The US Troops
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The Iraq War, also known as the Second Gulf War or the Occupation of Iraq, is an ongoing military campaign which began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by and composed largely of United States and United Kingdom troops. Prior to the war, Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was claimed to pose a serious and imminent threat to the security of the United States and its coalition allies.United Nations weapons inspectors found no evidence of WMD, giving support to earlier criticism of poor intelligence on Iraqi WMDs. |
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After the invasion, the U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group concluded that Iraq had ended its WMD programs in 1991 and had no active programs at the time of the invasion, but that they intended to resume production if the Iraq sanctions were lifted. Although some degraded remnants of misplaced or abandoned chemical weapons from before 1991 were found, they were not the weapons for which the coalition invaded |
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The failure to find WMD in Iraq caused controversy, particularly in the United States.Some U.S. officials also accused Saddam Hussein of harboring and supporting Al-Qaeda, but no evidence of any collaborative relationship was ever found.Other reasons for the invasion have been provided, and the issue has remained a subject of debate since the invasion took place. |
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The invasion led to the quick defeat of the Iraqi military, and the eventual capture and execution of Saddam Hussein. The U.S.-led coalition occupied Iraq and attempted to establish a new democratic government; however, violence against coalition forces and among various sectarian groups soon led to asymmetric warfare with the Iraqi insurgency, strife between many Sunni and Shia Iraqi groups, and al-Qaeda operations in Iraq. |
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The number of Iraqis killed through 2007 ranges from "a conservative cautious minimum" of more than 85,000 civilians to a survey estimate of more than 1,000,000 citizens. UNHCR estimates the war created 4.7 million Iraqi refugees through April 2008 (about 16% of the population of Iraq.) The U.S. Department of Defense claimed in 2008 that "the security, political and economic trends in Iraq continue to be positive, however, they remain fragile, reversible and uneven |
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Iraq was fifth on the 2008 Failed States Index, and the Red Cross stated in 2008 that Iraq's humanitarian situation "remains among the most critical in the world". Member nations of the Coalition began to withdraw their forces as public opinion favoring troop withdrawals increased in their countries and Iraq itself, and as Iraqi forces began to take responsibility for security. |
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The U.S. and Iraq have concluded a status of forces agreement, which calls for the complete withdrawal of all troops by the beginning of 2012 pending any separate negotiations. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has predicted that after 2011 he would expect to see "perhaps several tens of thousands of American troops" as part of a residual force in Iraq. |
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Following the 1991 Gulf War, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 mandated that Iraqi chemical, biological, nuclear, and long range missile programs be halted and all such weapons destroyed under United Nations Special Commission control. U.N. weapons inspectors inside Iraq were able to verify the destruction of a large amount of WMD-material, but substantial issues remained unresolved in 1998 when the inspectors left Iraq due to then current UNSCOM head Richard Butler's belief that U.S. and UK military action was imminent. |
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Shortly after the inspectors withdrew, the U.S. and UK launched a four-day bombing campaign. Also, during this period the US congress and President Clinton issued a resolution calling for regime change in Iraq.In addition to the inspection regimen, the U.S. and UK (along with France until 1998) engaged in a low-level conflict with Iraq by enforcing northern and southern Iraqi no-fly zones. |
 
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These zones were created following the Persian Gulf War to protect Iraqi Kurdistan in the north and the southern Shia areas, and were seen by the Iraqi government as an infringement of Iraq's sovereignty. The no-fly zones prohibited unauthorized fixed-wing aircraft but allowed Iraqi helicopters or limited Turkish bombing runs. Iraqi air-defense installations and American and British air patrols regularly exchanged fire during this five year period. |
 
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Approximately one year before Operation Iraqi Freedom, the U.S. initiated Operation Southern Focus as a change to its response strategy, by increasing the overall number of missions and selecting targets throughout the no-fly zones in order to disrupt the military command structure in Iraq. The weight of bombs dropped on Iraq increased from none in March 2002 and 0.3 short tons (0.27 t) in April to between 8 short tons (7.3 t) to 14 short tons (13 t) per month in May-August. The total reached a pre-war peak of 54.6 short tons (49.5 t) in September 2002. |
 
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Following the Gulf War, President George H. W. Bush signed a presidential finding directing the Central Intelligence Agency to create conditions for Hussein's removal in May 1991. Coordinating anti-Saddam groups was an important element of this strategy and the Iraqi National Congress (INC), led by Ahmed Chalabi, was the main group tasked with this purpose. The name INC was reportedly coined by public relations expert John Rendon (of the Rendon Group agency) and the group received millions in covert funding in the 1990s, and then about $8 million a year in overt funding after the passage of the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998. Another opposition group was the Iraqi National Accord which continues to have influence in the current Iraqi government through its leader Ayad Allawi. |
 
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In late April 1993, the United States learned that Saddam Hussein had attempted to have former President George H. W. Bush assassinated during a visit to Kuwait on April 16.On June 16, as per order of then-President Clinton, a cruise missile was shot at the Iraq Intelligence Service building in downtown Baghdad, by way of retaliation. Clinton briefed President-elect George W. Bush in December 2000, expressing his regret that the world's two most dangerous individuals, including Saddam, were still at large. He warned that Saddam will "cause you a world of problems |
 
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The first CIA team entered Iraq on July 10, 2002.[91] This team was composed of members of the CIA's famed Special Activities Division and was later joined by members of the U.S. Military's elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Together, they prepared for the invasion of conventional U.S. Military forces. These efforts consisted of getting several Iraqi Divisions to surrender rather than oppose the invasion and to identify all of the initial leadership targets during very high risk reconnaissance missions. Most importantly, their efforts organized the Kurdish Peshmerga to become the northern front of the invasion. |
 
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Together this force defeated Ansar al-Islam in Northern Iraq prior to the invasion and than defeated Saddam's forces in the north. The battle against Ansar al-Islam led to the death of a substantial number of terrorists and the uncovering of a chemical weapons facility at Sargat. These terrorists would have been in the subsequent insurgency had they not been eliminated. This battle may have been the Tora Bora of Iraq in some ways, but it was a defeat for Ansar al-Islam and their ally Al Qaeda. |
 
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At 5:34 AM Baghdad time on March 20, 2003 (9:34 p.m., March 19 EST) the military invasion of Iraq began. The 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by U.S. Army General Tommy Franks, began under the codename "Operation Iraqi Liberation", later renamed "Operation Iraqi Freedom", the UK codename Operation Telic, and the Australian codename Operation Falconer. Coalition forces also cooperated with Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the north. Approximately forty other nations, the "coalition of the willing," participated by providing troops, equipment, services, security, and special forces. |
 
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The military objectives of the invasion were; end the Hussein regime; eliminate weapons of mass destruction; eliminate Islamic terrorists; obtain intelligence on terrorist networks; distribute humanitarian aid; secure Iraq’s oil infrastructure; and assist in creating a representative government as a model for other Middle East nations. The invasion was a quick and decisive operation encountering major resistance, though not what the American, British and other forces expected. |
 
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On September 13, 2007 Abdul Sattar Abu Risha was killed in a bomb attack in the city of Ramadi. He was an important US ally because he led the "Anbar Awakening", an alliance of Sunni Arab tribes that opposed al-Qaeda in Iraq. The latter organisation claimed responsibility for the attack. A statement posted on the Internet by the shadowy Islamic State of Iraq called Abu Risha "one of the dogs of Bush" and described Thursday's killing as a "heroic operation that took over a month to prepare |
 
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There was a reported trend of decreasing US troop deaths after May 2007, and violence against coalition troops had fallen to the "lowest levels since the first year of the American invasion".Thanks to George Bushe's resolve and John McCains vision,General Petraeus was givin the task and we might as well call it a victory now. |