic clichés immediately ensued in the United Statesand the United Kingdom. A call for a boycott on French wine was launched in theUnited States and the New York Post covered on the 1944 "Sacrifice" of the GIsFrance would had forgotten. It was followed a week later, on 20 February, by theBritish newspaper The Sun publishing a special issue entitled "Chirac is a worm" andincluding ad hominem attacks such as "Jacques Chirac has become the shame of

Europe".[232] Actually both newspapers expressed the opinion of their owner, U.S.billionaire Rupert Murdoch, a military intervention supporter and a George W. Bushpartisan as argued by Roy Greenslade in The Guardian published on 17 February.[232][233]

Distraction from the war on terrorism and other priorities

Both supporters and opponents of the Iraq War widely viewed it within the context ofa post–11 September world, where the U.S. has sought to make terrorism the defininginternational security paradigm. Bush often described the Iraq War as a "central front

in the war on terror".[234] Some critics of the war, particularly within the U.S. militarycommunity, argued pointedly against the conflation of Iraq and the war on terror, andcriticized Bush for losing focus on the more important objective of fighting al-Qaeda.

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As Marine Lieutenant General Greg Newbold, the Pentagon's former top operationsofficer, wrote in a 2006 TIME article, "I now regret that I did not more openlychallenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were

peripheral to the real threat—al-Qaeda."[235]

Critics within this vein have further argued that containment would have been aneffective strategy for the Hussein government, and that the top U.S. priorities in theMiddle East should be encouraging a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,working for the moderation of Iran, and solidifying gains made in Afghanistan andCentral Asia. In an October 2002 speech, Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, formerhead of Central Command for U.S. forces in the Middle East and State Department'senvoy to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, called Iraq "maybe six or seven," in terms ofU.S. Middle East priorities, adding that "the affordability line may be drawn around

five."[236] However, while commander of CENTCOM, Zinni held a very differentopinion concerning the threat posed by Iraq. In testimony before the Senate ArmedServices Committee in February 2000, Zinni said: "Iraq remains the most significantnear-term threat to U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf region. This is primarily due toits large conventional military force, pursuit of WMD, oppressive treatment of Iraqicitizens, refusal to comply with United Nations Security Council Resolutions(UNSCR), persistent threats to enforcement of the No Fly Zones (NFZ), andcontinued efforts to violate UN Security Council sanctions through oil smuggling."[237] However, it is important to note that Zinni specifically referred to "the PersianGulf region" in his Senate testimony, which is a significantly smaller region of theworld than the "Middle East", which he referred to in 2007.

Potential to destabilize the region

Besides arguing that Iraq was not the top strategic priority in the war on terrorism orin the Middle East, critics of the war also suggested that it could potentiallydestabilize the surrounding region. Prominent among such critics was BrentScowcroft, who served as National Security Advisor to George H. W. Bush. In a15 August 2002 Wall Street Journal editorial entitled "Don't attack Saddam",

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Scowcroft wrote that, "Possibly the most dire consequences would be the effect in theregion... there would be an explosion of outrage against us... the results could well

destabilize Arab regimes", and, "could even swell the ranks of the terrorists."[238]

Related phrasesThis campaign featured a variety of new terminology, much of it initially coined bythe U.S. government or military. The military official name for the invasion wasOperation Iraqi Liberation (White House Press Release). However this was quicklychanged to "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Also notable was the usage "death squads" torefer to Fedayeen paramilitary forces. Members of the Saddam Hussein governmentwere called by disparaging nicknames – e.g., "Chemical Ali" (Ali Hassan al-Majid),"Baghdad Bob" or "Comical Ali" (Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf), and "Mrs. Anthrax" or"Chemical Sally" (Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash).

Terminology introduced or popularized during the war include:

"Axis of evil", originally used by Bush during a State of the Union address on 29

January 2002 to refer to the countries of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.[239]

"Coalition of the willing", a term that originated in the Clinton era (e.g.,interview, Clinton, ABC, 8 June 1994), and used by the Bush Administration forthe countries contributing troops in the invasion, of which the U.S. and UK werethe primary members."Decapitating the regime", a euphemism for killing Saddam Hussein."Embedding", United States practice of assigning civilian journalists to U.S.military units."Mother of all bombs", a bomb developed and produced to support OperationIraqi Freedom. Its name echoes Saddam's phrase "Mother of all battles" to

describe the first Gulf War.[240]

"Old Europe", Rumsfeld's term for European governments not supporting thewar: "You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that'sold Europe.""Regime change", a euphemism for overthrowing a government.

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"Shock and Awe", the strategy of reducing an enemy's will to fight throughdisplays of overwhelming force.

Many slogans and terms coined came to be used by Bush's political opponents, orthose opposed to the war. For example, in April 2003 John Kerry, the Democraticcandidate in the presidential election, said at a campaign rally: "What we need now isnot just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change

in the United States."[241] Other war critics use the name "Operation Iraqi Liberation(OIL)" to subtly point out their opinion as to the cause of the war, such as the song"Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL)" by David Rovics, a popular folk protest singer.

See alsoInvestment in post-invasion IraqGovernmental positions on the Iraq War prior to the 2003 invasion of IraqOccupation of Iraq timelinePopular opinion in the United States on the invasion of Iraq

Intrigues:

Iraq disarmament crisisThe UN Security Council and the Iraq war

Lists:

List of people associated with the 2003 invasion of IraqList of aviation accidents and incidents during the Iraq WarList of wars and disasters by death toll

General:

Carter DoctrineDemocracy in the Middle EastForeign policy of the United StatesJus ad bellum

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Petrodollar warfare

Notes1. ^ "Security Council endorses formation of sovereign interim government in

Iraq; welcomes end of occupation by 30 June, democratic elections by January2005". United Nations. 8 June 2004.

2. ^ Graham, Bradley (7 April 2003). "U.S. Airlifts Iraqi Exile Force For DutiesNear Nasiriyah". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 September 2009.

3. ^ John Pike (14 March 2003). "Free Iraqi Forces Committed to Democracy, Ruleof Law – DefenseLink". Globalsecurity.org. Archived from the original on 10September 2009. Retrieved 13 September 2009.

4. ^ a b "Deploying the Free Iraqi Forces – U.S. News & World Report".Usnews.com. 7 April 2003. Retrieved 13 September 2009.

5. ^ Kim Ghattas (14 April 2003). "Syrians join Iraq 'jihad'". BBC News. Retrieved29 October 2011.

6. ^ "Arab volunteers to Iraq: ‘token’ act or the makings of another Afghan jihad?".Retrieved 29 October 2011.

7. ^ a b Australian Department of Defence (2004). The War in Iraq. ADFOperations in the Middle East in 2003. Page 11.

8. ^ a b "Surrogate Warfare: The Role of U.S. Army Special Forces – MAJ Isaac J.Peltier, US Army – p. 2". Retrieved 21 February 2013.

9. ^ http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/csis-military_balance-062802.pdf10. ^ Toby Dodge (16 November 2002). "Iraqi army is tougher than US believes |

World news". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-11-10.11. ^ "Iraq Coalition Casualties: Fatalities by Year and Month" iCasualties.org.

Retrieved on 1 November 2009.12. ^ Arab media13. ^ icasualties Iraq Coalition Casualties: U.S. Wounded Totals14. ^ Willing to face Death: A History of Kurdish Military Forces – the Peshmerga –

from the Ottoman Empire to Present-Day Iraq (page 67), Michael G. Lortz

15. ^ a b "The Wages of War: Iraqi Combatant and Noncombatant Fatalities in the

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2003 Conflict | Commonwealth Institute of Cambridge". Comw.org. Archivedfrom the original on 2 September 2009. Retrieved 13 September 2009.

16. ^ "Wages of War – Appendix 1. Survey of reported Iraqi combatant fatalities inthe 2003 war | Commonwealth Institute of Cambridge". Comw.org. Archivedfrom the original on 2 September 2009. Retrieved 13 September 2009.

17. ^ "Body counts". By Jonathan Steele. The Guardian. 28 May 2003.18. ^ Iraq Body Count project. Source of IBC quote on undercounting by media is

[1]. Template:Http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/19. ^ "U.S. has 100,000 troops in Kuwait". CNN. 18 February 2003. Retrieved 29

October 2011.

20. ^ a b "President Discusses Beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom". Retrieved 29October 2011.

21. ^ Andrew Buncombe, "Richard Clarke: 'Iraq could be much more of a problemfor America than if Saddam had stayed in power', The Monday Interview:Former White House security chief", The Independent, Washington, 14 June2004.

22. ^ Wesley Clark, Winning Modern Wars (New York: Public Affairs, 2003), 13023. ^ "US Hardliners search for a Saddam connection". Gulf States Newsletter's

Middle East Insider (9). September 2001.24. ^ Oz Hassan (2012) "Constructing Americas freedom agenda for the Middle

East" http://www.amazon.co.uk/Constructing-Americas-Freedom-Agenda-Middle/dp/0415603102/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348997756&sr=8-1

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28. ^ An exception was Denmark, where even the popular opinion supported theinvasion and Denmark as a member of the coalition. Joint Declaration byRussia, Germany and France on Iraq France Diplomatie 10 February 2003

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29. ^ NZ praised for 'steering clear of Iraq war The Dominion Post 7 December2008

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45. ^ Smith, Jeffrey R. "Hussein's Prewar Ties To Al-Qaeda Discounted". TheWashington Post, Friday, 6 April 2007; Page A01. Retrieved on 23 April 2007.

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Assembly: Remarks by the President in Address to the United Nations GeneralAssembly, New York, New York", official transcript, press release, The WhiteHouse, 12 September 2002. Retrieved 24 May 2007.

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52. ^ Blix, Hans (13 May 2003), Thirteenth quarterly report of the ExecutiveChairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and InspectionCommission in accordance with paragraph 12 of Security council resolution1284 (1999), UNMOVIC

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55. ^ a b c d e f Plan of Attack, Bob Woodward, Simon and Schuster, 2004.

56. ^ a b c d e Tucker, Mike; Charles Faddis (2008). Operation Hotel California:The Clandestine War inside Iraq. The Lyons Press. ISBN 978-1-59921-366-8.

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59. ^ Woodward, Bob (2004). Plan of Attack. Simon & Schuster, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7432-5547-9.

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60. ^ George W. Bush. "Third State of the Union Address". Archived from theoriginal on 10 December 2008. "From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, inthe late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed toproduce germ warfare agents, and can be moved from place to a place to evadeinspectors. Saddam Hussein has not disclosed these facilities. He's given noevidence that he has destroyed them."

61. ^ "US, Britain and Spain Abandon Resolution". Associated Press. 17 March2003. Retrieved 6 August 2006.

62. ^ "Bush: Iraq is playing 'willful charade'". CNN. 7 March 2003. Retrieved 6August 2006.

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release). White House Office of the Press Secretary. 17 March 2003. Retrieved 28July 2010.

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68. ^ Risen, James; Lichtblau, Eric (11 December 2003). "A REGION INFLAMED:BACK CHANNELS; U.S. Opens Firearms Charge Against Iraq-U.S. Contact". TheNew York Times. Retrieved 29 March 2010.

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Times, 18 January 2006. Retrieved on 10 May 2007.91. ^ Senator Bill Nelson (28 January 2004) "New Information on Iraq's Possession

of Weapons of Mass Destruction", Congressional Record92. ^ Lowe, C. (16 December 2003) "Senator: White House Warned of UAV Attack,"

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UAVs"[dead link] The Yirmeyahu Review94. ^ Senators Slam Shifting Iraq War Justification. Islamonline. 30 July 2003.95. ^ Roth, Ken. "War in Iraq: Not a Humanitarian Intervention" Human Rights

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102. ^ "International Commission of Jurists". Icj.org. 18 March 2003. Retrieved 13

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September 2009.[dead link]

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104. ^ Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger (20 November 2003). "War criticsastonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal". The Guardian (London).Archived from the original on 8 May 2006. Retrieved 26 May 2006.

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Dutch Inquiry Finds: Investigation into the Netherlands' Support for 2003 WarFinds Military Action was Not Justified under UN Resolutions,"http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/12/iraq-invasion-violated-interational-law-dutch-inquiry-finds

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113. ^ for more information about Turkey's policy during the invasion look, Ali Balciand Murat Yesiltas, 'Turkey's New Middle East Policy: The Case of the Meetingof the Foreign Ministers of Iraq's Neighboring Countries', Journal of South Asianand Middle Eastern Studies, XXIX (4), Summer 2006, pp. 18–38

114. ^ Ford, Peter. A weak northern front could lengthen Iraq War. Christian ScienceMonitor, 3 April 2003. Retrieved on 7 May 2003.

115. ^ "Saddam's Last Line of Defense". CBS. 26 March 2003. Retrieved 6 August2006.

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116. ^ "Saddam counts on Republican Guard as last chance for defending Baghdad".Associated Press. 26 March 2003. Archived from the original on 21 July 2006.Retrieved 6 August 2006.

117. ^ Burgess, Mark (12 November 2002). "CDI Primer: Iraqi MilitaryEffectiveness". Center for Defense Information. Retrieved 6 August 2006.

118. ^ Windle, David (29 January 2003). "Military muscle". New Scientist. Retrieved6 August 2006.

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717-6.Ricks, Thomas E. (2006). Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq.Penguin. ISBN 978-1-59420-103-5.Woods, Kevin M (2006). Iraqi perspectives project : a view of Operation IraqiFreedom from Saddam's senior leadership. United States Joint ForcesCommand, Joint Center for Operational Analysis. ISBN 978-0-9762550-1-7.Retrieved 29 October 2011.Wright, Steven. The United States and Persian Gulf Security: The Foundationsof the War on Terror. Ithaca Press: 2007. ISBN 978-0-86372-321-6.Zucchino, David (2004). Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to CaptureBaghdad. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 978-0-87113-911-5.

Further readingThe Gulf in 2003*The Gulf in 2003 Gulf States Newsletter, complete 2003 PDFarchive"The Three Trillion Dollar War" by Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz andHarvard professor Linda Bilmes"Shadow Warriors" by Kenneth R. Timmerman. Three Rivers Press. 2008. ISBN978-0-307-35209-5 (Paperback edition)Spring 2007 Dissent, "Exporting Democracy: Lessons from Iraq," a symposium

featuring Paul Berman, Mitchell Cohen, Seyla Benhabib and others. Read[dead

link]

Google Print*Masters of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces byLinda RobinsonHeavy Metal a Tank Company's Battle to Baghdad by Captain Jason Conroyand Ron MartzCobra II : The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq by MichaelR. Gordon and Bernard E. TrainorIraq and the Evolution of American Strategy by Steven Metz. ISBN 978-1-59797-196-6The Iraq War by Williamson Murray and Robert H. Scales, Jr.

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The Iraq War by John KeeganHans Köchler, The Iraq Crisis and the United Nations. Power Politics vs. theInternational Rule of Law. Studies in International Relations, XXVIII. Vienna:I.P.O., 2004, ISBN 978-3-900704-22-3, Google PrintBibliography: The Second U.S. – Iraq War (2003– ) by Edwin MoiseWilliams, C.(2011) Learning to redress preemptive deceit: The "Iraq Dossier",SAGE Open, . 1(3) doi:10.1177/221582440. Based on analysis submitted to theIraq Inquiry. See: Jones, Brian (2009) ‘Dossier demolished', Iraq Digestwww.iraqinquirydigest.org/?p=5355

External linksH.J.Res. 114 U.S. Senate results to authorize the use of United States ArmedForces against Iraq."Operation Iraqi Freedom – The Invasion of Iraq". PBS Frontline. Retrieved 28October 2011. Chronology of invasion.Occupation of Iraq Timeline at the History CommonsWar in Iraq: Day by Day Guide"Frontline: The Dark Side" PBS documentary on Dick Cheney's remaking of theExecutive and infighting leading up to the war in Iraq1999 Desert Crossing War Game to Plan Invasion of Iraq and to Unseat SaddamHussein