The Long War: A Conflict Of Many Names

The Iraq War, also known as the Second Persian Gulf War, was a conflict that lasted from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion of Iraq by a US-led coalition that overthrew the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued as an insurgency emerged to oppose the coalition forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government.

The US-led coalition invasion of Iraq was part of the George W. Bush administration's war on terror following the September 11 attacks in 2001. The invasion was based on claims that Iraq had a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program and that Saddam Hussein was supporting al-Qaeda. However, no stockpiles of WMDs or active WMD programs were ever found in Iraq.

The invasion of Iraq led to a power vacuum and widespread civil war between Shias and Sunnis. The US responded by building up its troop presence in Iraq, reaching 170,000 troops in 2007. The war in Iraq caused an estimated 150,000 to 1,033,000 deaths, including more than 100,000 civilians. It also damaged the US's international reputation and Bush's domestic popularity.

The war in Iraq is often compared to the war in Afghanistan, which was also part of the US's war on terror. The Afghanistan War began in 2001 and lasted for 20 years, becoming the longest war in US history. Like the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War was triggered by the September 11 attacks and involved a US-led coalition force. However, the Afghanistan War was primarily focused on combating the Taliban and al-Qaeda, rather than WMDs.

The US-led coalition's invasion of Iraq

The invasion was justified by the US and its allies on the grounds that Iraq had a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program and that Saddam Hussein was supporting al-Qaeda. However, no WMDs were ever found in Iraq, and the 9/11 Commission concluded that there was no evidence of any relationship between Saddam's regime and al-Qaeda.

The invasion was met with strong international opposition, including from France and Germany, who argued for continued diplomacy and weapons inspections instead. The invasion was also opposed by former US President Bill Clinton, who warned about the possible dangers of pre-emptive military action against Iraq.

The invasion was swift, with US, UK, and other coalition forces quickly overwhelming the Iraqi Army. However, elements loyal to Saddam Hussein fought on and formed the core of a postwar insurgency. The invasion led to the collapse of the Ba'athist government, and Saddam Hussein was captured and later executed.

The power vacuum following Saddam's demise, along with 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 US responded with a build-up of 170,000 troops in 2007, and the war continued for much of the next decade.

The toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime

The lead-up to the statue's destruction began when a group of Iraqi civilians, including Kadhim Sharif Al-Jabouri, a former weightlifter and motorcycle mechanic who had spent time in prison under Saddam's regime, began attacking the statue with a sledgehammer. Soon after, an advance unit of the United States Marine Corps from the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, arrived at Firdos Square and made contact with foreign journalists who were staying at the nearby Palestine Hotel.

The toppling of the statue was not part of the original military plan but was a spontaneous decision made by Lieutenant Colonel Bryan McCoy, commander of the 3rd Battalion 4th Marines. Recognising the symbolic value of the statue's destruction and the presence of the international media, McCoy decided to assist the Iraqi civilians. A Marine vehicle equipped with a crane was used to topple the statue, which was then jumped on and decapitated by Iraqi citizens. This event was broadcast live around the world.

The toppling of Saddam's statue was compared to similar incidents in history, such as the toppling of a statue of Stalin during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. However, allegations soon arose that the event had been staged by the United States to demonstrate their triumph and the end of the war. While the Marines present maintained that the scene was not staged, critics argued that the event was a "visual echo chamber" that promoted an unrealistic account of the invasion.

Despite the controversy, the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue remains a powerful symbol of the end of his regime and the fall of Baghdad to American forces. It represented a significant strategic objective achieved by the United States and its allies during the Iraq War.

The disbanding of the Iraqi army and intelligence services

The decision to disband the Iraqi army and intelligence services was made by L. Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), on May 23, 2003. This decision was made two weeks after Bremer took up his position and was part of a broader effort to eliminate the foundations of Saddam Hussein's regime and demonstrate to the Iraqi people that "neither Saddam nor his gang is coming back".

The disbanding of the Iraqi army was not part of the original plan. In fact, the pre-war plan, presented to President George W. Bush by Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, called for the dissolution of the Iraqi Republican Guard, the engagement of soldiers in the Iraqi Army in reconstruction efforts, and the foundation of a new army from three to five existing Iraqi divisions. However, upon arriving in Baghdad, Bremer and his senior advisor, Walter B. Slocombe, came to favour the dissolution of the Iraqi Army, believing that it had already demobilized itself and could not be reconstituted.

The decision to disband the army was highly controversial and has been described as a catastrophic mistake that contributed to the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS). It put 250,000 young Iraqi men out of work and onto the streets, creating a large pool of angry, armed, and disenfranchised men. Many of these men went on to join the violent insurgency against the US-led occupation and the post-invasion Iraqi government.

The disbanding of the army also robbed Baghdad's post-invasion military of some of its best commanders and troops. Combined with the wholesale firing of Sunni commanders by former Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the decision turned what was supposed to have been a national army into little more than a sectarian militia.

The emergence of an insurgency

The insurgents' primary goal was to destabilize the new Iraqi government and deny victory to the US and its allies. They demanded the immediate withdrawal of US and other foreign forces and threatened those they perceived as collaborators or insufficiently nationalist or Islamic. The insurgents' tactics included IEDs, car bombs, kidnappings, hostage-taking, shootings, ambushes, and mortar and rocket strikes.

The US responded to the growing insurgency with a troop surge in 2007, which gave greater control to the Iraqi government and military. However, the insurgency continued, and the US eventually withdrew its troops from Iraq in 2011.

The hunt for Osama bin Laden

The hunt began in December 2001, when bin Laden went into hiding to avoid capture by the US and its allies. He was tracked to the Tora Bora region in the White Mountains, but managed to escape to Pakistan.

In the decade that followed, the US government made several attempts to locate bin Laden. In 2009, US Army General Stanley McChrystal said that bin Laden needed to be "captured or killed" to "finally defeat al-Qaeda".

Bin Laden was eventually found by tracking one of his couriers, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. Intelligence was gathered from Guantanamo Bay detainees, who revealed al-Kuwaiti's pseudonym and that he was a protégé of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. In 2009, al-Kuwaiti was found to be living in Abbottabad, Pakistan. CIA operatives followed him back to the Abbottabad compound, which led them to speculate that it was bin Laden's location.

On May 1, 2011, US Navy SEALs carried out a 40-minute raid on the compound, during which bin Laden was killed. The SEALs extracted bin Laden's body, as well as computer hard drives, documents, and other materials.

The raid was a culmination of a decade of intelligence gathering, national security strategising, and military planning. It was a high-risk operation, and President Obama was warned of the potential for operational accidents. However, the persistence of the intelligence community, and the competence of the special forces, ultimately led to the successful capture of bin Laden.

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