Long years, but it seems yesterday. The United States kicked off the Iraq war with the goal of overthrowing President Saddam Hussein and eliminating any suspected Weapon of Mass Destruction in the oil-rich nation.
US then-President George W. Bush stated in a televised speech that “At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq.” He further claimed that it was an attempt to “free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.”
Nevertheless, US forces, who were mostly supported by British forces, never discovered any WMD. In addition, despite Saddam being apprehended, prosecuted, and executed by hanging, the nation is still severely damaged by war, plagued by economic chaos and political unrest, and ruled by foreign interests.
Questions about the reasons behind starting the Iraq war in the first place still linger in light of the fact that more than 200 thousand Iraqi citizens and 4,500 American soldiers were perished. Besides, the invasion has left the whole area in a state of turmoil and instability.
Years before it truly occurred, American politicians and ideological leaders were laying the groundwork for the invasion of Iraq.
In 1990, shortly after Saddam began an invasion of his oil-rich neighbor Kuwait, US then-President George H.W. Bush, the father war-monger, announced that he intended to establish “liberal democracy” in Iraq.
Neoconservative American legislators who campaigned for Saddam’s overthrow were propelled by the comment.
Security issues sparked by the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001 combined with ideological goals to modernise and reform Iraq and the region led to the policy of kicking off another war.
Iraq War; Failure in Victory
The US-led Iraq war was also directly related to the demands for Saddam’s ouster made by Iraqi exiles living in outside. Exiles residing in neighbouring countries were able to profit from the post-war period and gain control of Iraqi politics, nevertheless.
Two decades ago, on March 20, US, British, and other coalition forces attacked Iraq from Kuwait, swiftly decimating the Iraqi regular army and driving Saddam out of authority.
On April 9, three weeks after the start of Iraq war, US forces took control of Baghdad. Along with Iraqi people, they overturned a monument of Saddam in Firdos Plaza in Baghdad—a momentous occasion that came to symbolize US triumph and garnered international media attention.
On May 1, Bush concluded significant combat operations in Iraq by announcing “mission complete” from the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. Lawlessness was downplayed as not significant by American government authorities despite the fact that it had swiftly spread throughout the nation, showing the inability of US forces to restore order.
Saddam was apprehended by American forces prior to the year 2003 as he was camped out close to his Tikrit boyhood home. He was ultimately found guilty of mass murder and crimes against humanity by an Iraqi judge and hanged.
Since then, there has been debate concerning the timing of his execution, which took place on December 30, 2006, which also occurred to be the first day of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha.
The Bush administration quickly acknowledged that its pre-war claims that Iraq had stocks of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons were baseless when Saddam was captured.
In 2005, a presidential panel found that American information on Iraqi Weapons was wholly inaccurate and that “not one piece” of proof existed. In the end, it was determined that the testimonies and allegations of dissenters and officials of the Iraqi National Congress were unsupported.
