Millions of people knew invading Iraq was wrong. Twenty years on, they’ve been proven right, time and time again. The Bush administration never found weapons of mass destruction, and their dream of building a U.S.-friendly government in Iraq blew up in their faces – all while the Iraqi people endured decades of violence and societal collapse.
So did anyone benefit from the war? And how did the invasion change the world?
00:00 “THEY’LL WELCOME US AS LIBERATORS”
1:59 HOW AL QAEDA CAME TO IRAQ
4:54 HOW THE U.S. INVASION MADE IRAN STRONGER
8:04 WHY AMERICANS TURNED AGAINST THE WAR 10:00 HOW THE IRAQ INVASION MADE THE WHOLE WORLD LESS SAFE
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The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month,[23] including 26 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq. Twenty-two days after the first day of the invasion, the capital city of Baghdad was captured by Coalition forces on 9 April 2003 after the six-day-long Battle of Baghdad. This early stage of the war formally ended on 1 May 2003 when U.S. President George W. Bush declared the “end of major combat operations” in his Mission Accomplished speech,[24] after which the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was established as the first of several successive transitional governments leading up to the first Iraqi parliamentary election in January 2005. U.S. military forces later remained in Iraq until the withdrawal in 2011.
Persian Gulf to secure Basra and the surrounding petroleum fields, the main invasion army moved into southern Iraq, occupying the region and engaging in the Battle of Nasiriyah on 23 March. Massive air strikes across the country and against Iraqi command-and-control threw the defending army into chaos and prevented an effective resistance. On 26 March, the 173rd Airborne Brigade was airdropped near the northern city of Kirkuk, where they joined forces with Kurdish rebels and fought several actions against the Iraqi Army, to secure the northern part of the country.
The main body of coalition forces continued their drive into the heart of Iraq and were met with little resistance. Most of the Iraqi military was quickly defeated and the coalition occupied Baghdad on 9 April. Other operations occurred against pockets of the Iraqi Army, including the capture and occupation of Kirkuk on 10 April, and the attack on and capture of Tikrit on 15 April. Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and the central leadership went into hiding as the coalition forces completed the occupation of the country. On 1 May, President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat operations: this ended the invasion period and began the period of military occupation.
Casualties and losses
IRAQ-
Estimated Iraqi combatant fatalities: 30,000 (figure attributed to General Tommy Franks)[citation needed]
11,000 (4,895–6,370 observed and reported) (Project on Defense Alternatives study)[18][19]
45,000 (extrapolated from fatality rates in units serving around Baghdad)[20]
Estimated Iraqi civilian fatalities:
7,269 (Iraq Body Count)[21]
3,200–4,300 (Project on Defense Alternatives study
US Coalition-
Total:
196+ killed, 551+ wounded
Coalition: 172 killed (139 U.S., 33 UK)[15]
551 wounded (U.S.)[16]
Peshmerga:
24+ killed
source