US Invasion of Iraq
The US invasion of Iraq took place from March 20th-May 1st , 2003. The invasion was led by the US and smaller countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, and Poland. The US contributed 284,000 troops, the United Kingdom 45,000, Australia 2,000, and Poland 194. To prepare for the attack to US prepared 100,000 troops in Kuwait.
The president of the United States (George Bush) and the prime minister of the United Kingdom said that the reason for invading them was "to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).”Others disagree though. They say that the real reason was to take their oil. In 2005, the Central Intelligence Agency said that no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.
Not everyone wanted them to invade. Countries like France, Germany, New Zealand, and Canada were not in favor because their leaders argued that there was no evidence of WMD’s in Iraq. About a month before there was a protest of around 36 million people world wide that made the Guinness book of world records for being the largest ever anti-war rally.
The invasion fallowed with an air strike on the Iraqi Presidential Palace on 19 March 2003. The day after coalition forces attacked Basra Province at the same time commandoes launched and amphibious attack to secure Basra and its petroleum plants. Meanwhile the Main invasion army moved into southern Iraq to engage in The Battle of Nasiriyah. Also large air strikes confused the defending army and held up the resistance.
The main coalition forces preceded through Iraq with minimal resistance. Most of the Iraqi military was defeated and Baghdad was taken on April 9th. After the coalition forces completed their duties Saddam Hussein went into hiding. On May 1st the initial invasion was over and the army occupation phase started.
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