| | Iraq War's 20th Anniversary: The Invasion |
A decade ago, the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq on the premise that the country was hiding weapons of mass destruction. Despite worldwide protest and a lack of UN authorization, 200,000 thousand troops deployed into Iraq in March of 2003, following massive airstrikes. The coalition faced minimal opposition, and Baghdad quickly fell. For years after President George W. Bush's "mission accomplished" speech, the war raged on, fueled by sectarian conflicts, al Qaeda insurgencies, outside agencies, and mismanagement of the occupation. Ten years later, we look back in a three-part series. Today's entry focuses on the March 20, 2003, invasion of Iraq, and the weeks immediately following.Smoke covers Saddam Hussein's presidential palace compound during a massive US-led air raid on Baghdad, Iraq on March 21, 2003. Allied forces unleashed a devastating blitz on Baghdad, triggering giant fireballs and deafening explosions and sending huge mushroom clouds above the city center. Missiles slammed into the main palace complex of President Saddam Hussein on the bank of the Tigris River, and key government buildings. (Ramzi Haidar/AFP/Getty Images) Let’s make this crystal clear ~ The Bush/Blair illegal war against Iraq was the willful planned destruction of a civilization. THE DESTRUCTION OF A CIVILIZATION ~ ” The sustained bloody purge of Iraq under US occupation resulted in killing 1.3 million Iraqi civilians during the first seven years after Bush invaded in March 2003 …The militarist strategy of conquest and occupation of Iraq was designed to establish a long-term colonial military presence in the form of strategic military bases with a significant and sustained contingent of colonial military advisors and combat units. The Iraq war was driven by an influential group of neo-conservatives. They viewed the success of the Iraq war ( by success they meant the total dismemberment of the country ) as the first ‘ domino’ in a series of wars to ‘ re-colonize’ the MIddle East .. Health: Iraq’s child mortality rate has increased by 150% since 1990, when U.N. sanctions were first imposed.
As Frank Rich wrote recently in the New York Times ~ “It’s too early to say what the war’s lasting impact on America (or Iraq or the Middle East) will be, but as for the current impact at home, any accounting must begin with the human cost. As David Rieff, a war opponent, wrote this week: “Could anyone who supported this war today encounter a relative, spouse, or friend of one of the American soldiers who was killed or grievously injured in Iraq and tell them with a straight face that this war was worth their sacrifice?” See article~
Iraq cries out for justice but our war crimes still remain unpunished and unacknowledged. Nicolas J.S. Davies makes the same point recently in AlterNet ~ ” The reality of the “accumulated evil” unleashed on the people of Iraq by the “supreme international crime” of aggression has been painstakingly obscured behind a tapestry of lies. Our military leaders may be chronically unable to win a war in another country, but they sure know how to wage a propaganda war in America:
Davies correctly asserts the most disturbing face regarding this illegal and uneccessary occupation of a foreign country And who made money on the Iraq war ? Dick Cheney’s Halliburton cashed in for $39 billion on the shame and shock of Iraq. ” I believe very deeply in the proposition that what we did in Iraq was the right thing to do. It was hard to do. It took a long time. There were significant costs involved.” Dick Cheney “freedom and fear, justice and cruelty have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.” George W. Bush “Iraq is sort of a situation where you’ve got a guy who drove the bus into the ditch. You obviously have to get the bus out of the ditch, and that’s not easy to do, although you probably should fire the driver.” Barack Obama, The Daily Show, Nov. 7, 2005 “Never in these long years have we offered any other prayer but this: Lord, grant to our people peace at home, and grant and preserve to them peace from the foreign foe!” : Adolf Hitler – Nuremberg Sept. 13, 1936. U.S. President George W. Bush, watched by Vice President Dick Cheney, speaks before signing a $355 billion military spending bill in the Rose Garden of the White House October 23, 2002. The bill gave the Pentagon a nearly $40 billion boost as it prepared for possible war with Iraq, the White House said. A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran
Last Letter to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney…from Tomas Young - a Known Veteran
Tomas Young I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care. I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries.
I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole. I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power.
You can’t stop the judgement of histroy waiting for you Mr. Bush You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole. Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage. Dick Cheney as a young man I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region.
I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire. Americans expect Veteran Hospice to be used by the old guys I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul. My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live.
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THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR BIGGEST BLUNDER IN THE MIDDLE EAST US Army Sergeant Craig Zentkovich from Connecticut of the 1st Brigade Combat Team photographs a pink bedroom at Saddam Hussein's presidential palace 13 April 2003. (Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images) #
Iraqi National Museum Deputy Director Mushin Hasan holds his head in his hands as he sits on destroyed artifacts April 13, 2003 in Bagdhad, Iraq. The museum was severely looted in the preceding days. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) #
U.S. Marines from Task Force Tarawa 1/2 Charlie Company read letters that arrived in the mail from home April 14, 2003 near Al Kut, Iraq. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) #
U.S. Marines from Task Force Tarawa 1/2 Charlie Company take a makeshift shower April 14, 2003 near Al Kut, Iraq. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) #
A U.S. Marine takes away a man suspected of looting April 14, 2003 in Baghdad, Iraq. The Marines began to crack down on looters after Baghdad residents complained of the lack of law and order in the capital. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) #
US Marines kick in a door while securing a building next to the main hospital in central Baghdad April 15, 2003, which would be used as a temporary Iraqi police headquarters. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen #
A man lies handcuffed with his artificial leg near his head after U.S. Marines caught him and other looters robbing from a bank April 16, 2003 in Baghdad, Iraq. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) #
A U.S. Marine pulls down a picture of Saddam Hussein at a school April 16, 2003 in Al-Kut, Iraq. A combination team of Marines, Army and Special Forces went to schools and other facilities in Al-Kut looking for weapons caches and unexploded bombs in preparation for removing and neutralizing them. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
Iraqi men push the head of a statue of Saddam Hussein after its destruction April 18, 2003 in Baghdad, Iraq. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images) #
President Bush declares the end of major combat in Iraq on May 1, 2003 as he spoke aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) #
A woman cries out the name of her missing son as U.S. Marines searched for evidence at a mass grave on May 14, 2003 in Hillah, Iraq. At least 2,000 bodies had been dug out at the site making it the largest mass grave discovered in Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) #
An Iraqi child jumps over a line of remains in a school where bodies had been brought from a mass grave discovered in the desert in the outskirts of Al Musayyib, 50 km south of Baghdad, May 27, 2003 in Iraq. People had been searching for days for identity cards or other clues among the skeletons to try to find the remains of family members, including children, from the grave that locals say contained the remains of hundreds of Shi'ite Muslims executed by Saddam Hussein's regime after their uprising following the 1991 Gulf War. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images) #
A Kurdish girl, Leiwan, 2, attends a traditional wedding celebration June 15, 2003 in Bakochek, Iraq. Saddam Hussein's regime killed an estimated 180,000 Kurds from 1988-1991 in a genocidal campaign involving both chemical and conventional weapons. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) #
Off-duty U.S. soldiers enjoy Saddam Hussein's swimming pool at the Republican Palace July 14, 2003 in Baghdad, Iraq. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images) #
Iraqi mini-bus driver Sami Kadum Sadiq is wheeled through a Baghdad hospital after he was injured when a homemade bomb exploded Wednesday, Sept 24, 2003 along a road in Baghdad, missing a U.S. military patrol but killing at least one Iraqi, injuring 18, and destroying two civilian buses. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) #
Iraqis run through the neighborhood of al-Qurtan in the Iraqi town of Khaldiyah Monday Sept. 29, 2003 as U.S. troops withdrew from the area after a firefight backed by U.S. attack aircraft, helicopters and tanks. One American soldier was killed and three others wounded in two roadside bombings, one prompting the firefight. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) #
An Iraqi prisoner of war comforts his 4-year-old son at a regroupment center for POWs of the 101st Airborne Division near An Najaf, March 31, 2003. The man was seized in An Najaf with his son, and the U.S. military did not want to separate them. (AP Photo/Jean-Marc Bouju) #
U.S. paratroopers with the 1-504th regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division from Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, nicknamed the "Red Devils," shine lights onto the face of a detained man while they try to identify him during a raid November 26, 2003 in Nassar el al Salaam, Iraq. The man was questioned and later released. The overnight raid netted two men suspected of militant activities against American forces. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
Fearful women and children watch paratroopers in the 1-504th regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, nicknamed the "Red Devils" raid their house, a suspected militant compound on November 26, 2003 at in Nassar el al Salaam, Iraq. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
American soldiers in the 4th Infantry Division stand over the opening of the "spider hole" where Saddam Hussein was captured December 15, 2003 in Ad Dawr, Iraq. Iraq's notorious dictator was captured in a raid at the compound on December 13, 2003. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
U.S. Army combat medic Sgt. Luis Pacheco of the 1st Brigade, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, from Chicago, Illinois, treats an Iraqi "insurgent" for a gunshot wound to the chest as another soldier searches the home during early morning raids January 6, 2004 in Fallujah, Iraq. The Army said the man was fired upon by U.S. soldiers after brandishing a rifle. The raids netted four suspects including an Iraqi man suspected of constructing IED's for insurgents. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) #
A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crew works on a runway prior to flying in the violent so-called Sunni Triangle area January 19, 2004 at Forward Operating Base Ridgway, Iraq. The helicopter's crew was one of many from the 2nd Battalion, 82nd Aviation Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division based at Forward Operating Base Ridgway located near the restive town of Fallujah. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) #
US Army First Armored Division Spc. Robert Laux of Sacramento, California attempts to open the hood of an Army vehicle during a maintenance check at Baghdad's police academy February 16, 2004 in Baghdad, Iraq. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) #
Boys wave as they ride in the trunk of a car February 19, 2004 in Baghdad, Iraq. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) #
Iraqis enjoy an amusement park as they celebrate the last day of the Eid al-Adha holiday February 4, 2004 in Baghdad, Iraq. The Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice), takes place on the tenth day of the Islamic month Dhul-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar in which millions of Muslims from around the world make an annual pilgrimage to Makkah in order to worship Allah and to commemorate the willingness of the Prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son, Ishmael. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) #
Victims of an explosion are wheeled away from the scene on March 2, 2004 in Karbala, Iraq. According to reports, as many as 25 people were killed after at least 6 blasts hit the holy city, where many thousands of Muslims were celebrating the festival of Ashura. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images) #
Iraqis chant anti-American slogans as charred bodies hang from a bridge over the Euphrates River in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, Wednesday, March 31 2004. Enraged Iraqis killed four foreigners, including at least one U.S. national, took the charred bodies from a burning SUV, dragged them through the streets, and hung them from the bridge. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) #
U.S. Marines pray over a fallen comrade at a first aid point after he died from wounds suffered in fighting in Fallujah, Iraq, Thursday, April 8, 2004. Hundreds of U.S. Marines had been fighting insurgents in several neighborhoods in the western Iraqi city of Fallujah in order to regain control of the city. (AP Photo/Murad Sezer) #
An Iraqi man celebrates atop of a burning U.S. Army Humvee in the northern part of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, April 26, 2004. An explosion leveled a building in northern Baghdad, setting four U.S. Humvees nearby on fire. At least one U.S. soldier and several Iraqis were wounded. The cause of the explosion was not immediately known. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen) #
A hooded and wired Iraqi prisoner is seen at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, Iraq in this undated photo. (AP Photo/Courtesy of The New Yorker)#
Coffins of U.S. military personnel are prepared to be offloaded at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware in this undated photo. The U.S. Air Force, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, released to Web site www.thememoryhold.org on April 14 more than 300 photographs showing the remains of U.S. service members returning home. The Pentagon tightly restricted publication of photographs of coffins with the remains of U.S. troops and had forbidden journalists from taking pictures at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the first stop for the bodies of troops being sent home. REUTERS/USAF #
The father of 12-year-old Ali Basem Karim mourns his loss as Hussam Hassan washes the body of Ali Basem Karim on May 6, 2004 in Najaf, Iraq. Karim was killed in Basra when the wedding he was attending was attacked by extremist militias. The wedding was attacked because they were celebrating, which the militia considerers inappropriate. Another child was wounded in the attack. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images) #
Two men, who are overcome with emotion after being released from Abu Ghraib prison, hug May 14, 2004 in the city of Baquba, outside of Baghdad, Iraq. One hundred and eight-three prisoners were released from Abu Ghraib prison on May 14 after they were driven up through Tikrit and finally released in Baquba. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images) #
U.S. Army soldiers rush to evacuate an injured comrade in the center of Baghdad, Iraq, after thunderous explosions at the capital, Tuesday, May 25, 2004. A U.S. helicopter landed in the square and evacuated at least one wounded person as American troops and military vehicles provided security. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen) #
An Iraqi militiaman loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr fires a mortar round during fighting between Sadr's Mahdi army and U.S. forces June 5, 2004 in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr city, Iraq. Fighting continues in the capital despite a cease fire brokered between U.S. forces and the cleric's militia in Najaf and Kufa. (Photo by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images) #
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is lead in shackles away from an Iraqi courtroom July 1, 2004 in Baghdad, Iraq, after hearing a list of charges against him and 11 of his top lieutenants. Hussein was transferred into the legal custody of Iraqi authorities on June 30, 2004 but remained in the physical custody of the U.S. Military at an undisclosed location. (Photo by Karen Ballard/Pool/Getty Images) #
An injured child is comforted by a neighbor as he is treated at Kindi hospital after suffering injuries when two apparent car bombs exploded just minutes apart outside nearby churches August 1, 2004 in Baghdad, Iraq. Car bombs exploded outside at least six Christian churches in Iraq on Sunday in an apparent coordinated attack timed with evening prayers. (Photo by Ghaith Abdul- Ahad/Getty Images) #
Iraqi Shiite militiamen prepare to fire their weapons during clashes with U.S. Marines August 7, 2004 in Najaf, Iraq. Fighting continued for the third day between Iraqi combatants and multinational forces in the holy city of al-Najaf. (Photo by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images) #
Iraqi Shiite demonstrators flee from unknown gunmen as bullets fly overhead on August 26, 2004 in Najaf, Iraq. The Shiite demonstration came under fire whilst en route to the Imam Ali Shrine, further inflaming a situation already tense after at least 25 people were killed in a suspected mortar attack on a mosque filled with protesters preparing to travel to Najaf, August 26, in Kufa, Iraq. (Photo by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images). #
Iraqi Shiite demonstrators carry an injured man as bullets fly overhead on August 26, 2004 in Najaf, Iraq. (Photo by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images)#
An Iraqi Shiite militia man prepares to fire his RPG rocket launcher at US tanks as another militia man warns fighters on the other side of the road, in the Shiite area of Sadr city east of Baghdad on September 5, 2004. U.S forces continued to fight rebels in Northern Iraq for the second day, adding to the violence over the weekend including a suicide bomb in Kirkuk September 4 which killed 17. (Photo by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images) #
Iraqi firefighters extinguish fire from a burning vehicle at the site of a car bomb attack September 22, 2004 in a busy shop area in western Baghdad, Iraq. Six people were killed and another 54 wounded in the blast. (Photo by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images) #
A U.S. soldier carries an Iraqi girl away from the scene of three explosions September 30, 2004 in Baghdad, Iraq. Three separate explosions near a U.S. military convoy which was passing the opening ceremony for a sewage station killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 100 others in southern Baghdad according to Iraqi police. (Photo by Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty Images) #
British private contractor Michael Fitzpatrick thanks his U.S. Army nurse Jayme Sells while recovering from a suicide bomb attack in an American military hospital in Baghdad, Iraq Friday, Oct. 15, 2004. Fitzpatrick said that he was drinking coffee in the Green Zone Cafe when a suicide bomber detonated in one of two explosions that killed 6 people and wounded many more. The U.S. embassy and Iraqi government buildings are located in the heavily fortified area. (AP Photo/John Moore) #
Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, 20, of Kentucky, a member of Charlie Company of the U.S. Marines First Division, Eighth regiment, smokes a cigarette in Fallujah, Iraq, on Nov. 9, 2004. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Times, Luis Sinco) #
Although wounded, Staff Sgt. Shannon Kay, of 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, fires on an enemy position after being attacked with a car bomb, Saturday, Dec. 11, 2004, in Mosul, Iraq. (AP Photo/Army Times, M. Scott Mahaskey, via USA Today) #
U.S. Marine platoon Gunnery Sergeant, Ryan P. Shane (C), from the 1st Battalion of the 8th Marine Regiment and another member of 1/8 pull a fatally wounded comrade to safety while under fire during a military operation in the Iraqi western city of Falluja, in this photograph released on December 17, 2004. Seconds later Sgt. Shane was also injured by nearby enemy fire, U.S. Marine officer said. REUTERS/HO/USMC/Cpl. Joel A. Chaverri #
Shia Iraqi men crush in to get election pamphlets from the United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of various Shia political and religious parties, as they are handed out Buratha Mosque December 31, 2004, in Baghdad, Iraq. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
U.S. soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division out of Ft. Lewis, Washington fire at insurgents during a firefight January 16, 2005 in Tal Afar, Iraq. A routine patrol in the insurgent stronghold turned into an hour-long running gun battle January 16, with a combined U.S. and Iraqi police force battling insurgents across alleys and down boulevards. Despite several close calls, there were no U.S. or Iraqi police casualties. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
Journalists, U.S. troops and Iraqi police run for cover during a firefight with insurgents January 16, 2005 in Tal Afar, Iraq. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
Spc. Franklin Smith pulls away as a 120mm mortar blasts out of a tube January 17, 2005 at the edge of the US airbase in Tal Afar, Iraq. US mortaring teams frequently fire "harassment and interdiction" mortar fusillades from the base to suspected enemy positions or watched areas nearby. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
Samar Hassan, 5, screams after her parents were killed by U.S. Soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division in a shooting January 18, 2005 in Tal Afar, Iraq. The troops fired on the Hassan family car when it unwittingly approached them during a dusk patrol in the tense northern Iraqi town. Parents Hussein and Camila Hassan were killed instantly, and a son Racan, 11, was seriously wounded in the abdomen. Racan, paralyzed from the waist down, was treated later in the U.S. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
Racan Hassan, 11, is carried by hospital staff after being shot by U.S. soldiers of the 25th Infantry Division January 18, 2005 in Tal Afar, Iraq. The troops fired on the Hassan family car when it unwittingly approached them during a dusk patrol in the tense northern Iraqi town. Parents Hussein and Camila Hassan were killed instantly, and their son Racan was seriously wounded in the abdomen. Racan, who lost the use of his legs, was treated later in the U.S. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
A car bomb went off next to a school in south of Baghdad one hour after a suicide bomber targeted a police station in the same area on January 28, 2005, Baghdad, Iraq. Baghdad was witnessing a surge of violence as the country prepared for elections. (Photo by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images).#
British solders with the Welsh Guards battle group man a heavy machine gun at the back of a Chinook helicopter February 8, 2005 above the southern Iraqi city of Ammarah. (Photo by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images) #
U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Troy Hawkins of the 1st Cavalry, Task Force 1-9, falls to the ground after being wounded during a firefight while on patrol with an Iraqi Army unit February 16, 2005 in the Haifa Street neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq. After being tended to by a medic he continued to fight in the narrow streets. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) #
An suspected Iraqi insurgent is detained by commandos of the 3rd battalion of the Commandos brigade after raids against suspected insurgents, 30km north of Baghdad, on February 18, 2005 In Taji, Iraq. Most of the members of the Commandos Elite Force were members of the security apparatus under the former regime. (Photo by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images). #
An american soldier of the 3rd Battalion of 21st Infantry Regiment prepares to enter a house as the door opens in the northern city of Mosul, March 03, 2005. As curfew goes into effect each night American solders come out looking for suspects and searching houses looking for weapons. In a conservative society like the one in Mosul, knocking on doors and searching houses in the middle of the night is believed to be a major source of anti-American feelings in the city. (Photo by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images). #
Combat Support Hospital Army Nurse supervisor Patrick McAndrew tries to save the life of an American soldier by giving him CPR upon arrival at the Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq on April 4, 2005. (AP Photo/John Moore) #
Support Squadron -SPC Carlos Riverarosado, of Narantito, Puerto Rico sits on his cot with his Rosary Beads at camp Striker in Iraq. He said spirituality had always been a big part of his life. He prays the Rosary every night at 8:00 PM. (Craig F. Walker/The Denver Post) #
An Iraqi man raises his hands as he is approached by U.S. soldiers during a night raid June 18, 2005 on the outskirts of Baquba, 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq. (Photo by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images). #
In this photo released by the Iraqi Special Tribunal, former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is seen as he is questioned by Chief Investigative Judge Raid Juhi, not seen, in this Aug. 23, 2005, photo at an unknown location. (AP Photo/Iraqi Special Tribunial, Pool) #
A British soldier makes his way out of a burning Warrior fighting vehicle in Basra, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad Monday Sept. 19, 2005. British forces and demonstrators exchanged gunfire in the southern city of Basra leaving two civilians dead after two British men were arrested for allegedly gunning down an Iraqi police officer, authorities and witnesses said Monday. Additional information on the status of the soldier emerging from the tank is unavailable. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani) #
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, front center, and Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, back center, berate the court during their trial in Baghdad, in this Dec. 5, 2005, file photo. (AP Photo/David Furst, Pool) #
An Iraqi man is held against a Humvee by a US Marine after being searched during snap vehicle checks on February 8, 2006 in Ramadi, Iraq. Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Regiment frequently took to Ramadi's tense streets in Humvee convoys, randomly stopping vehicles to search for weapons and insurgents. Sniper attacks were common, so the Marines usually set off smoke bombs to screen them from attackers. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
Major Hans Bakken, a U.S. Army neurosurgeon from Decorah, Iowa, enters a surgical ward with his unloaded rifle on his back March 16, 2006 in Balad, Iraq. Balad was one of the primary hospitals for troops and civilians injured in the conflict in Iraq. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
President Bush, center, stands with, from left, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace as he talks with reporters about a meeting with his national security team Thursday, Dec. 28, 2006 in Crawford, Texas. Bush met with his national security team at his Texas ranch, and declared he had moved one step closer to devising a new Iraq strategy but would seek more advice before settling on a final plan. "We're making good progress," Bush said. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) #
A British soldier guards a position as two armored vehicles burn after a roadside bomb hit his unit patrol in the southern city of Basra, 29 December 2006, killing an unidentified soldier. The death came as the country was on high alert ahead of the anticipated execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. (ESSAM AL-SUDANI/AFP/Getty Images) #
In this television screen grab taken from Iraqi national television station Al-iraqia, a video shows the moments leading up to the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as he was prepared for hanging and the noose is put over his head on the gallows, on December 30, 2006 in Baghdad, Iraq. The former Iraqi president was executed by hanging at 0600 (0300 GMT) in a secure facility in the Northern Baghdad suburb of Khadimeya. (Photo by Al-iraqia via Getty Images) #
An effigy of Saddam Hussein hangs in a central Baghdad street 30 December 2006, as Iraqis reeled from the news that ousted Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging. More than 50 Iraqis were killed and dozens more wounded in a series of bloody car bombings that caused chaos after the government's pre-dawn execution of Saddam Hussein. (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images) #
Her mother, no first name available, comforts 18 year old Fatimah Krim at a hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday Jan. 17, 2007. Twin car bombs tore through a leading Baghdad University as students left classes in the deadliest attack in Iraq in nearly two months killing at least 65 students. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim) #
A U.S. Marine wakes another for his turn on guard duty as the Marines cluster for warmth while sleeping in a house captured by American and Iraqi forces from a man the military says is a former insurgent financier during an operation in Ramadi January 17, 2007 in the Anbar province of Iraq. The combined forces swept into Ramadi under the cover of darkness and began searching neighborhoods for insurgents. Ramadi, with daily combat between insurgents and U.S. led forces, has seen some of the highest casualty rates of the war. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) #
A U.S. Marine guards an Iraqi mother and children while other Marines interrogate the father while on a search operation for insurgents in the early hours of February 1, 2007 in Ramadi in Iraq's Anbar province. American forces use night vision goggles, taking advantage of technology to aid the element of surprise and reduce the effectiveness of insurgent snipers on U.S. forces. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) #
Members of the U.S. Marine Security Force walk through the halls of the U.S. Embassy February 6, 2007 in Baghdad, Iraq . The platoon of Marines from the Anti-Terrorism Battalion was tasked with defending the exterior of U.S. diplomatic mission against attacks in one of the most dangerous cities in the world. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) #
Iraqis grieve in front of a burning building after a double car bomb attack in central Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Feb. 12, 2007. Thunderous explosions and dense black smoke swirled through the center of Baghdad when at least one car bomb blew up in an underground parking garage, setting off dozens of secondary explosions and killing at least 59 people, police said. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) #
A U.S. soldier in the 10th Mountain Division winces in pain as his gunshot wound to the leg is treated by medics of the 28th Combat Support Hospital based in Ft. Bragg, North Carolina February 27, 2007 in Baghdad, Iraq. Wounded children and adults were rushed to the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, a military hospital that took wounded Iraqi and U.S. forces alike. The soldier had shrapnel wounds and a piece of shrapnel lodged in his skull but is expected to recover. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
A child cries next to a person injured in an attack that lays in a hospital in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, March 10, 2007. A rocket hit an open market in central Kirkuk, killing two persons and injuring another 35, police said. (AP Photo/Emad Matti) #
An Iraqi woman washes dishes as US soldiers from Baker Company 2-12 Infantry Battalion temporarily occupy her home during a patrol in the Dora neighborhood of southern Baghdad, 16 March 2007. Shiite protesters demanded the removal of a US military base from Sadr City in east Baghdad as US commanders reported a surge of attacks on troops in a province near the capital. (DAVID FURST/AFP/Getty Images) #
Demonstrators wave Iraqi flags during an anti-U.S. protest called by fiery cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf, marking the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad April 9, 2007. Baghdad was under curfew on the fourth anniversary of the fall of the capital to U.S. forces. REUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz #
Mary McHugh mourns her slain fiancŽ Sgt. James Regan at "Section 60" of the Arlington National Cemetery May 27, 2007. On March 24, 2008, four soldiers were killed when their patrol vehicle was blown up by a bomb in Baghdad, taking the US military personnel death toll in Iraq beyond 4000. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) #
Family members mourn after funeral services for Spc. David William Behrle of Tipton, Iowa, 20, at the Tipton Middle School May 29, 2007 in Tipton, Iowa. Behrle along with five other members of the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas died of injuries sustained from an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle while serving in Iraq on May 19, 2007. (Photo by Scott Morgan/Getty Images) #
U.S. soldiers push the car of an Iraqi man to start the engine at a check point in north Baghdad June 13, 2007. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic #
Two Iraqi girls watch Staff Sgt. Nick Gibson of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division June 21, 2007 as the unit was canvassing the tense Dora neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq. U.S. soldiers patrolled the area almost daily in an effort to get to know the residents and find insurgents. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
An Iraqi Army soldier (L) watches as medics of the Army's 2-12 Cavalry Battalion try to save a civilian man injured by a roadside bomb aimed at Iraqi troops by local militants at Joint Security Station Casino in the divided Gazaliyah neighborhood June 29, 2007 in Baghdad, Iraq. Gazaliyah, one of Baghdad's most troubled neighborhoods, is patrolled by the 2-12 Cavalry out of Joint Security Station Casino, one of the field bases that figures prominently in the "surge" strategy of General David Petraeus. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
Pft. Daniel Sims of Clemson, South Carolina of the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army sits during watch duties in a partially destroyed building that's being converted to an Army field post July 13, 2007 in the tense Amariyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq. Insurgents who were in control of Amariyah attempted to destroy this building and an adjacent bunker with explosives and burning tires, but the Army was able to salvage the compound. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) #
Family, friends and fellow soldiers salute as US Army 1st Lt. Mark Harold Dooley remains are carried to the graveside during his funeral at Arlington National Cemetery July 13, 2007 in Arlington, Virginia. A member of the Army National Guard's 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment (Mountain), 42nd Infantry Division, Dooley died in Ramadi, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during patrol operations on September 19, 2005. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) #
An aerial view of the village of Kahtaniya, one of two villages struck by garbage trucks packed with explosives, west of Mosul, northwest of Baghdad August 16, 2007. Angry members of a minority sect said they feared annihilation and pleaded for help, after suicide attackers killed scores in possibly the worst such bomb attack of the Iraq conflict. REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani #
U.S. soldiers blindfold an Iraqi man after arresting him during a night patrol at the Zafraniya neighborhood, southeast of Baghdad September 4, 2007. REUTERS/Carlos Barria #
American soldiers cheer as the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders take the stage as part of a military USO tour of Iraq September 15, 2007 in Baghdad, Iraq. The cheerleaders, on their first trip to Iraq, were doing 5 shows throughout the country for the soldiers, many of whom were on 15 month deployments. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) #
Juvenile detainees wait for their turn outside portable bathrooms at the "House of Wisdom" school operated by the U.S. military near the Camp Cropper detention center September 19, 2007 in Baghdad Iraq. More than 800 juvenile detainees were in American custody at the center. Most were captured during this year's American troop "surge" in Baghdad. They attend six classes - Arabic, Science, Math, History, Civics and English every three days. Many of the detainees, ages 12-17 years old, were captured while planting roadside bombs or IEDs targeting U.S. forces, according to military officials. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) #
A U.S. Army nurse takes the fading pulse of a dying American soldier at the 28th Combat Support Hospital September 22, 2007 in Baghdad, Iraq. The soldier was fatally wounded by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Baghdad. The hospital, located in Baghdad's Green Zone, received many of the nearly 30,000 U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) #
A U.S. army soldier from Ghostrider Company, 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment runs for cover during Operation Phantom Phoenix in the village of Abu Musa on the northern outskirts of Muqdadiyah, in the volatile Diyala province, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic) #
US Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain (R-AZ) unbuckles his flight helmet as he arrives at Sather Air Base in Baghdad, March 16, 2008. Picture taken March 16, 2008. REUTERS/U.S. Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Allen/Handout #
An Iraqi woman holds onto a truck while waiting for food supplies to be distributed by Iraqi's soldiers among the residents of the Shiite enclave of Sadr city in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 8, 2008. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek) #
Detainees pray at a U.S. military detention facility Camp Bucca, Iraq, Monday, March 16, 2009. The United States aimed to shut down its largest detention center, Camp Bucca, by 2010. More than 9,600 detainees who were captured as national security threats were being held there; at its peak, the prison located 340 miles southeast of Baghdad held 26,000 detainees. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic) #
A bugler stands at attention in the rain at the funeral of Sgt. 1st Class Edward Kramer at Wilmington National Cemetery on July 9, 2009 in Wilmington, North Carolina. Kramer and three others died when an IED went off near the Humvee they were in, according to a statement from the Defense Department. It was the last day of regular combat operations for U.S. forces in Iraqi cities. The four deaths marked the North Carolina National Guard's largest single combat loss since World War II. (Photo by Logan Mock-Bunting/Getty Images) #
Haidar Talib embraces his four-year-old son Mustafa as he is released from U.S. military custody in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009. He was among 37 members of a militant group called Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, who were released. The group was allegedly involved in kidnapping of five British contractors in Baghdad in 2007. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) #
A wounded man is seen after a bombing in Najaf, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. Three explosions, including one caused by a car bomb, rocked the southern city of Najaf at about 5:45 p.m. near a commercial area, police said. An official in the city's health department said at least one person was killed and 50 were wounded. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani) #
A U.S. Air Force Honor Guard leads members of the U.S. Air Force Band at the beginning of Captain David Anthony Wisniewski's burial service at Arlington National Cemetery August 23, 2010 in Arlington, Virginia. Originally from Moville, Iowa, the Air Force captain, 31, was the pilot of a Black Hawk helicopter that was shot down during a rescue mission in Afghanistan on June 9 and died of his injuries on July 2. Wisniewski is credited with saving more than 240 soldiers in seven tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, 40 of which were saved in his final rescue mission in June. He was awarded the Purple Heart on June 23. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) #
U.S. Marine Capt. Jill A. Leyden of Easton, Maryland, touches the grave of her friend Major Megan M. McClung at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Veterans Day, November 11, 2010. McClung was killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom on December 6, 2006. Leyden and McClung served together in Iraq. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque #
In this Nov. 30, 2010 photo, members of 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart, Ga., sit in the belly of a C-17 aircraft at Sather Air Base in Baghdad as they begin their journey home after a year in Iraq. More than seven years after 1st Brigade entered Baghdad as the first conventional U.S. forces in Iraq, its soldiers were coming home from a yearlong deployment that saw the end of combat operations. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) #
Sharon Olivieri says goodbye to her husband U.S. Army PFC Michael Olivieri, of Homer Glen, Illinois following a service at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery on June 16, 2011 in Elwood, Illinois. Olivieri, who was assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division was among five soldiers who were killed June 6 in Baghdad, Iraq when militants attacked their base. Killed alongside Olivieri were SPC Emilio Campo Jr., SPC Michael Cook Jr., SPC Christopher Fishbeck and SPC Robert Hartwick. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) #
Shiite pilgrims pray at the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine during the annual commemoration of the Saint's death, in the Shiite district of Kazimiyah, in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, June 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) #
Over 100 electric boxes connect homes in a building to a collective generator in a poor neighborhood on July 25, 2011 in Baghdad, Iraq. Despite a doubling of the megawatts of electricity available to Iraqis, many people still only receive a few hours of electricity a day from the national grid and therefore have to depend on generators and other private sources of electricity. With more homes owning computers, televisions, refrigerators and air conditioners there is an increased demand for electricity, especially in the scorching summers. The lack of dependable electricity has been one of the main sources of demonstrations against the government. As the deadline for the departure of the remaining American forces in Iraq approached, Iraqi politicians were increasingly pressured to give a final decision about extending the mandate for a small U.S. military presence beyond the end of the 2011 deadline. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) #
In this Monday, Aug. 8, 2011 photo, U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class David Hedge from Bealeton, Va., front, and fellow soldiers from 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment are bathed in rotor wash moments after arriving by Blackhawk helicopter for an operation to disrupt weapons smuggling in Istaqlal, north of Baghdad, Iraq. A radical anti-American Shiite cleric was calling on U.S. troops in Iraq to leave the country and go back to their families or risk more attacks. The rare statement by Muqtada al-Sadr was translated into English and posted on his website. In it, the powerful Iraqi cleric appeals directly to the roughly 46,000 U.S. troops still in the country at the time. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) #
U.S. Military personnel holding the US flag, Iraq flag, and the US Forces Iraq colors march during a casing ceremony where the United States Forces- Iraq flag was retired, signifying the departure of United States troops from Iraq, at the former Sather Air Base on December 15, 2011 in Baghdad, Iraq. United States forces were scheduled to entirely depart Iraq by December 31. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) #
U.S. Army soldiers from the 2-82 Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, place their bags on a truck as they prepare to board buses later in the evening to fly home to Fort Hood, Texas after being one of the last American combat units to exit from Iraq on December 15, 2011 at Camp Virginia, near Kuwait City, Kuwait. The U.S. military formally ended its mission in Iraq after eight years of war and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) #
U.S. Army Sergeant Quasim Singleton from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania of the 2-82 Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, carries his gear out of his temporary housing to a staging area as he waits to fly home from Kuwait after their unit exited from Iraq on December 15, 2011 at Camp Virginia, near Kuwait City, Kuwait. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) #
The sun sets behind an empty staging area in Camp Adder which is the departure point for the last U.S. military convoy to leave the country on December 17, 2011 near Nasiriyah, Iraq. All U.S. troops were scheduled to have departed Iraq by December 31, 2011. (Photo by Lucas Jackson-Pool/Getty Images) #
Iraqi security forces patrol in the cemetery in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, March 22, 2012. The Iraqi government has tightened its security measures as al-Qaida's front group in Iraq claimed it was behind a wave of attacks to how weak the nation's security is heading into next week's Arab League summit in Baghdad. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani) #
Ministry of Health staff carry a wounded colleague during a car bomb attack at the Health Department in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, June 4, 2012. A suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car outside Iraq's main religious affairs office for Shiite Muslims, tearing down part of the three-story building and killed and wounded scores of people, police said. (AP Photo/Adil al-Khazali) #
In this photo taken on Friday, July 20, 2012, a woman and her child react as Iraqi soldiers raid her house in Arab Jabour, south of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi security forces raided some villages in Arab Jabour and detained 54 men suspected members of al-Qaida. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani) #
Iraqis enjoy a ride at Amusement City fairgrounds during Eid al-Adha celebrations in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012. Eid al-Adha is a Muslim holiday that commemorates the sacrifice by the Prophet Ibrahim, known to Christians and Jews as Abraham. It is a festive holiday where it is traditional for men, women and children to dress in new clothing and spend time with their families and outdoors. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim) #
U.S. President Barack Obama greets troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina December 14, 2011. The visit was seen as marking the end of the Iraq war with a tribute to the troops who fought and died in a conflict Obama opposed from the start. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque #
U.S. President Barack Obama (R) greets a grieving family member in Section 60, an area where members of the U.S. military who were killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried, during Veterans Day observances at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, November 11, 2012. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst #
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