Polls were opened early to members of the Iraqi security services, many of whom would be working during the provincial elections. An Iraqi soldier searches a boy at a polling station in Baghdad on January 31, People across the country voted to fill provincial council seats. In his speech, Obama outlined plans for the gradual withdrawal of U.
Iraqi army special forces patrol Baghdad's al-Fadel district on March 30, Air Force team carries a flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of Army Spc. Omar M. Albrak was killed while serving in Iraq.
Donald Lewis from the 1st Cavalry Division is greeted by his wife, Nicole Lewis, after his brigade arrived home in Fort Hood, Texas, on November 10, , after a year of deployment in Iraq.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates speaks with soldiers at a forward operating base in Kirkuk on December 11, An Iraqi woman votes in parliamentary elections in Kirkuk on March 7, A string of bullets lies across photographs of women adorning the armor of a Stryker vehicle north of Jalaulah on June 11, An Iraqi explosives expert gets into a special suit for bomb disposal during a training session organized by his U.
Shiite worshipers pray during an Ashura commemoration ceremony at the Kadhimiya shrine in Baghdad on December 6, Ashura marks the death of Prophet Mohammed's grandson, the revered Imam Hussein.
A technician works on a prosthetic at a factory in Baghdad on December 13, Iraqis have faced a shortage of prosthetics due to a spike in war-related injuries over the years. Iraqis gather at a women's art exhibition in a posh Baghdad neighborhood on December 14, Military personnel lower their heads during the flag casing ceremony in Baghdad on December 15, The ceremony officially marked the end of U.
The last U. Story highlights Blix: Lead-up to war shows we must rely on international inspectors' reports War aimed to eliminate non-existent WMD, but ended up replacing tyranny with anarchy Blix: Invading a country is easy for great power, but achieving political aims is more difficult Blix: It is likely my U. On March 19, , Iraq was invaded by an "alliance of willing states" headed by the U. While we were sad to be ushered out in the midst of a job entrusted to us by the U.
Security Council -- one that we were doing well -- there was a certain relief in knowing we had all made it out safely. We had worried that our inspectors might be taken hostage, but as it turned out the Iraqis had been very helpful during our time there. So it was that a few hundred unarmed U. Hans Blix. I headed the U. Today, I look again at the reasons why this terrible mistake -- and violation of the U.
Here are my thoughts. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, , George W. Bush's administration felt a need to let the weight and wrath of the world's only superpower fall on more evil actors than just Afghanistan's Taliban regime.
No target could have seemed more worthy of being crushed than Iraq's brutal dictator, Saddam Hussein. Sadly, however, the elimination of this tyrant was perhaps the only positive result of the war.
The war aimed to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, but there weren't any. The war aimed to eliminate al Qaeda in Iraq, but the terrorist group didn't exist in the country until after the invasion.
The war aimed to make Iraq a model democracy based on law, but it replaced tyranny with anarchy and led America to practices that violated the laws of war. More Videos The lingering effect of war on Iraqis Teens see no hope for future in Iraq Iconic moments from Iraq War The war aimed to transform Iraq to a friendly base for U. The Bush administration certainly wanted to go to war, and it advanced eradication of weapons of mass destruction as the main reason.
As Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz has since explained, it was the only rationale that was acceptable to all parts of the U. The WMDs argument also carried weight with the public and with the U. Indeed, in the autumn of the threat seemed credible. While I never believed Saddam could have concealed a continued nuclear program, I too thought there could still be some biological and chemical weapons left from Iraq's war with Iran.
If not, why had Iraq stopped U. However, suspicions are one thing and reality is quite another. As we found no weapons and no evidence supporting the suspicions, we reported this. But U. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield dismissed our reports with one of his wittier retorts: "The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Rumsfeld's logic was correct, I believe, but it was no excuse for the American and British governments to mislead themselves and the world, as they did, by giving credit to fake evidence or assuming that if weapons items were "unaccounted for" that they must exist.
They did not exist. We inspected many hundred of sites, including dozens that had been suggested to us by various governments' national intelligence organizations. In a few cases we found conventional weapons -- but no weapons of mass destruction. I am not suggesting that governments should ignore information coming from their billion dollar intelligence programs. Such information is indispensable and collected with many means that are not available to U.
However, I think one lesson from the Iraq war is that we should pay equal attention to the results of multimillion dollar international reports that are based on extensive professional inspections on the ground. In , the alliance of willing states did not do that. After the war it was reported that I and several others in New York had had our offices bugged during this period. If I was bugged, as I find very likely, I regret that those listening in did not pay more attention to what I had to say.
Fortunately, enough states did listen, and the U. Security Council was saved from green-lighting a war that was justified by false evidence. The political leaders who have been criticized as responsible for launching the war on false premises have asserted that they acted in good faith, and that interrogation of leading Iraqis showed that the regime planned to revive its weapons program as soon as sanctions disappeared. I am not questioning the good faith of the political leaders, but rather their poor judgment in bringing war and death to a country on flimsy grounds.
War in Iraq: Ten years later Iran has already replaced him with another general and, if anything, it appears the strike has made violence against Americans abroad more likely. If that happens, President Trump has pledged to commit war crimes by attacking Iranian cultural sites , which include ancient Persian ruins and Silk Road sites.
The president had already withdrawn the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, which had successfully limited its nuclear program, adding another fearsome wrinkle to the unfolding crisis. But by handing presidents sweeping grants of military authority, failing to stand up for its own prerogatives, and often allowing presidents to ignore the remaining limits on their power, Congress planted the seeds for this crisis.
Under the Constitution, only Congress can declare war. Presidents have used the use-of-force authorizations passed after the Sept. The invasion of Iraq destabilized much of the Middle East. It led to the deaths of more than 4, American troops and wounded nearly 32, others.
Anywhere from , to , Iraqis were killed. Even current-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a fellow general who cowrote the counterinsurgency manual with Petraeus, was able to admit this hard truth almost two years ago:. We generally give it in private.
Retired Gen. And long before that, there were the six retired generals who stood up in and criticized then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his gross mismanagement and pre-Iraq War spin, which ultimately led to his ouster.
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