🌊 How War Unfolded in Iraq

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By Max Frost

Today’s story is an overview of the Iraq War, as requested by our readers. We wrote this before the US bombed Iran last night, and we’ll have a full update on that tomorrow. 

At 10:16 PM on March 19, 2003, President George W. Bush delivered a speech:

“My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger…Now that conflict has come, the only way to limit its duration is to apply decisive force. And I assure you, this will not be a campaign of half measures, and we will accept no outcome but victory.”

One day later, the invasion began.

Saddam Hussein formally took power in Iraq in 1979. His government – often described as totalitarian – killed thousands of people it deemed its religious, political, and ethnic enemies. It espoused an anti-American “Baathist” ideology, which called for unifying the Arab world into a single socialist state. 

In 1980 Iraq invaded Iran, sparking an eight-year war that would leave up to 1M dead. In 1990 it invaded Kuwait, a neighboring oil-rich country. 

The resulting US intervention – the Gulf War – was a major American military success, with the US quickly evicting Iraqi troops. After internal discussions about whether to topple Hussein, though, the US decided not to, choosing to stop short of Baghdad and hoping that Hussein’s opponents would topple him instead.

Yet that didn’t happen: Despite US airstrikes and heavy sanctions, Hussein cracked down on his opponents and managed to stay in power. As he did so, the US issued increasing warnings that he was supporting terrorists and developing weapons of mass destruction. 

By 2003, the US (and UK) were alleging that Iraq had been pursuing a secret, underground nuclear program and that the country could potentially have a bomb within months. They provided intelligence assessments and testimonies to support this, while Iraqi officials went on the record to state that Iraq had weaponized toxins, including anthrax, and was pursuing nuclear weapons. 

By this point, Iraq had used chemical weapons, both against its Kurdish minority and Iranians in the Iran-Iraq War. And in 1998, Hussein had expelled IAEA (UN) nuclear inspectors, stoking fears that he was pursuing nuclear weapons. Yet in 2002, after a three-year stint without nuclear inspections, Hussein allowed inspectors to return. In 2003, the IAEA chief announced, ​​“There is no indication of resumed nuclear activities in Iraq.”

Western intelligence agencies, meanwhile, were warning that claims about Iraq’s nuclear program – from reports of Hussein procuring parts for uranium enrichment to documents allegedly showing Iraqi attempts to purchase uranium – were unreliable, at best. Indeed, many of these allegations were subsequently proven wrong or misleading, and it was later shown that the Bush Administration selectively presented information to make the case for an invasion. 

On March 17, 2003, Bush gave Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave the country. Saddam didn’t follow the ultimatum. The war began with airstrikes on March 19 and the invasion the following day.

The war’s stated goals were to overthrow Hussein and eliminate Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs, a vague term that included nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. 

The 160,000 troops – 73% American, 25% British – advanced quickly, capturing Baghdad in just three weeks. Three weeks after that, on May 1, 2003, President Bush stood under a “mission accomplished” banner on a US aircraft carrier and delivered a speech:

"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”

In reality, the war was just getting started.

Editor’s Note

Books could be written on any paragraph of the above story. We wanted to provide today’s overview because a number of readers wrote to us asking for one given what is currently happening in Iran. 

What are your thoughts? Readers who served in Iraq (or Iraqi readers), what lessons should be taken from what happened there? Let us know by replying to this email.

We also want to note that in some key ways, Iran does resemble Saddam’s Iraq: Both are Muslim-majority authoritarian states that pursued weapons programs. Both governments had an anti-Western ideology. Both were opponents of the US and Israel. 

Yet for each similarity is a major difference: Saddam crushed the Islamists; Iran is an Islamic state. Iraq is divided between Shias (~60%) and Sunnis (40%); Iran is 90% Shia but divided ethnically (61% Persian, 16% Azeri, 10% Kurdish). Iran has 90M people; Iraq 45M. Iraq was almost totally closed to outsiders; Iran is not.

And lastly, find our latest stories below in case you missed them:

• The Socialist Vs. The Creeper

• The Strike That Got Us Here

• Trump’s 30,000-Pound Dilemma

• Has MAGA Lost Trump?

• Packing The Vax Panel

Just some more food for thought. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow with more on Iran.

–Max and Max