On the two-decade anniversary of the U.S. invasion, Iraq is weakly governed, leaving it prone to instability and meddling by neighbors—especially Iran.
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20 Years After the Invasion of Iraq
Expert analysis and background from the Council on Foreign Relations examine the Iraq War, twenty years after the invasion began.
Wars are fought not only on the battlefield but also in domestic political debates and in histories written after the fact. In the case of the US invasion of Iraq 20 years ago, we are still in this final phase, seeking an elusive consensus about the war’s legacy.
On this twentieth anniversary, amid attempts to rationalize the decision to go to war, I offer this short list of lessons that should be ingrained in the collective memory to avoid future blunders.
In March 2003, U.S. forces invaded Iraq vowing to destroy Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and end the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein. This timeline traces the Iraq War.
How the Iraq War taught me about the limits of American power.
