U.S. soldiers invaded Iraq in March 2003 with the goal of destroying the country's weapons of mass destruction and overthrowing Saddam Hussein's authoritarian authority. The public's support for the war declined when the weapons of mass destruction intelligence turned out to be false and a bloody rebellion emerged. Democratic elections were held, and Saddam captured, investigated, and executed. Although sections of the Iraqi Army that will later become the backbone of a postwar insurgency remain loyal to Saddam, U.S., British, and other coalition forces swiftly overpower them on April 9th 2003. In Firdos Square in Baghdad, three weeks after the invasion, American troops and Iraqi citizens demolish a statue of Saddam.
The morning of March 20, when Saddam refused to leave Iraq, American and NATO troops launched an attack. It started when American aircrafts dropped several precision-guided bombs on a bunker complex where the Iraqi president was meeting with staff. A few days pass, U.S. soldiers invaded Iraq from Kuwait in the south. These airstrikes targeted both government and military facilities. Little damage was caused by fleeing Iraqi forces, in contrast to worries that they might use a scorched-earth strategy, destroying bridges and dams and setting fire to the country's southern oil wells. In fact, many Iraqi soldiers simply decided not to.
On April 9, U.S. forces took control of Baghdad, the country's capital. The next day, British soldiers finished occupying the southern city of Al-Barah, and by May 1, the main combat operations of the invasion were finished. The only problem was that the United States and other troops quickly became involved in an intense guerrilla war in Iraq, which delayed the country's rehabilitation and resulted in the deaths of thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians. Early in 2007, the US launched a plan called the Surge that added 20,000 more soldiers to Iraq. The violence in Iraq significantly decreased by the end of the year. A few months after the surge in June, there was an awakening, and this was a turning point because US troops began to recruit Sunni tribe members to join the fight against those involved with the AQI.
The US invasion of Iraq had many consequences for both sides. For example, millions of Iraqis were killed and injured. According to Truth Dig, more than 650,000 Iraqis died in the first three years of the war, and by 2007, there were a million deaths. In addition to being murdered and injured, many Iraqis were also displaced. According to the UNHCR, around two million Iraqis have left the violence and chaos of the country, mostly to go to Jordan and Syria, while another 1.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes. The effects of this struggle were not limited to Iraq; America also suffered in many ways. One way is the thousands of dead soldiers. In February 2020, 4,576 American soldiers and 181 British troops have been killed in Iraq, as well as 142 other foreign occupation troops. American soldiers have made up more than 93 percent of the foreign troops killed in Iraq. This invasion operation was important because the Iraqi president was a bad man who needed to be dealt with. Due to this invasion, Iraq still has a corrupt government, which has an impact on the country today.
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