Background
First, let's delve a little into the background of this conflict.
Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq in 1979, although he actually concentrated the threads of governing the country in his hands long before that. His powers were equal to those of a dictator. No important issue in the country could be resolved without the consent of the president. Hussein used repression and torture against the opposition and periodically rebelling Kurds, which he even publicly admitted to. In addition, Hussein's personality cult began to develop in Iraq.
Already in 1980, the Iraqi army launched an invasion of the Iranian province of Khuzestan, thus unleashing the Iran-Iraq War. It is noteworthy that in this war both the USA and the USSR supported Hussein. But in the end, the war ended in nothing in 1988, since, according to the terms of the peace treaty, both countries maintained the status quo.
Saddam Hussein started a new adventure in 1990, when he occupied Kuwait and annexed it to Iraq as a province. This time, both the USA and the USSR condemned the actions of the Iraqi president. Moreover, the United States, with the support of the UN, formed an international military coalition that opposed Hussein. Thus began the first Iraq War, or, as it is otherwise called, the Gulf War. From the first days of the confrontation, the coalition had a significant advantage due to the fact that it used modern aviation.
It was a brilliant Allied operation led by the United States. Coalition casualties in Iraq amounted to less than 500 people, while the death toll among Iraqi forces reached several tens of thousands. As a result, Hussein was defeated and was forced to liberate Kuwait and significantly reduce the army. In addition, a number of other sanctions were imposed on the country, which were supposed to weaken the Iraqi armed forces.
Almost throughout the 90s of the 20th century, the hidden confrontation between Iraq and the United States grew. The Americans constantly accused Hussein of using repression against the opposition, as well as possessing prohibited weapons. The situation became especially aggravated after Hussein expelled UN observers in 1998, who were supposed to ensure that Iraq did not acquire weapons of mass destruction. The world was on the verge of a new war.
Background to the conflict in Iraq and its causes
Saddam Hussein
After Operation Desert Storm, a special UN commission was sent to Iraq. Its purpose was to oversee the elimination of weapons of mass destruction and the cessation of the production of chemical weapons. The work of this commission lasted approximately 7 years, but already in 1998 the Iraqi side announced the termination of cooperation with the commission.
Also, after the defeat of Iraq, in 1991, zones were created over the northern and southern parts of the country, the entry into which was prohibited for Iraqi aviation. Patrolling here was carried out by British and American aircraft. However, not everything was smooth here either. Iraqi air defenses, after a number of incidents in 1998, as well as after the Operation Desert Fox carried out by the Americans, began to regularly fire at foreign military aircraft in no-fly zones. Thus, by the end of the 90s of the 20th century, the situation around Iraq began to deteriorate again.
With the election of George W. Bush to the presidency in the United States, anti-Iraq rhetoric in American society intensified. Great efforts were spent on creating the image of Iraq as an aggressor country that poses a threat to the whole world. At the same time, the preparation of the operation plan for the invasion of Iraq began.
George Bush
However, the events of September 11, 2001 forced the American leadership to first turn its attention to Afghanistan, which by 2001 was almost completely under the rule of the Taliban. The operation in Afghanistan began in the fall of 2001, and the movement was defeated the following year. After this, Iraq again found itself at the center of events.
Already at the beginning of 2002, the United States demanded that Iraq resume cooperation with the UN Commission for the Control of Chemical Weapons and Weapons of Mass Destruction. Saddam Hussein refused, citing the fact that there were no such weapons in Iraq. However, this refusal forced the United States and a number of NATO member countries to impose sanctions against Iraq. Finally, in November 2002, Iraq, under increasing pressure, was forced to allow the commission into Iraqi territory. At the same time, the UN commission stated that no traces of weapons of mass destruction were found, as well as the resumption of their production.
However, the American leadership had already chosen the path of war and persistently followed it. With enviable frequency, claims were made against Iraq about ties with al-Qaeda, the production of chemical weapons and the preparation of terrorist attacks on US territory. However, a number of these accusations could not be proven.
Meanwhile, preparations for the invasion of Iraq were in full swing. An international anti-Iraq coalition was formed, which included the USA, Great Britain, Australia, and Poland. The troops of these states were supposed to carry out a lightning operation against Iraq, overthrow Saddam Hussein and install a new, “democratic” government in the country. The operation was called Operation Iraqi Freedom.
For the invasion of Iraq, a powerful group of coalition troops was created, which included 5 American divisions (among them one tank, one infantry, one airborne and two marine divisions) and one British tank division. These troops were concentrated in Kuwait, which became the springboard for the invasion of Iraq.
Background and causes of the war
Now let's take a closer look at what was the reason for the US invasion of Iraq.
The main reason for the American invasion of Iraq was the US desire to ensure its dominance in the region. However, it is quite likely that the ruling circles feared that Hussein was actually developing weapons of mass destruction, which could also be directed against the United States, although they had no real evidence of this. However, some experts also list American President George W. Bush's personal hatred of Saddam Hussein as possible reasons for the start of the US operation against Iraq.
The formal reason for the invasion was evidence of Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction demonstrated at the UN Security Council in February 2003 by US Secretary of State Colin Powell. As it turned out later, most of the evidence presented was falsified.
American occupation of Iraq
After September 11, 2001, George W. Bush set his sights on the destruction of Saddam Hussein. The US President has repeatedly stated in 2002 that the official policy of the Washington government is aimed at regime change in Iraq and that the White House intends to use all means at its disposal to achieve this goal. At the same time, the American leader accused Saddam of ongoing repressions against Shiites and Kurds. There was an accusation from the White House that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction from UN inspectors. The main sin of Baghdad, according to the 43rd President of the United States, was the support and organization of terrorist groups in Israel and other countries of the Middle East.
PREPARING AMERICA FOR WAR
With the coming to power of George W. Bush, it seemed that time had returned 15 years ago, to the era when his father was the president of the country. All the key ministerial positions were given to old friends of George HW Bush, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and even National Security Adviser Condie Rice. Cheney, before receiving high government office, was president of a leading global oil exploration company. Rice sat on the board of directors of Chevron Oil. Bush himself had extensive oil experience, and Commerce Secretary Don Evans was also an oil man. In short, the Bush administration, which came to the White House in January 2001, was associated with the oil and energy business like no other administration in recent US history. Hydrocarbons and geopolitics have once again become Washington's top priorities. And naturally, the interests of the administration of the 43rd US President were drawn to the Persian Gulf with its largest oil reserves in the world. Iraq, which had almost 20% of these reserves, was a tasty morsel for Bush, and Saddam's regime, which did not have new weapons at its disposal, was an easy prey for Washington. Bush Jr. could not refuse the opportunity to become the winner in a fleeting war.
On November 8, 2002, UN Security Council Resolution No. 1441, prepared by the United States and Great Britain, was adopted. It contained a demand for Iraq to stop all its programs for the development of weapons of mass destruction, as well as to create all conditions for the work of UN inspectors from UNMOVIC and IAEA employees, followed by threats against Baghdad. A few days later, on November 13, 2002, Iraq announced that it accepted without any reservations all the provisions of this resolution. After this, from November 18, 2002, the activities of UN inspectors from UNMOVIC and IAEA employees in Iraq continued, but despite this, the United States increasingly began to say that a military operation against Iraq is “a virtual inevitability.”
Back on October 17, 2002, the US Senate authorized the largest increase in military appropriations in the last 20 years by $37.5 billion, bringing the total Pentagon spending to 355.1 billion. Before this, Bush signed a Congressional resolution authorizing the use of armed force against Hussein. The order to create a joint group of troops was given by the Secretary of Defense through the US Joint Chiefs of Staff on December 24, 2002. But by that time the transfer of forces and resources to the Persian Gulf was already in full swing. By the beginning of hostilities, the deployment of naval and air force groups was completely completed.
The naval armada was stationed in the Persian and Oman Gulfs. In total, it included 81 warships, including three aircraft carriers of the US Navy and one of the British Navy, 9 surface ships and 8 nuclear submarines; 13 pennants were concentrated in the northern part of the Red Sea; in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea - 7 warships, including two aircraft carriers and four carriers of sea-launched cruise missiles (SLCM). In total, 6 aircraft carriers were concentrated in the region, carrying 278 strike aircraft and 36 SLCM carriers with ammunition of up to 1,100 missiles. At the same time, about 900 missiles were located directly on ships and up to 200 on support transports.
The deployed Air Force group included more than 700 combat aircraft, of which about 550 were tactical strike aircraft of the US, British and Australian Air Forces, located at air bases in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia, Turkey, as well as 43 strategic bombers of the US Air Force , based in the UK, USA and Oman.
The total aviation composition of the air force and naval forces of the coalition group was about 875 attack aircraft and more than 1,000 sea- and air-launched cruise missiles.
The ground group of the invasion forces numbered up to 112 thousand people (280 thousand people in total), up to 500 tanks, more than 1,200 armored combat vehicles, about 900 guns, MLRS and mortars, over 900 helicopters and up to 200 anti-aircraft missile systems.
They were opposed by an Iraqi army of 389 thousand military personnel, 40–60 thousand paramilitary and police forces and 650 thousand reservists. The Iraqi army had about 2.5 thousand tanks in service (most of them were outdated T-55 and T-62), about 1.5 thousand BMP-1 and BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles and about 2 thousand artillery pieces of caliber over 100 mm. The Iraqi army had approximately 300 combat aircraft (mainly Mirage F-1EQ, MiG-29, MiG-25, MiG-23 and MiG-21), 100 combat and approximately 300 transport helicopters.
US activities to prepare for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein were carried out in a progressive mode with increasing tempo. The peak of activity occurred during the period when preparations for the military operation were almost completed. On February 5, 2003, US Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke at a special meeting of the UN Security Council, presenting extensive evidence that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction from international inspectors. Then, after the invasion, the same Powell admitted that he used unverified and even unreliable information in his speech.
2003 IRAQ WAR
On March 19, 2003, US-led coalition troops entered the demilitarized zone on the border between Kuwait and Iraq. On the same day, George Bush gave the order to begin military action. The expeditionary force was commanded by General Tommy Franks.
Two days earlier, on March 17, 2003, President George W. Bush issued an ultimatum in which Saddam Hussein and his sons Uday and Qusay were asked to voluntarily leave Iraq within 48 hours and indicated that if this condition was not met, the United States and the coalition would begin military action.
By 2002, Saddam Hussein's regime was isolated through the efforts of the US State Department. In the Middle East, almost all countries in the region were in conflict with Baghdad. But despite this, the League of Arab States opposed the invasion of Iraq by coalition troops.
So, on the night of March 19-20, 2003, American-British troops, without UN sanction, unilaterally and contrary to the opinion of most countries in the world began a military operation against Iraq. It was planned that US forces would capture Baghdad within three to five days after the troops began moving from their original positions along routes ending north and west of the Iraqi capital. Initially, the operation was called “Shock and Awe”, then for propaganda purposes it was renamed “Iraqi Freedom”.
The fighting began on the morning of March 20 with single strikes with sea-launched cruise missiles and airborne precision-guided munitions against important military targets and a number of government facilities in Baghdad. On the border of Kuwait and Iraq, the invasion of coalition forces was preceded by a powerful artillery barrage, then the American Marines launched an offensive.
Coalition ground forces, supported by air power, quickly advanced in two directions converging on the Iraqi capital. The Allies enjoyed complete air supremacy and superiority in the quality of weapons and organization of their forces. The war was reminiscent of a science fiction film, where high-tech aliens easily defeat earthlings armed with primitive weapons. By April 5, the Americans were already in Baghdad, and the British were completing the capture of Basra. On April 8 (18 days after the start of the operation), the organized resistance of the Iraqi troops ceased and became focal.
Baghdad fell on April 9, two days later the invasion forces captured Kirkuk and Mosul, on April 14 the Americans completed the assault on Tikrit, and on May 1, 2003, President George W. Bush, while on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, announced the end of hostilities and the beginning of the military occupation of Iraq.
There was still an unexpected delay in the actions of the invasion forces. First of all, because of Ankara. Turkish troops began the intervention with a delay of at least 10 days, but quickly coped with the situation and completed their task by taking Kirkuk and Mosul. The losses of Western troops during this short period of the war amounted to only 172 people. There are no exact figures for Iraqi casualties. Researcher Carl Conetta estimates that 9,200 Iraqi troops and 7,300 civilians died during the invasion.
A careful assessment of the opponents' capabilities suggests an unexpected conclusion - the first period of this war should not have ended so quickly and with such scanty losses in the ranks of the coalition. It is now known for certain that along with the technical superiority of the coalition and errors in planning and organizing military operations on the part of Baghdad, there was also massive betrayal in the ranks of the Iraqi generals. That is, not only American weapons were used, but also American banknotes, which were used to bribe some of the senior command staff of the Iraqi Armed Forces. The subversive work of the US intelligence services in Iraq played a role (how much money Washington spent on the work of the knights of the cloak and dagger, as well as on bribing Baghdad military and civil officials, is unknown).
America, using its intelligence means - agents, technical ground systems, a constellation of satellites and special aviation - knew everything about the Iraqi army. On the contrary, Baghdad could only be content with the minimum intelligence it obtained. Before the invasion of Iraq began, US and British special operations forces were deployed and contributed to the victorious result.
DICTATOR ON THE RUG
American special operations forces began their search for Saddam Hussein almost from the first minutes after the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The last time the President of Iraq appeared on air was on the day of the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003, after which, as they say, he disappeared in an unknown direction. During the battles, American military officials gave conflicting information about the fate of the Iraqi president: they either reported his death, or awarded a cash prize of $200,000 for information about him.
On July 24, 2003, the Al Arabiya television channel received a recording of a message from Saddam Hussein, in which he reported that he was alive and continuing to fight. The former dictator also confirmed the death of his sons Uday and Qusay, who were killed by members of the Delta special squad on July 22. The informant who reported their location received $30 million from the Americans. By that time, a guerrilla war against the occupiers had begun throughout the country, but monuments to the former president continued to be demolished, and by the end of 2002, exactly 2,350 of them had been erected. The price on Saddam’s head had increased up to 25 million dollars
Western media discussed the question of who could become Saddam Hussein's heir. In particular, the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera stated that the ousted president has another, “secret” son, allegedly his name is Ali and until recently he was in Syria. He secretly moved to Iraq a few days before the start of the war. While on the run, Saddam Hussein called one of his wives every week, the British Sunday Times reported. In an interview with the newspaper, the second of the four wives of wanted former Iraqi dictator Samira Shahbandar said that she and Hussein's only surviving son, 21-year-old Ali, living under false names in Lebanon, received a weekly phone call or letter from the ex-Iraqi leader . The woman said that on the eve of the fall of the Baathist regime in Iraq, Saddam supplied her with $5 million in cash, jewelry and a suitcase with 10 kg of gold, and then sent her to the Syrian border, from where she moved to Beirut on a false passport. Currently, Samira Shahbandar has a permanent residence permit in France, which has expressed a desire to provide her with such an opportunity.
The operation to search for Saddam was given the code name “Red Sunrise”; in parallel, US intelligence agencies carried out arrests of associates of the former dictator. Just for the sake of detaining its main enemy, Washington formed special team No. 121, which included representatives of military intelligence, the CIA, and soldiers of the elite special forces units “Delta” and “Navy Seals”. All available technical means of the US intelligence services were placed at the disposal of this team; helicopters and airplanes were allocated to them as means of observation and transport; reconnaissance satellites were used in their interests. Painstaking work was also underway to detect weapons of mass destruction and the means of their production and delivery.
Washington hurried its specialists, but the process of detaining Saddam was delayed for objective reasons. For information about weapons of mass destruction, the US military announced a reward ranging from 2.2 thousand to 200 thousand dollars, depending on the value of the data. At first, the Americans managed to find little, some laboratories of unknown purpose, containers in which toxic substances could be stored, documentation on the use of chemical and biological weapons, but nothing more.
The Iraq Survey Team, which was looking for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) believed to be hidden by Hussein's regime, ended its work in 2004, noting in its final report that Iraq did not have the capability to produce WMD at the start of the coalition military operation.
HE'S GOT CAUGHT
“Ladies and gentlemen, he’s caught” – with these words the head of the interim American administration in Iraq, Paul Bremer, began his press conference, convened specifically to inform the world about the arrest of the former Iraqi leader.
His colleague General Ricardo Sanchez said of the former dictator: “He did not resist, did not refuse to talk, he was just a tired man who had long ago accepted his fate.”
He was discovered by soldiers of the 4th Motorized Infantry Division in his home village of Al-Auja, 13 km from Tikrit. The lack of creativity on the part of the Americans in their search for Saddam is striking. If they had known the traditions of the East, they would have arrested him much earlier. And so it turns out that the operatives of the US intelligence services were simply laymen and were doing empty work, and the former dictator was discovered by soldiers who were not trained for investigative work, and completely by accident. In reality, Saddam had nowhere to go, he did not trust anyone, the only place where he could go was his home village, and only relatives or people from his clan or tribe could help him. At the time of his arrest, on December 13, Saddam had a pistol, two AK assault rifles and $750,000 in hundred-dollar bills. He did not resist the soldiers who detained him, this can be explained by the fact that he was ready to accept martyrdom and use his own trial as a platform to become a legend of his people and the Arab world.
According to the Americans, Saddam Hussein hid from his pursuers for a total of 249 days near Tikrit, which is considered the top of the so-called Sunni triangle, which also includes the cities of Ramadi and Falluja. It was here that, after the defeat of their army, the Iraqis, who decided to engage in guerrilla warfare, put up the most stubborn resistance to the interventionists. On December 14, 2003, Saddam was brought to Baghdad and handed over to a joint US-Iraqi investigative team. Operational filming during inspection and identification was carried out exclusively by the Americans, so it was useless to make any statements to Saddam. Being a middle-aged man, he suffered from forgetfulness, and when he was imprisoned, his forgetfulness could be enhanced with medication, so the Americans were not afraid of any revealing speeches on his part. To dispel any doubt, Saddam's identification was confirmed by DNA testing.
TRIAL
Initially, they wanted to try the former president and his 11 associates on more than 500 episodes, then the prosecution team, on the recommendation of their American colleagues, decided to focus on those cases that could be indisputably proven. Thus, after assessing the materials available to the prosecutor during the trial, only 12 episodes were selected.
Even before Saddam’s arrest, on December 10, 2003, by decree of the head of the occupation administration P. Bremer, a Special Iraqi Tribunal was created to try Hussein, headed by Salem Chelyabi, A. Chelyabi’s nephew. The members of the tribunal were selected by the Americans. On July 1, 2004, the trial of Saddam Hussein and a group of his associates began in the Green Zone area of Baghdad International Airport. Later, for some reason, the official date of his trial was announced as October 10, 2005. The location of the trial was kept secret, as was the entire process, which was surrounded by a dense veil of secrecy. At the first hearings of the tribunal, Hussein was brought in with shackles on his hands and feet, then the chains were removed.
Saddam Hussein's first wife Sajida hired a defense team of more than 20 lawyers to fairly represent her husband in court. The Jordanian Lawyers' Union decided to convene a conference of the Committee in Defense of Hussein from among volunteer lawyers. Hussein's first team of lawyers was disbanded before the trial even began. During the trial, they and defense witnesses were kidnapped and killed. Western international law experts came to the conclusion that the United States, represented by the administration of President George W. Bush, was tired of having to adhere to international law and simply went ahead, pursuing its own goals and only creating the appearance of justice.
The trial of Saddam Hussein took place with numerous violations. The defense was not shown the documents that the prosecution cited as evidence; the defendant was continually kicked out of the courtroom for his particularly witty statements addressed to his accusers and judges. The main case in the trial was the case of the massacre of 148 Shiites in Ed-Dujail in 1982. In other episodes, the court little by little came to the conclusion that Saddam’s guilt could not be proven.
In early July 2005, Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer, Ziyad al-Hasawni, announced that he was leaving Hussein's defense team because “some American lawyers” who were also part of the defense team and sought to “isolate their Arab colleagues want to head it.” Saddam Hussein's Arab lawyers intended, according to al-Hasawni, to build a defense on the illegality of the US invasion of Iraq, and American lawyers wanted to change this line. Later, the former dictator's family significantly reduced the official defense team.
In October 2005, one of the meetings had to be interrupted due to the failure of two of Saddam Hussein's lawyers to appear; it later turned out that they had been killed. There was a break in the trial, which resumed only on November 19. By that time, lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi introduced the court to new members of Saddam's defense team; they were three legal heavyweights - former US and Qatari justice ministers Ramzi Clark and Najib al-Nuaimi and Jordanian lawyer Isam Ghazzawi. After which, the tribunal sessions were again adjourned until December 5, necessary to introduce new members of the defense team to the case.
According to the chairman of the tribunal, Rizgar Amin, the trial was purely political in nature, and he was under constant pressure from the occupation and Iraqi authorities. The process was controlled by the American occupation administration in Iraq.
The doctor Shakir Jaouad, assigned by the authorities to Saddam Hussein during the trial, also openly said some time later that Saddam was tortured by American soldiers at the first stage of the judicial investigation. But an examination to find traces of them on the defendant’s body was entrusted to a US military doctor, and he naturally concluded that there were none.
In mid-January 2006, Judge Rizgar Amin resigned. He motivated his departure by the fact that he did not want to work under pressure from the authorities, who demanded too cruel an attitude towards the defendants, and primarily towards Saddam Hussein. The tribunal was headed by Judge Raouf Rashid Abdel Rahman. This one did not stand on ceremony with either the defendants or their defense; from the very beginning, he did not hide his hatred and intolerance towards the former leader of Iraq, rudely cutting off those witnesses and lawyers whose statements or questions he did not like.
When transcripts of FBI interrogations of Saddam Hussein between January and June 2004 were declassified, the dictator's admissions that he had never met with the number one international terrorist, Osama bin Laden, whom he considered a fanatic, and that the Iraqi government has never collaborated with al-Qaeda. He also said that after the 1980–1988 war, he was afraid of an attempt at revenge from Iran, so he deliberately misled the world community into believing that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
The occupiers began searching for laboratories and factories for the development and production of weapons of mass destruction during the invasion. After seven years of careful work, the US military only discovered chemical munitions manufactured before 1990. No laboratories, factories, or samples of new weapons of mass destruction were found. Later, in order to somehow explain their obvious failure, the Pentagon and the US Congress repeatedly expressed unofficial unsubstantiated accusations against Yevgeny Primakov that he organized the removal of WMD production lines from Iraq.
SENTENCE AND EXECUTION
On November 5, 2006, at a hearing that lasted only 45 minutes, Judge Rauf Rashid Abdel Rahman, a Kurd by origin, announced in the presence of the Iraqi Attorney General, Shiite D. Mousavi, the court's decision to sentence Saddam Hussein to death by hanging. After the approval of this sentence by the so-called court of cassation, nothing more was required to carry it out. The head of the international group of lawyers defending Saddam Hussein, former US Secretary of Justice R. Clark, expressed his opinion, saying that this is not a trial, but a mockery of justice, and it is clearly political in nature. Saddam Hussein was executed in the early morning of December 30, 2006, at the beginning of the holy Muslim holiday of sacrifice, in Arabic “Eid al-Ahda,” which in itself is very symbolic. The former president appeared in the eyes of the people as a martyr and as a sacred victim. He was hanged at the headquarters of Iraq's military intelligence, located in the Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad, Al-Khaderniyya. Saddam was recognized by the invaders as a prisoner of war and was subject only to execution; death by hanging is shameful for Muslims, and it was an act of humiliation.
US President George W. Bush welcomed Saddam's execution as a manifestation of justice and the will of the Iraqi people, noting that this is an important stage on Iraq's path to democracy. But, apparently realizing the blasphemy of such a statement and its consequences, he later tried to soften his language and even noted that this execution gave him the impression of a “revenge killing” and that the hasty actions of the Iraqi authorities damaged their image.
THE UNPLEASANT TRUTH
The game of exporting democracy has always been purely ideological in nature for the United States and had nothing to do with reality; at that moment it was aimed not at Arabs, but at ordinary Westerners. For example, America does not make claims against the monarchies of the Persian Gulf due to the lack of freedoms and democracy in their countries. In his rhetoric, the 42nd President of the United States relied on the messianic role of the American political elite, on the “black and white scheme” of the struggle between good and evil.
In his memoirs, he shows quite convincingly that at that time both his administration, the US Congress, and the US “intelligence community” were confident that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
But the essence of what was happening came down to the belief of the majority of Americans that the United States was capable of creating a global empire (Pax Americana) and solving world problems single-handedly. Under these conditions, a new national security strategy, called the “Bush Doctrine,” was announced in September 2002.
On March 17, 2003, the president addressed the nation in which he said that since the UN Security Council was failing to fulfill its responsibilities, the United States would act on its own initiative. Two days later, the Iraq war began, and no one cared that it was being waged without UN sanction and was a direct aggression against a sovereign state. Bush launched a new military campaign, anticipating the ease of achieving victory. He needed to justify himself to the Americans for September 11th. The enemy's weakness added to Bush's resolve. A quick, victorious war promised him the popularity necessary to be elected to a second term. In many ways, the international policies of American presidents are aimed at the American voter.
The economic reasons for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein include the work of the American oil lobby: the war helped raise oil prices. And finally, and most importantly, Saddam encroached on the holy of holies - the American dollar. Along with Muammar Gaddafi, he supported the idea of switching payments in the world oil market from the US dollar to the Arab gold dinar.
The consequences of exporting democracy were disastrous. Against the backdrop of the American occupation, on October 15, 2006, 11 radical Islamist groups united in Iraq; in 2013, a new formation of militant radical fanatics “Ad-Daula Al-Islamiyya” (“Islamic State”, banned in Russia) appeared, terrifying the entire world civilization. . And finally, it is worth adding that during the occupation, the Americans took a huge number of artifacts from Iraq.
Attracting allies
The United States failed to obtain permission from the Security Council to use force in Iraq. Nevertheless, the American ruling circles ignored this and began to prepare for the invasion.
They also asked their NATO allies for help. But France and Germany refused to support the American invasion of Iraq without UN sanctions. But Great Britain, Poland and Australia expressed their readiness to support the United States with military force.
After the overthrow of the Hussein regime, other countries joined the coalition: Italy, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Spain, Georgia. Türkiye took part in the conflict as a separate force in 2007-2008.
The total number of troops of the international coalition contingent was about 309 thousand people, of which 250 thousand were US military personnel.
Military component of the conflict
Officially, military operations in Iraq lasted until December 15, 2011. Over the course of 9 long years, the American army and the allied armed forces lost almost 5 thousand soldiers and officers. In the conditions of ongoing armed confrontation, 32 thousand people were injured of varying degrees of severity. If we talk about the losses in Iraq, they have become catastrophic. The Iraqi army did not resist the coalition forces for very long; the main phase of the conflict was a long guerrilla war. During the 9-year armed confrontation, Iraq lost about a million people killed and wounded, of which the armed forces account for only 2-3%.
Almost the whole of Iraq became the territory of military operations. The number of participants in the conflict is amazing. At different times, the armed forces of 49 states took part in hostilities. The subsequent occupation of the country placed a heavy burden on the American army. Countries that are allies of the United States in the anti-Iraq coalition limited themselves to sending temporary contingents of their troops, who were always in the conflict zone on a rotational basis.
The active phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom took three weeks. That is how many days the Iraqi army actively resisted the invasion forces. Compared to the 1991 Gulf War, coalition forces did things differently. The invasion of Iraq began unexpectedly without prior preparation and without a prolonged air offensive. In contrast to the military situation that prevailed in 1991, Kuwait this time was used as a ready springboard for the deployment of coalition troops.
The striking force of the coalition was represented by American and British troops stationed in the Persian Gulf area. The total number of troops allocated for this purpose was 280 thousand people. The number of combat aircraft based at airfields in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and on ships exceeded 700 units. The US-British ground units that were to take part in the ground part of the military operation were armed with about 1,670 armored vehicles. There were 800 and 120 American M1A2 Abrams tanks and British Challenger 2 tanks alone, respectively. They and the infantry units were assisted by 270 M02/m-3 Bradley and Warrior armored vehicles.
This armada was opposed by the forces of the Iraqi army. According to military experts, Iraq had sufficiently numerous and technically equipped armed forces. The total strength of the Iraqi army capable of resisting the invading forces was about 400 thousand people. To these could be added up to 60-80 thousand paramilitary police units. We also had to take into account more than half a million reservists, ready at any moment to strengthen the active army.
Saddam Hussein had up to 2.5 thousand tanks and about one and a half thousand armored combat vehicles. Iraqi artillery could field 2 thousand guns with a caliber of over 100 mm against the coalition. The Iraqi Air Force was equipped with about a hundred combat aircraft. However, Saddam's main fighting force was considered to be parts of the Republican Guard, which could provide worthy resistance to the invading forces.
Beginning of the invasion
The US military operation in Iraq began on March 20, 2003. Unlike Desert Storm, this time the coalition conducted a large-scale ground operation. Even Turkey's refusal to provide its territory for the offensive did not prevent this. The US invaded Iraq from Kuwait. Already in April, coalition troops occupied Baghdad without a fight. Iraqi aviation was not actually used to repel the enemy attack. The active phase of the offensive was completed after the capture of the city of Tikrit in the middle of the same month.
Thus, by the end of the offensive operation, the main key population centers in Iraq were controlled by the US-led coalition. Losses in Iraq of allied forces during this period amounted to 172 soldiers killed and 1,621 wounded. The Iraqi Armed Forces lost almost 10 thousand people killed during the Allied offensive. The casualties among civilians were slightly lower.
At the first stage of the war, US troops in Iraq won a landslide victory. However, it was necessary not only to seize territory, but also to be able to hold it until a government loyal to the Americans was formed in Iraq, which could keep the situation in the country under control.
Guerrilla stage of the war in Iraq (2003 – 2010)
The war brought not only the overthrow of Saddam Hussein to Iraq, but also chaos. The power vacuum created by the invasion led to widespread looting, robbery and violence. The situation was aggravated by terrorist attacks, which began to take place with enviable regularity in major cities of the country.
In order to prevent military and civilian casualties, coalition troops began forming a police force, which was to consist of Iraqis. The creation of such formations began already in mid-April 2003, and by the summer the territory of Iraq was divided into three occupation zones. The north of the country and the area around Baghdad was under the control of American troops. The south of the country, along with the city of Basra, was controlled by British troops. The territory of Iraq south of Baghdad and north of Basra was under the control of a combined coalition division, which included troops from Spain, Poland, Ukraine and other countries.
Coalition soldiers
However, despite the measures taken, guerrilla warfare began in full swing in Iraq. At the same time, the rebels practiced not only car explosions and homemade bombs on city streets, but also shelling of international coalition troops, not only from small arms, but even from mortars, mining roads, kidnapping and executing coalition soldiers. These actions forced the American command already in June 2003 to conduct Operation Peninsula Strike, aimed at destroying the insurgency that had arisen in Iraq.
Among the important events of the war in Iraq, in addition to numerous uprisings and terrorist attacks, the capture of deposed President Saddam Hussein occupies a special place. It was discovered in the basement of a village house 15 kilometers from his hometown of Tikrit on December 13, 2003. In October, Saddam Hussein was brought to trial and sentenced to death, a punishment that had been temporarily reintroduced by the Iraqi occupation administration. On December 30, 2006, the sentence was carried out.
Despite a number of successes of the coalition forces, operations against partisans did not allow them to radically solve their problem. Between 2003 and 2010. uprisings in Iraq have become, if not a frequent occurrence, then certainly not rare. In 2010, American troops withdrew from Iraq, thereby officially ending the war for the United States. However, the American instructors remaining in the country continued to conduct combat operations and, as a result, American troops continued to suffer losses.
By 2014, the losses of international coalition troops amounted, according to American data, to approximately 4,800 people killed. It is not possible to calculate the losses of the partisans, but it is safe to say that they exceed the number of coalition losses by several times. Losses among the civilian population of Iraq are estimated in hundreds of thousands, if not a million, people.
Further course of hostilities
After the defeat of government troops, a partisan movement began to organize in the country. It united not only military men loyal to Hussein, but also representatives of various Islamist groups, including those close to al-Qaeda. Partisan detachments were most densely concentrated in the so-called “Sunni triangle,” which was located northwest of the Iraqi capital.
Partisan detachments destroyed infrastructure, carried out terrorist attacks, and attacked individual units of the coalition led by the United States. Losses in Iraq of allied forces increased during this period. The bulk of the dead and wounded were soldiers who were blown up by improvised explosive devices.
Meanwhile, at the end of 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured in one of the villages in Iraq. He was put on trial, following which the former dictator was publicly executed in 2006.
Congressional assessment of the need for war[edit]
Senator Bob Graham chaired the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 2002 when Congress voted on the Iraq War resolution. He first realized the significance of Iraq in February 2002, when General Tommy Franks informed him that the Bush administration had decided to de-emphasize Afghanistan to prepare for Iraq. In September, the Senate Intelligence Committee met with George Tenet, director of the CIA, and Graham requested a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq. Tenet responded: "We have never conducted an assessment of Iraq's national intelligence, including its weapons of mass destruction." and resisted requests to submit it to Congress. Graham insisted, "This is the most important decision that we, the Members of Congress, and the American people are likely to make in the foreseeable future. We want to have a better idea of what we're going to do." Tenet refused to do a report on the military or occupation phase, but reluctantly agreed to do a NIE on weapons of mass destruction. Graham described the Senate Intelligence Committee's meeting with Tenet as "a turning point in our attitude toward Tenet and in our understanding of how the intelligence community became so subservient to the wishes of the administration." The administration did not use intelligence to inform its judgment; They used the intelligence as part of a public relations campaign to justify their judgment." But he reluctantly agreed to conduct intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. Graham described the Senate Intelligence Committee's meeting with Tenet as "a turning point in our approach to Tenet and our understanding of how the intelligence community became so subservient to the wishes of the administration. The administration did not use intelligence to inform its judgment; They used the intelligence as part of a public relations campaign to justify their judgment." But he reluctantly agreed to conduct intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. Graham described the Senate Intelligence Committee's meeting with Tenet as "a turning point in our approach to Tenet and our understanding of how the intelligence community became so subservient to the wishes of the administration. The administration did not use intelligence to inform its judgment; they used intelligence as part of a public relations campaign to justify their judgment ".they used intelligence as part of a public relations campaign to justify their judgment ".they used intelligence as part of a public relations campaign to justify your judgment."[9]
Congress voted to support the war based on the NIE principle introduced in October 2002. However, the bipartisan "Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Prewar Intelligence", released on July 7, 2004, concluded that the key findings of the 2002 NIE were either overstated or were not supported by actual intelligence. The Senate report also said the US intelligence community suffered from a "broken corporate culture and poor management" that resulted in the NIE being completely flawed in almost every way. [10]
Civil War
Meanwhile, elections were finally held in Iraq in 2005. After they were carried out, the Shiites came to power. This caused an increase in protests among the Sunni population of the country, which soon developed into a phenomenon that can be called civil war.
In addition, various crimes committed by individual US military personnel or even entire units of the US Army added fuel to the fire. Losses in Iraq, both among the military and among the civilian population, grew more and more, and the civil war flared up with renewed vigor.
This caused displeasure not only in Iraq, but also within American society. Many US citizens began to compare the protracted Iraqi operation with the Vietnam War. Increasing US military losses in Iraq led to the fact that Republicans failed in the congressional elections, losing their majority in both houses.
WE WON THE WAR, BUT LOST THE PEACE
Indeed, the classic war ended in a brilliant victory for the Anglo-Saxons. After which the winners began to confidently lose the world.
In Russia and many other countries of the world, the United States is deeply demonized, various diabolical plans are attributed to them, and certainly economic motivation is seen behind all their actions (for example, the seizure of oil). At the same time, the extremely ideological nature of American society is completely underestimated. The overwhelming majority of Americans, both the common population and the elite, are absolutely confident that the US political and economic system is not just ideal, but the only possible one, and that any people in the world will automatically build a similar system in their country. Only various tyrants (such as Saddam Hussein) can prevent him from doing this. Accordingly, if the tyrant is overthrown, then everything will quickly improve on its own. Some American scientists (historians, political scientists, social scientists) guess that this theory, to put it mildly, is not entirely correct, or rather, has nothing to do with reality, but who was ever interested in the opinion of scientists?
Based on this theory, the Americans did not have any clear plans for the post-war development of Iraq. They only, by analogy with the denazification of post-war Germany, carried out the de-Baathization of Iraq, that is, they completely eliminated the structures of the Baath Party that ruled under Hussein. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of its members joined the party only because without it it was impossible to make any career (as in the USSR, without joining the CPSU). Accordingly, they could well serve any new regime. But the Americans, guided by ideological dogmas, completely destroyed the system of governing the country without creating any new one, and at the same time received a powerful layer of people who hated them.
Of course, the ethno-confessional structure of the Iraqi population was not taken into account. This structure is approximately as follows - 20% each of Kurds and Sunni Arabs, 60% Shiite Arabs. Under Hussein, all power was concentrated in the hands of the Sunni minority. The Shiites had almost no access to it, and the Kurds fought a long and difficult war for independence.
After the overthrow of Hussein, Kurdistan finally became independent de facto; the Americans begged it not to declare independence de jure. The Shiites began to take power “in person,” which is why they treated the Americans quite loyally (except for a few radicals like Muqtada Al-Sadr). But the Sunnis immediately lost everything and became the basis of resistance. In addition, militants from all over the Islamic world immediately moved to their aid. After all, Islamic terrorism, personified by Al-Qaeda, is of a purely Sunni nature. Therefore, a guerrilla war against the occupiers with strong elements of civil war between the ethno-confessional groups of Iraq itself began to gradually unfold in Iraq.
Already during the period from May 1 to July 25, 2003, 163 Americans were killed, that is, more than during the entire active phase of the war against the Iraqi army. The destruction of Hussein's sons on July 22 had no effect on anything. The dictator and his sons were actually hated by the overwhelming majority of the population, but this fact had nothing to do with the guerrilla war.
Realizing that the war was dragging on, the American command divided Iraq into three occupation zones - its own, British and Polish, and in each the contingents were already multinational. Realizing that the benefits from the allies would be limited, the Americans included the most difficult Sunni areas in their own zone.
In April 2004, a Sunni uprising began in Anbar province, and heavy fighting broke out in the cities of Fallujah, Ramadi, Najaf, and Nasiriyah. This month alone, 135 American troops have died.
In December 2005, Iraq held its first parliamentary elections, but this did not solve any problems, since the vast majority of Sunnis boycotted them. In addition, it was once again confirmed that in societies that have no experience of electoral democracy, people vote not according to political, but according to religious, national and clan principles. Because of this, the formal emergence of democratic institutions does not make a country actually democratic. Moreover, according to the new Constitution in Iraq, a system of ethno-confessional separation of powers was introduced, which in itself is already far from traditional democracy. Both the president and the prime minister are elected by parliament, with the prime minister (Shiite) having more powers than the president (Kurdish). Formally, the most important figure in such a system was the chairman of parliament (Sunni), but given local traditions this was impossible. The prime minister became the real leader of the country.
In the United States, dissatisfaction with the enormous human and material losses during the Iraq campaign was rapidly growing. The quality of the ground forces and marines, who accounted for almost all the losses, began to decline no less rapidly. Once again, the well-known fact was confirmed that a “professional”, that is, hired, army cannot fight a difficult war with high losses, because you can kill for money, but you cannot die. At the beginning of the war, American troops were highly motivated (they believed that they were taking revenge for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, although in reality Hussein had nothing to do with them), and the losses were very small. Three years later, big problems arose with motivation. The rapid lumpenization and criminalization of the ground components of the US Armed Forces began, while the costs of maintaining personnel grew rapidly.
Strengthening of Islamist organizations
Meanwhile, if initially resistance in Iraq to the occupying forces of the coalition was of a more or less neutral religious nature, by 2008 various Islamist organizations, often of a terrorist nature, became the head of the guerrilla movement.
Immediately after the invasion of Iraq by American troops, the activities of the terrorist organization “Monotheism and Jihad” under the leadership of al-Zarqawi were transferred to the territory of this country. After a certain time, most of the other Islamist paramilitary organizations in Iraq united around this cell. In 2004, the leader of Monotheism and Jihad swore an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden, and the organization itself was renamed Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
In 2006, al-Zarqawi was killed in a US airstrike. But before his death, he further united the Islamist groups in Iraq. On the initiative of al-Zarqawi, the Consultative Assembly of the Mujahideen in Iraq was created, in addition to “Monotheism and Jihad,” which included a number of other organizations. After the death of al-Zarqawi, in the same 2006, it was reorganized into the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). Moreover, this was done without the consent of the central leadership of al-Qaeda. It was this organization that in the future, after spreading its influence to part of Syria, degenerated into ISIS, and then into the Islamic State.
As mentioned above, during the presence of the American occupation contingent in Iraq, the Islamists acquired their greatest strength in 2008. They controlled Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, and their capital was Ba'qubah.
CIA SAD commands[edit]
Main article: Operation Viking Hammer
CIA Special Operations Teams (SAD) were the first US troops to enter Iraq in July 2002, before the US invasion. Once on the ground, they prepared for the subsequent arrival of US Army Special Forces to organize the Kurdish Peshmerga. This joint group (called the Northern Iraqi Liaison Element (NILE)) [4] banded together to defeat Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaeda ally, in the northeastern corner of Iraq. This battle was for control of territory that was occupied by Ansar al-Islam and was fought before the invasion. It was carried out by paramilitary operations officers from South Africa and the Army's 10th Special Forces Group. The battle marked a significant defeat of a key terrorist organization and the discovery of a chemical weapons facility at Sargat. [4] Sargat was the only object of its type discovered during the Iraq War. [5] [6]
SAD teams also conducted missions behind enemy lines to determine leadership objectives. These missions led to the first strikes against Saddam Hussein and his generals. Although the strike on Saddam did not kill him, it effectively removed his ability to command and control his forces. Other strikes against his generals were successful and significantly reduced the command's ability to react and maneuver against the US-led invasion force. [4] [7] SAD officers also successfully persuaded key Iraqi Army officers to surrender their units after hostilities began. [5]
Türkiye refused to allow the US Army to enter Northern Iraq. Thus, the combined SAD and Army Special Forces groups and the Kurdish Peshmerga constituted the entire northern force against Saddam. They managed to keep Saddam's army in place rather than move the northern army to fight the US-led coalition forces coming from the south. The efforts of the Kurds, the South Africans, and the 10th Special Forces Group with the Kurds likely saved the lives of many US and coalition forces during and after the invasion. [8] As described by Mike Tucker and Charles Faddis in their book entitled Operation Hotel California: The Secret War in Iraq
, four of these CIA officers were awarded the Intelligence Star for their heroic actions. [5] [6]
Completion of the American operation in Iraq
Considerable US losses in Iraq over the 10 years during which the war continued, as well as the relative stabilization of the situation in the country, made us think about the possibility of withdrawing the international contingent from the territory of the state.
In 2010, the new US President Barack Obama signed a decree on the withdrawal of the main American forces from Iraq. Thus, 200 thousand people were withdrawn that year. The remaining 50 thousand military personnel were supposed to help the troops of the new Iraqi government control the situation in the country. But they also remained in Iraq for a relatively short time. In December 2011, the remaining 50 thousand soldiers were withdrawn from the country. There are only 200 military consultants left in Iraq who represented the United States.
Thus, on December 15, 2011, the war in Iraq officially ended for the Americans.
MAIN GOAL – BAGHDAD
On March 24, the Americans finally opened the northern front, transferring special forces and the 173rd Airborne Brigade to Kurdistan. The main forces marched towards Baghdad from the south: the 3rd mechanized and 101st air assault divisions along the Euphrates, the 1st Marine Division along the Tigris. The British were sent to storm Basra and the Faw Peninsula in southern Iraq. The advancing troops were subjected to constant attacks by regular troops and militias, but these attacks did not bring success. Most of the Iraqi forces were knocked out by aviation, the rest of the Americans were crushed in ground contact combat, which they were not afraid of at all as much as the Iraqis thought about it. As stated above, the Iraqis needed to sit in the cities and/or attack the American rear. But the Iraqi command thought in cliches and stereotypes and was not able to react to the real situation.
In the last days of March, the US 3rd Mechanized Division fought for the city of Najaf, during which it crushed several elite divisions of the Republican Guard. During these battles, it became clear that the American company was capable of successfully fighting against the Iraqi division. Fighting for Karbala followed in early April, during which the 3rd Mechanized Division defeated two more Republican Guard divisions. The last elite units were destroyed during the battles for the capital's airport, which began on April 3. Now there was practically nothing to defend Baghdad with. In this regard, the very popular version in our country that Iraqi generals surrendered the capital for money is quite meaningless. In fact, the capital could no longer be defended; the Iraqi Armed Forces were destroyed piece by piece between Baghdad and the Kuwaiti border. Formally, there was still almost a 100,000-strong Iraqi force behind American lines, but it was largely scattered, had lost contact with the command and, most importantly, was completely demoralized.
Already on April 6, the captured Baghdad airport received the first American C-130 transport aircraft. On April 7, Karbala and Basra fell simultaneously, the American rear became increasingly secure, which made it possible to storm Baghdad. On April 5 and 7, armored groups of the 3rd Mechanized Division conducted savage raids into the city center along its wide highways, revealing Iraqi defenses. Moreover, after the raid on April 7, the American group did not retreat, but gained a foothold in the center of Baghdad, where it withstood fierce attacks by the Iraqis. On April 8, the main units of the 3rd Mechanized Division entered the city, and on April 9, the 1st Marine Division reached Baghdad. On this day, the Iraqi capital fell, less than three weeks after the war began.
The next day, the Kurds, with the support of American paratroopers, took Kirkuk, then Mosul. This caused extreme dissatisfaction in Turkey, but it did not risk going against Washington.
On April 13, American Marines took Tikrit, the homeland of Saddam Hussein, without a fight. With this, the war essentially ended. More precisely, its classic “army against army” phase has ended.
During the operation, the US Navy fired 802 Tomahawk cruise missiles and B-52 bombers fired 153 cruise missiles at targets in Iraq. The Army fired 414 ATACMS tactical missiles, which were primarily used to suppress Iraqi air defenses. For its part, Iraq fired 17 R-17 missiles at Kuwait, of which 9 were shot down by Patriots and 8 fell in the desert.
In total, American and British aviation made 45.6 thousand sorties, using 29,345 aircraft ammunition with a total weight of 15 thousand tons to attack ground targets. Of this amount, 19,269 ammunition, or 65.7%, were high-precision.
US casualties during the operation amounted to only 139 people killed, Great Britain - 33 people. The irretrievable losses in armored vehicles for the United States amounted to 15 M1 Abrams tanks (3 destroyed, 12 knocked out and could not be restored), 16 M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, 23 M113 armored personnel carriers, 28 AAV-7A amphibious armored personnel carriers and 11 LAV-25 armored personnel carriers, Great Britain - 10 Challenger 2 tanks (they, however, admitted the loss of only one, and from the fire of another Challenger) and 10 Warrior infantry fighting vehicles. 6 American (F-15E, F-14A, F/A-18C, A-10A, AV-8B+, S-3A) and 1 English (“Tornado” GR4A) aircraft were lost, of which only the A-10A was completely accurately shot down by Iraqi air defense, F/A-18C and Tornado became victims of their own Patriot air defense system, carrier-based F-14A and S-3A crashed for technical reasons. 16 helicopters lost: 4 AN-64D Apache, 2 AH-1W, 2 UH-60A, 2 UH-1N, 2 OH-58D, 1 CH-46E, 1 MH-53M, as well as 2 English Sea Kings . Of this number, only 2 helicopters (1 Apache and 1 UH-60 each) were definitely shot down by the Iraqis. In general, given the scale and results of the operation, such losses can be considered completely insignificant.
It is quite difficult to determine Iraq's losses, since as a result of the war its armed forces ceased to exist. They amounted, according to various sources, from 3 to 30 thousand people killed, about 900 tanks, about 800 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, more than 300 guns and mortars. However, ultimately, all Iraqi equipment was either destroyed or captured by the enemy.
In general, despite all the shortcomings of the Iraqi army described above, the Americans won an outstanding victory, demonstrating a completely new style of warfare, inaccessible (at least at that time) to any other army in the world. On May 1, George W. Bush announced the end of the war.
American Army casualties
Now let's find out how much American troops lost in manpower and military equipment during the operation in Iraq, which lasted almost a decade.
The international coalition forces lost a total of 4,804 people killed, of which 4,423 were from the US Army. In addition, 31,942 Americans were injured of varying degrees of severity. These statistics take into account both combat and non-combat losses.
For comparison: during the war, Saddam Hussein's regular army lost tens of thousands of soldiers killed. It is generally impossible to count the losses of various partisan, terrorist and other organizations that fought against the coalition.
Now let's calculate the losses of US equipment in Iraq. During the war, the Americans lost 80 Abrams tanks. US air losses in Iraq were also significant. 20 American planes were shot down. The most damaged vehicles were the F-16 and F/A-18. In addition, 86 American helicopters were shot down.
The situation after the withdrawal of American troops
After the withdrawal of American troops in Iraq, the situation worsened sharply. Many extremist and terrorist organizations have raised their heads. The most influential of them was the ISIS group, which then changed its name to the “Islamic State”, claiming supremacy throughout the Muslim world. It brought significant territories in Iraq under its control, and after the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, it extended its influence to this state.
The activity of ISIS has caused concern in many countries around the world. A new coalition led by the United States was created against this organization. Russia has also joined the fight against terrorists, although it is acting independently. The peculiarity of this operation is that the allies are only conducting air strikes in Syria and Iraq, but are not resorting to ground intervention. Thanks to the actions of the allies, the territory controlled by Islamic State militants has been significantly reduced, but the organization continues to pose a serious threat to the world.
At the same time, there are many other opposing forces, the contradictions between which do not allow peace to come to Iraq: Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, etc. Thus, American troops have failed to ensure stable peace in the region. They left without completing one of the main tasks.
Coalition troops
Meanwhile, on the international stage, more and more countries are opposing the invasion of Iraq. The League of Arab States signed a resolution inviting coalition forces to withdraw troops from Iraqi territory. The only participant that supported the actions of the United States and Great Britain is Kuwait.
But in Iraq, government troops faced difficulties not only due to the invasion. A Shiite rebellion broke out in Basra, which Saddam Hussein's artillery was unable to suppress.
As coalition troops advanced, terrorist attacks against the attackers became more frequent. Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan threatened that the people would use all possible means to stop the invasion.
But, despite fierce resistance from some parts of the Iraqi army, especially special forces, Baghdad fell on April 9. A statue of the Iraqi ruler was toppled from the square, and crowds of jubilant residents took to the streets. The festive mood of the residents and the winners themselves was spoiled by the unstable situation in the city - robberies and looting began there.
Meanwhile, the final seizure of the territory occurred only on April 13 - the last stronghold of government troops, Hussein’s hometown of Kirkuk surrendered to government troops. And on April 15, coalition forces announced that they completely controlled the entire territory of Iraq.
Meanwhile, the coalition's problems did not end there. Chaos grew on the streets of the capital - banditry and robbery. Criminals robbed banks, stores, and government buildings. And soon the same fate befell the National Museum of Iraq. Most of the 170 thousand exhibits were stolen. The FBI agents arrived and began searching for treasure. Some of the valuable exhibits were found in the national bank - they were probably taken there before the start of the war, some were returned with the help of material rewards and amnesty for crimes committed.
On May 1, 2003, George W. Bush landed a plane on the USS Abraham Lincoln, where he gave a speech declaring “Mission Accomplished.” The president's opponents immediately accused him of having a penchant for expensive Hollywood special effects for this action.
But despite the president's optimistic statements, the American army was forced to resort to large-scale actions several times. In 2004 alone there were two of them - in the spring of 2004 against the Mehdi Army in Southern Iraq and in November 2004 during the siege of Fallujah.
Although attacks on coalition forces occurred throughout Iraq, the bulk of them were concentrated in a few places. In the north - in the cities of Mosul, Kirkuk and Tal Afar, in Central Iraq - all cities in the so-called Sunni Triangle or “Triangle of Death”, in the southern regions the brightest centers of resistance were in the cities of Basra, Najaf, Karbala, Diwaniyah.
Slowly the country began to slide into a civil sectarian war - the Iraqis were no longer fighting not only with the coalition, but also with each other.
Significance and Consequences of the American Invasion in Iraq
There are many conflicting opinions about the justification of the coalition forces' invasion of Iraq. But most experts agree that since the start of the war in Iraq, the region has become much more unstable, and there are no prerequisites for stabilizing the situation. Moreover, many prominent political figures who were involved in the decision to invade Iraq have already said that the war with Hussein was a mistake. In particular, the head of the independent investigative commission, former British Deputy Internal Affairs Officer John Chilcot, said this.
Of course, Saddam Hussein was a typical dictator who suppressed the opposition and used repression. He also repeatedly carried out aggressive military actions against other countries. Nevertheless, most experts came to the conclusion that Hussein’s weapons at the beginning of the 21st century no longer allowed him to carry out large-scale military operations, as evidenced by the relatively rapid defeat of the regular Iraqi army by coalition forces.
And many experts recognize the Hussein regime as the lesser of evils, in comparison with the chaos that began to reign in the region after his overthrow, and with the ever-increasing danger from the Islamic State.
Results of the war. Achieved goals
Qualitatively, the anti-Iraqi coalition was superior to the Iraqi army. The international situation and weather conditions contributed to the success of the operation. Saddam Hussein's regime found itself in almost complete international isolation. American and British troops, supported by the Arab governments of Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia, managed to inflict a crushing defeat on the Iraqi army in just a month and a half. The most active actions took place in the area of the southern Iraqi city of Basra and in the north-west of the country, in the area of the city of Tikrit.
British troops managed to break the resistance of the Republican Guard in the area of Basra and the coastal city of Umm Qasr. The result of the operation was the capture by British troops of the main crossings across the Shatt River - al-Arab.
The Americans, who quickly reached Baghdad, had to fight stubborn battles for the city of Karbala and the city of Tikrit. 45 days after the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraqi resistance was crushed. Saddam Hussein was caught and imprisoned. The Iraqi Supreme Court found the former dictator guilty of 12 counts of crimes against his own people and support of international terrorism. Three years after the start of the war, on December 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein was executed.
While everything worked out quickly and smoothly for the allies with the liquidation of the political regime in Iraq, the search for chemical weapons arsenals was unsuccessful. The country had small warehouses with chemical weapons, which, due to their technical condition, could not be used for military purposes. The production of other means for creating weapons of mass destruction was not found. Iraq, having been liberated from dictatorship, turned out to be unable to independently cope with the new challenges facing civil society. The quick Allied victory led to the outbreak of mass civil disobedience. Having let the genie out of the bottle, the Americans and their allies were forced to extinguish the conflict that engulfed the country for 9 long years.
