On this day in 2003, US President George W. Bush ordered air strikes on Baghdad, thus launching the Iraq War to oust dictator Saddam Hussein, who was believed (wrongly) to be manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.
The US, joined by the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland, launched a ‘shock and awe’ bombing campaign. Iraqi forces were quickly overwhelmed as coalition forces swept through the country. The invasion led to the collapse of the Ba’athist government; Saddam Hussein was captured during Operation Red Dawn in December of that same year and executed three years later. The power vacuum following Saddam’s demise, and mismanagement by the Coalition Provisional Authority, led to widespread civil war between Shias and Sunnis, as well as a lengthy insurgency against coalition forces.
The invasion occurred as part of the George W. Bush administration’s war on terror following the September 11 attacks, despite no connection between Iraq and the attack, and the armed conflict continued for much of the next decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the coalition forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government.US troops were officially withdrawn in 2011. The United States became re-involved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition, and the insurgency and many dimensions of the armed conflict are ongoing.
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Photo Caption – President George W. Bush addresses the nation from the Oval Office, on March 19, 2003, to announce the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom –Wikipedia
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