"Mission Accomplished"

Jivan Johal
May 1, 2017
3 min read

From the 1980's to the 2000's, Iraq was a hot topic for the United States. Iraq was born out of the bloodshed of the First World War, and was originally a British mandate. They soon gained independence after a coup, but the power held by the leaders of early Iraq would not last long. A series of coups occurred, and saw Saddam Hussein, a young Sunni muslim, take the helm. Saddam was an interesting man, because he could be very kind and a fun man, but could also be a violent, suspicious dictator. He was a fan of the Godfather films, and modelled his rule after Vito Corleone, the main character. In 1980, Saddam claimed that Iran was trying to destroy Iraq, so, with the US at his side, began an eight year war where Iranians and Iraqis fought, gaining and losing ground. After the war, the lines stayed the same. Then, two years later, he invaded Kuwait, and claimed that the country [Kuwait] was ruining Iraq's oil market, and was on traditional lands. After a large war with the US, Iraq was in ashes and disappeared from the international spotlight.

On September 11, 2001, the US was hit with the worst terrorist attack in its history, and 3000 people died. Immediately, George W Bush declared that Iraq was responsible, proposing that Iraq had been funding terrorists and was storing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) to terrorize the world. He offered Saddam an ultimatum in 2003, and when Saddam refused to step down from power, the war began. The US had built up troops in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, waiting for the invasion order, and on March 20, 2003, The US rolled in to Iraq and began fighting retreating Iraqi forces from the south and north of Iraq. There was minimal resistance, and Baghdad was captured in a matter of weeks.

The US sent thousands of troops, and were backed up by an international coalition. The British were America's main partners in Iraq, and in Afghanistan (which had also been invaded in 2002), Canada and some European countries such as Germany were the main combatants. The US had dragged its NATO partners into a bloody war.

(Above Right: American airlines hits one of the towers; Left: Troops roll into Iraq; Below Left: insurgents begin a jihad on their 'liberators'; Below Right: British and American troops were on a mission: find Saddam.)

From the very start, there was going to be an issue when fighting in Iraq. Asides from the Iraqi Army resisting troops, insurgents who'd been long suppressed by Saddam began to crawl out of the caves that Saddam had driven them into. Troops began to suffer losses from random attacks in the streets, and roadside IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) began to take a toll on convoys moving across the country; hundreds of troops were dying. The US was beginning to realize that the war was going to be a long one, because although the Iraqi army had been disbanded, and by 2006, Saddam had been captured, the civilians began to wage a civil war, with Sunni and Shia muslims fighting each other. The violence spiralled out of control, and the US reacted by sending in more troops to quell the violence. After Saddam's execution, the US installed a new government and by 2011, pulled out of the country. The new government was short-lasted, as ISIS, a militant group, would rise and upturn the Middle East as other Arab countries began falling from internal revolutions.

On May 1, 2003, George W Bush gave a speech where he congratulated the US armed personnel for deposing of Saddam's regime. It was today, 14 years ago, that the war was believed to be over, that Saddam's country was finished, and the country would be reborn as a democratic state, but as we see today, the effects of the war, and the loss of a stable government has led rise to a war against terrorism that was supposed to be over, and may not see a conclusion.

It turns out that the US said "Mission Accomplished" too early.