Operation iraqi freedom

• Wildfire smoke blankets upper Midwest, forecast to head east • Supreme Court rejects challenges to Indian Child Welfare Act, leaving law intact • U.S. man arrested over fatal attack on tourists near castle in Germany • Texas sends bus carrying more than 40 migrants to Los Angeles • Taking drugs like Adderall without ADHD decreases productivity, study finds • Man charged in mother's 2016 killing at sea dies awaiting trial • Mexican politician in Texas allegedly had 93 pounds of cocaine in her car • Amazon jungle crash survivors recovering as soldiers search for rescue dog • Live Nation's hidden ticket fees will no longer be hidden, company says • • Shows • Live • Local • More • • Latest • Video • Photos • Podcasts • In Depth • Local • Global Thought Leaders • Innovators & Disruptors • • Log In • Newsletters • Mobile • RSS • CBS Store • Paramount+ • Join Our Talent Community • Davos 2023 • Search • Search • Baghdad— Monday marks 20 years since the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Twenty years since U.S. airstrikes and cruise missiles lit up the night skies over Baghdad in an opening salvo of "shock and awe." "Operation Iraqi Freedom" quickly led to the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. But the war claimed the lives of about 4,500 U.S. service members and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. • President George W. Bush's justification for the war rested on the claim that Hussein had "weapons of mass destruction." U.S. Marines chain the head of a statue of Sa...

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Share This Print the Page After Saddam Hussein’s ouster in 2003, Iraq’s new leaders struggled to chart a democratic course afterdecades of dictatorship. Two events were pivotal. First, the U.S. decision to bar the long-ruling Baath Party—and the way it was implemented—created a political vacuum. Second, disbanding the military—alienating hundreds of thousands of trained men with no alternative—left a security void. Iraq suffered through a civil war, political turmoil, widespread corruption, sectarian tensions and an extremist insurgency that seized a third of the country. Iraq has evolved through four rocky phases. The first phase, the initial transition between 2003 and 2007, started with a U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority. Each ministry had a U.S. advisor. As a self-declared occupying force, the U.S. military was responsible for national security, but at least 100,000 people died during its eight-year intervention (some The political balance of power—dominated for centuries by Sunnis—shifted dramatically. For the first time, the Shia majority claimed the prime minister’s slot and had sufficient leverage to control key ministries and other levers of the state. For the first time, Iraq also had a Kurdish president. Kurds, who had long demanded autonomy from Baghdad, became part of the state; the constitution recognized autonomy for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and formal status of its Peshmerga forces. Sunnis, who had dominated the state under Saddam, ma...

• • • • • • • • • • • • 1st Basra • Nasiriyah • • • • Northern Delay • Viking Hammer • • • • Hillah • • • • • Baghdad • Al Anbar • • 1st Ramadan • Capture of Saddam Hussein • Spring 2004 • • Al Kut • 1st Fallujah • Sadr City • • • • • • • • 2nd Fallujah • • • • • • Steel Curtain • • • Together Forward • • 2nd Ramadan • Sinbad • • • Diyala • • • • Imposing Law • • Black Eagle • Baghdad belts • • • • Phantom Strike • • Phantom Phoenix • • Nineveh • Spring 2008 • • 2008 al-Qaeda Offensive • • • • • ‡ indicates attacks resulting in over 100 deaths § indicates the deadliest attack in the Iraq War This list only includes major attacks. 2003 2004 ‡ 1st Erbil ‡ Ashoura 2005 ‡ 1st Al Hillah ‡ Musayyib ‡ 7th Baghdad 2006 ‡ Karbala-Ramadi ‡ 10th Baghdad 2007 ‡ 13th Baghdad ‡ 2nd Al Hillah ‡ 1st Tal Afar ‡ 18th Baghdad ‡ Amirli § Qahtaniya 2008 2009 ‡ 28th Baghdad ‡ 29th Baghdad ‡ 30th Baghdad 2010 ‡ 1st Pan-Iraq ‡ 40th Baghdad 2011 ‡ 3rd Pan-Iraq See also: Though the initial war lasted for only 21 days, the coalition soon found themselves fighting insurgent forces. Upon completion of the initial conflict the coalition troops began counterinsurgency, humanitarian, security and various other types of operations in order to stabilize the country. Battle/Operation name From date To date Location Purpose/Result 19 March 2003 31 August 2010 U.S. invasion in Iraq. Planned to end with the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops, and succeeded by Operation New Dawn (see 2010 below). Operation Bastil...

Did Operation Iraqi Freedom validate a new theory of warfare in which special forces, high technology, and creative war plans will replace America’s traditional assets of firepower, maneuver, and brute strength? Some say yes, and now expect Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to push for the radical overhaul or “transformation” of the U.S. armed forces that he reportedly wanted back in early 2001 but felt politically unable to pursue. Although different defense scholars hold different views, most expect Rumsfeld to make deep cuts in Army forces in order to fund greater capabilities in air power, naval forces, missile defenses, space weapons, and special forces. However, what is most striking about the recent war to overthrow Saddam is just how much traditional combat capabilities still mattered. Yes, special forces and modern air power were important, but so were Abrams tanks, 5-ton supply trucks, rifle-wielding soldiers and marines, and old-fashioned infantry combat skills. When U.S. forces met the Republican Guard’s Madinah Munawrah Armored and Baghdad Infantry divisions south of the Iraqi capital in the decisive battle of the war, they did so with numerical superiority, dominant air support, and tremendous firepower. The recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have essentially been won with the military the Bush administration inherited from Bill Clinton, the first President Bush, and Ronald Reagan—a force constantly but gradually modernized—not with a reinvented force bui...

20 March 2003 marked the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom with preemptive airstrikes on Saddam Hussein’s Presidential Palace and military targets followed by approximately 67,700 “boots on the ground” with 15,000 Navy personnel on ships in the region (Belasco). OIF was authorized when Iraq was found to be in breach of U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 1441 which “prohibits stockpiling and importing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).” Iraqi forces were overwhelmed quickly and Baghdad fell a mere five weeks after the invasion began. With the invasion complete, an insurgency and influx of al Qaeda inspired fighters poured into the country which sparked guerilla warfare tactics against U.S. troops and civil war between the Sunni and Shia tribes. On 15 December 2011, “The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other top U.S. military leaders observed the official end of U.S. Forces Iraq’s mission after nearly nine years of conflict that claimed the lives of nearly 4,500 troops (Torreon).” After U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq andSyria (ISIS) invaded areas of Syria and Iraq causing widespread causalities, destruction of the country’s infrastructure and barbaric practices against citizens. In response to the terrorists group, The links below showcase NHHC’s online holdings pertaining to OIF. References Belasco, Amy. 2009. “Troop Levels in the Afghan and Iraq Wars, FY2001-FY2012: Cost and Other Potential Issues.” Congressional Research Repo...

The Iraq War Ten Years After Declassified Documents Show Failed Intelligence, Policy Ad Hockery, Propaganda-Driven Decision-Making National Security Archive Publishes "Essential" Primary Sources on Operation Iraqi Freedom National Security Archive Briefing Book No. 418 Posted – March 19, 2013 Edited by Joyce Battle and Malcolm Byrne For more information contact: Joyce Battle or Malcolm Byrne – 202/994-7000 or Archive Electronic Briefing Books Cited in This Posting THE IRAQ WAR -- PART II: Was There Even a Decision? October 1, 2010 THE IRAQ WAR -- PART I: The U.S. Prepares for Conflict, 2001 September 22, 2010 Saddam Hussein Talks to the FBI July 1, 2009 THE RECORD ON CURVEBALL November 5, 2007 TOP SECRET POLO STEP February 14, 2007 New State Department Releases on the "Future of Iraq" Project September 1, 2006 CIA Whites Out Controversial Estimate on Iraq Weapons July 9, 2004 Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction Updated February 11, 2004 Washington, DC, March 19, 2013– The U.S. invasion of Iraq turned out to be a textbook case of flawed assumptions, wrong-headed intelligence, propaganda manipulation, and administrative ad hockery, according to the National Security Archive's briefing book of declassified documents posted today to mark the 10 th anniversary of the war. The Archive's documentary primer includes the famous Downing Street memo ("intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy"), the POLO STEP PowerPoint invasion plans (assuming out of existence any p...