THE IRAQ STORY

In the current presidential election season it seems easy to focus on such issues as health care, the economy, and global warming. One thing, however, seems to be forgotten in the midst of all of this: the United States is at war.

Many events provoked the beginning of the Iraq War, also known as Operation Iraqi Freedom. The conflict began on March 20, 2003 when the United States led an invasion of Iraq, based on an arguably misperceived threat of danger. At the time, the main argument for pursuing the war was that Iraq allegedly possessed and was developing weapons of mass destruction capabilities. This would have been a direct violation of a 1991 agreement, made after the Gulf War, to give the weapons up and allow for frequent UN inspection However, the U.N. Security Council opposed the war and contested the WMD claims. In 2002, Iraq agreed to new inspections that yielded no discovery of weapons of mass destruction

                                                          

                                                              

                                                      THE PROPAGANDA 

At the beginning of the war on terror, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which at the time was headed by George Tenet, was prominent counsel for the Bush Administration. However, when Tenet met with President George W. Bush and insisted that there was no standing relationship between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld began a new program to re-examine the evidence while purposely distancing the CIA and Tenet. The evidence procured by this new program, which many consider to be questionable, was often fed directly to Cheney who sometimes “leaked” the information to news outlets such as The New York Times. Cheney would then discuss the intelligence citing the news organization as the original source to give it credibility.

                             BEHIND CLOSED DOORS 

October of 2002 brought about a vote in the United States Senate on the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces in Iraq. However, before the vote could take place, 77 senators were secretly informed that Saddam Hussein was able to unleash biological weapons on the United State’s eastern seaboard with unmanned aerial vehicles. The resolution was subsequently passed. On February 5, 2003, Colin Powell reiterated the claim to the U.N. Security Council, claiming that the UAVs were ready to be launched against the United States. The U.S. Airforce, the State Department’s Bureau of Investigations, and the DIA all denied this claim. They believed that all of the UAVs possessed by Iraq were for reconnaissance, not offensive purposes. In March of 2003 U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said that progress had been made through inspections and he wished that they could continue. He also stated that, “No evidence of proscribed activities have so far been found.” On the other side of the coin, the Bush Administration announced that “diplomacy had failed and it would proceed with the “coalition of the willing” to rid Iraq of the alleged weapons of mass destruction. 

                                     THE INVASION 

“Operation Iraqi Freedom” began on March 20, 2003 and was led by General Tommy Franks. The United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and approximately forty other nations dubbed the “coalition of the willing”, participated in the assault. The initial coalition military forces totaled around 300,000. During the initial phase of the invasion the Iraqi Army was quickly overwhelmed, leaving only the Fedayeen Saddam putting up a strong fight before eventually disappearing into the civilian population. On April 9 Baghdad was seized by U.S. troops who took control of the Baath Party ministries and toppled a huge iron statue of Saddam Hussein. The fall of Baghdad lead to looting of government buildings and a drastic increase in crime. Betweem March 20 and April 30, 9,200 Iraqi combatants and 7,299 civilians were killed. 140 U.S. and 33 U.K. military personnel died in the initial battle. 

                                             MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

On May 1, 2003, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was on its way home from a long deployment that included service in the Persian Gulf. President Bush visited the carrier, which was operating a few miles off the coast of San Diego, California, on that day to give his now famous “Mission Accomplished” speech. The nationally televised speech was delivered at sunset in front of sailors and airmen on the flight deck.Bush declared victory  in Iraq based on the fact that the Iraqi army had been defeated. Saddam Hussein, however, was yet to be captured and there was still ongoing violence in Iraq. Even though Iraq’s conventional army had been defeated, there were still problems facing U.S. and coalition troops. The number of attacks on military personnel, for instance, began to gradually increase, especially in the “Sunni Triangle” (Illustrated in the figure above as a red shaded triangle). Also, in the wake of the chaos of the initial invasion, there was massive looting of banks, residences, military depots, and government buildings. In fact, according to the Pentagon 650,000 tons of ordnance was looted, which has provided a significant source of ammunition for the insurgency. In the beginning, the resistance came mostly from Saddam and Baath Party loyalists, but that quickly changed as religious extremists and Iraqis angered by the occupation began to contribute to the insurgency.