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Iraq Invasion

The 2003 invasion of Iraq[b] was the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion began on 20 March 2003 and lasted just over one month,[24] including 26 days of major combat operations, in which a United States-led combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded the Republic of Iraq.

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13 views2 pages

Iraq Invasion

The 2003 invasion of Iraq[b] was the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion began on 20 March 2003 and lasted just over one month,[24] including 26 days of major combat operations, in which a United States-led combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded the Republic of Iraq.

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The 2003 invasion of Iraq[b] was the first stage of the Iraq War.

The invasion
began on 20 March 2003 and lasted just over one month,[24] including 26 days of
major combat operations, in which a United States-led combined force of troops from
the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded the Republic of
Iraq. Twenty-two days after the first day of the invasion, the capital city of
Baghdad was captured by coalition forces on 9 April after the six-day-long Battle
of Baghdad. This early stage of the war formally ended on 1 May when U.S. President
George W. Bush declared the "end of major combat operations" in his Mission
Accomplished speech,[25] 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.[26]

The coalition sent 160,000 troops into Iraq during the initial invasion phase,
which lasted from 19 March to 1 May.[27] About 73% or 130,000 soldiers were
American, with about 45,000 British soldiers (25%), 2,000 Australian soldiers (1%),
and ~200 Polish JW GROM commandos (0.1%). Thirty-six other countries were involved
in its aftermath. In preparation for the invasion, 100,000 U.S. troops assembled in
Kuwait by 18 February.[27] The coalition forces also received support from the
Peshmerga in Iraqi Kurdistan.

According to U.S. President George W. Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, the
coalition aimed "to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction [WMD], to end Saddam
Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people", even though the UN
inspection team led by Hans Blix had declared it had found no evidence of the
existence of WMDs just before the start of the invasion.[28][29] Others place a
much greater emphasis on the impact of the September 11 attacks, on the role this
played in changing U.S. strategic calculations, and the rise of the freedom agenda.
[30][31] According to Blair, the trigger was 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.[32]

In a January 2003 CBS poll, 64% of Americans had approved of military action
against Iraq; however, 63% wanted Bush to find a diplomatic solution rather than go
to war, and 62% believed the threat of terrorism directed against the U.S. would
increase due to war.[33] The invasion was strongly opposed by some long-standing
U.S. allies, including the governments of France, Germany, and New Zealand.[34][35]
[36] Their leaders argued that there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq and that invading that country was not justified in the context of
UNMOVIC's 12 February 2003 report. About 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or
aviation bombs were discovered during the Iraq War, but these had been built and
abandoned earlier in Saddam Hussein's rule before the 1991 Gulf War. The
discoveries of these chemical weapons did not support the government's invasion
rationale.[37][38] In September 2004, Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General
at the time, called the invasion illegal under international law and said it was a
breach of the UN Charter.[39]

On 15 February 2003, a month before the invasion, there were worldwide protests
against the Iraq War, including a rally of three million people in Rome, which the
Guinness World Records listed as the largest-ever anti-war rally.[40] 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.[41]

The invasion was preceded by an airstrike on the Presidential Palace in Baghdad on


20 March 2003. The following day, coalition forces launched an incursion into Basra
Governorate from their massing point close to the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border. While
special forces launched an amphibious assault from the 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. Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces
on 13 December.

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