Iraq War (2003)

In the spring of 2003, the administration of President George W. Bush initiated a preventive war against the Republic of Iraq and the Baath party regime of Saddam Hussein. This entry discusses the causes, conduct, and immediate consequences of the initial conventional phase of the Iraq War. A separate entry discusses the Iraq insurgency of 2003–2011.

[Page 713]The ground-air campaign to defeat the Iraqi military required only 3 weeks. However, coalition (United States and United Kingdom) maneuver forces were unable to preserve civil order or reestablish essential public services after the collapse of the Baathist regime. Indigenous nationalist and sectarian forces subsequently mounted a protracted insurgency against the U.S. occupation. Three interrelated factors produced this outcome. First, the Bush administration and the U.S. defense establishment assumed ...