DAY IN HISTORY-MARCH 20, 2003

U.S. Invades Iraq

Coalition forces topple Saddam Hussein but fail to find WMDs

President George W. Bush addresses the Nation and Sailors from the flight deck aboard USS Abraham Lincoln in the Pacific on May 1, 2003. Also known as the “Mission Accomplished” speech. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Tyler J. Clements. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On March 20, 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush told the world the United States and coalition forces invaded Iraq to disarm what were believed to be “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMDs).

U.S. Air Force fighter jets struck Baghdad on the evening of March 19 hoping to take out Saddam Hussein but failed. Combat operations in the air and on the ground began the next day. The invasion, led by the United States, included coalition forces from the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland.

The invasion lasted just over one month while the capital of Baghdad was secured by coalition forces in twenty-two days. Bush declared the end of combat operations on May 1, 2003; however, U.S. military forces remained in Iraq until their withdrawal in 2011.

President Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said a primary reason for the invasion was because Saddam Hussein failed to relinquish alleged biological, chemical and nuclear weapons (WMDs). Other reasons given were to stop Hussein’s support of terrorism and to “free the Iraqi people.”

Famously, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke to the United Nations Security Council on February 5, 2003, falsely…