The Iraq War (2003-2011)

On the day of the September 11 attacks, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asked his aides to "judge whether good enough hit Saddam Hussein at the same time. Not only Osama bin Laden." The next day, President George W. Bush ordered counterterrorism coordinator Richard A. Clarke to investigate possible Iraqi involvement. On 21 November 2001, Bush instructed Rumsfeld to conduct a confidential review of OPLAN 1003, the war plan for invading Iraq. The intelligence community concluded there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks and little evidence of Iraqi collaboration with al-Qaeda, but this view did not prevail within the Bush administration.

Location: United States

In his January 2002 State of the Union address, Bush called Iraq a member of the "Axis of Evil" alongside Iran and North Korea. On 5 September 2002, a Joint Chiefs of Staff intelligence report revealed that US knowledge of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program ranged from essentially zero to 75%, with assessments relying heavily on "analytic assumptions and judgment rather than hard evidence." On 16 October 2002, the US Congress passed the bipartisan Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution, with 126 of 209 House Democrats voting against. Of 50 Senate Democrats, 29 voted in favor. Only one Republican Senator, Lincoln Chafee, voted against.

Location: Washington, D.C., USA

UN Security Council Resolution 1441, adopted in November 2002, authorized the resumption of weapons inspections. As of February 2003, the IAEA found no evidence of a revived Iraqi nuclear weapons program. UNMOVIC chairman Hans Blix reported in March 2003 that progress had been made and no evidence of WMD had been found. On 5 February 2003, US Secretary of State Colin Powell presented evidence to the UN that Iraq was hiding unconventional weapons, including claims from an Iraqi emigrant codenamed "Curveball" who later admitted his claims were false. A proposed resolution authorizing force was withdrawn when it became clear it would be vetoed by France and Russia.

Location: New York, USA

On 15 February 2003, anti-war protests took place in over 600 cities worldwide, with estimates of 6-10 million participants making it the largest protest event in human history. According to French academic Dominique Reynié, between 3 January and 12 April 2003, 36 million people globally took part in almost 3,000 protests. Pope John Paul II publicly condemned the planned invasion, telling Bush directly: "Every violence, against one or a million, is a blasphemy addressed to the image and likeness of God." Nelson Mandela voiced his opposition, stating "All that Mr. Bush wants is Iraqi oil." German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer confronted Rumsfeld at the Munich Security Conference, declaring "Excuse me, I am not convinced!"

Location: Worldwide

At 5:34 am Baghdad time on 20 March 2003, the surprise military invasion of Iraq began without a formal declaration of war. The invasion, codenamed Operation Iraqi Freedom, was led by US Army General Tommy Franks. Coalition forces included approximately 248,000 US soldiers, 45,000 British soldiers, 2,000 Australian soldiers, and 194 Polish special forces, with up to 70,000 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters supporting the northern front. The first CIA team had entered Iraq in July 2002, and together with the Joint Special Operations Command, they had prepared the battlefield by persuading Iraqi commanders to surrender and identifying leadership targets. The war began with a "shock and awe" bombing campaign.

Location: Iraq

On 9 April 2003, Baghdad fell, ending Saddam Hussein's 24-year rule. US forces seized the deserted Ba'ath Party ministries and, as documented in widely broadcast images, toppled a large iron statue of Saddam in Firdos Square. The abrupt fall of Baghdad was accompanied by both gratitude toward the invaders and civil disorder, including widespread looting of public and government buildings. According to the Pentagon, 250,000 short tons of 650,000 short tons of ordnance were looted, providing ammunition for the emerging insurgency. The invasion phase concluded when Tikrit, Saddam's home town, fell with little resistance to US Marines on 15 April. An estimated 9,200 Iraqi combatants and 3,750 non-combatants were killed during the invasion phase.

Location: Baghdad, Iraq

On 1 May 2003, President Bush visited the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off San Diego and declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq in a televised "Mission Accomplished" speech. Ambassador Paul Bremer arrived on 12 May and established the Coalition Provisional Authority. On 16 May, Bremer issued CPA Order 1, beginning de-Ba'athification, which eventually removed 85,000 to 100,000 Iraqis from their jobs, including 40,000 teachers. CPA Order 2 disbanded the Iraqi Army, leading to the unemployment and alienation of hundreds of thousands of former soldiers. US Army General Ricardo Sanchez later called the disbandment decision a "catastrophic failure." In the week after the order, hostile action killed 5 US soldiers; the week before, none had died from hostile action.

Location: Iraq

On 13 December 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured on a farm near Tikrit in Operation Red Dawn, conducted by the US 4th Infantry Division and members of Task Force 121. Intelligence on Saddam's whereabouts came from his family members and former bodyguards. He had been at large since the fall of Baghdad, while coalition forces had killed his sons Uday and Qusay on 22 July 2003 in a raid by the 101st Airborne Division. Over 300 top leaders of the former government were killed or captured during 2003. The capture initially led to a drop in insurgent attacks, but the broader Sunni insurgency continued to grow.

Location: Tikrit, Iraq

In April 2004, widespread prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison received international media attention. A 60 Minutes II news report and a Seymour Hersh article in The New Yorker posted online on 28 April revealed graphic photos showing US military personnel taunting and abusing Iraqi prisoners. Military correspondent Thomas Ricks later wrote that the revelations "dealt a blow to the moral justifications for the occupation in the eyes of many people, especially Iraqis, and was a turning point in the war." The scandal damaged American international reputation, contributed to declining support for the war in allied countries, and became a recruitment tool for insurgent groups.

Location: Abu Ghraib, Iraq

On 31 March 2004, four US private military contractors from Blackwater USA were killed in an ambush in Fallujah, with their bodies dragged through the streets and hung from a bridge, prompting a failed "pacification" attempt in April. The Second Battle of Fallujah, the bloodiest battle of the war, began on 8 November 2004 and lasted 46 days, described by the US military as "the heaviest urban combat that they had been involved in since the Battle of Hue City in Vietnam." US forces used white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon. The battle resulted in 95 US soldiers killed and approximately 1,350 insurgents killed, with Fallujah totally devastated, though most civilians had fled before the battle.

Location: Fallujah, Iraq

On 22 February 2006, the al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, was severely damaged in a bombing believed to have been carried out by al-Qaeda. Although no injuries occurred, the bombing triggered sectarian violence over the following days, with over 100 dead bodies found on 23 February and at least 165 people killed. The US military calculated that the average homicide rate in Baghdad tripled from 11 to 33 deaths per day. The United Nations described the environment in Iraq in 2006 as a "civil war-like situation." Sectarian violence expanded as Shia militias and Sunni insurgent groups fought for control of mixed neighborhoods.

Location: Samarra, Iraq

On 30 December 2006, Saddam Hussein was hanged after being found guilty of crimes against humanity by an Iraqi court following a year-long trial. The execution, which took place during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, was criticized for its conduct and timing, with concerns raised about fairness of the trial and the treatment of Saddam before and during the execution. Saddam had been in US custody since his December 2003 capture. His execution was followed by a renewed Iraqi government under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, though sectarian violence continued at high levels through 2006 and into 2007.

Location: Baghdad, Iraq

On 10 January 2007, in a televised address, President Bush proposed deploying 21,500 additional troops to Iraq as part of a new strategy. On 10 February, General David Petraeus was made commander of Multi-National Force - Iraq, replacing General George Casey. The surge strategy combined additional troops with a shift in tactics, including working closely with former Sunni insurgents and local tribes in what became known as the "Anbar Awakening." By late 2007, violence had begun to decrease from 2006 highs. The Brookings Institution reported that Iraqi civilian fatalities had fallen from 3,500 in January 2007 to 490 in November 2008. US military deaths fell from 904 in 2007 to 314 in 2008.

Location: Iraq

On 18 December 2011, the last US forces officially withdrew from Iraq, ending nearly nine years of US military presence. The withdrawal was completed under President Barack Obama, who had campaigned on ending the war. The war had resulted in an estimated 150,000 to over one million Iraqi deaths, including over 100,000 civilians, with most occurring during the post-invasion insurgency and civil war. 4,491 US service members died, and over 32,000 were wounded. The war had lasting geopolitical effects, including the emergence of the Islamic State, whose rise led to the 2013-2017 War in Iraq, and damaged American international reputation. The 2016 Chilcot Report concluded that the war was unnecessary, as peaceful alternatives had not been fully explored.

Location: Iraq

The power vacuum and sectarian tensions left by the Iraq War contributed to the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS). In June 2014, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a "caliphate" spanning parts of Iraq and Syria, and ISIS captured Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, on 10 June 2014. By 2014, the US had become re-engaged in Iraq, leading a new coalition under Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve. The 2013-2017 War in Iraq displaced millions and resulted in thousands of additional casualties, illustrating that the consequences of the 2003 invasion continued long after US forces withdrew. The Kofi Annan had declared the 2003 invasion "not in conformity with the UN Charter" and "illegal" in 2004.

Location: Iraq and Syria