Commencement Of The United States Invasion Of Iraq

A building in Singar, Iraq (Levi Clancy / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Today, March 19, 17 years ago, to be precise in 2003, the United States (US), together with coalition forces, especially Britain, started aggression against Iraq. The start of the war was marked by the shaking of the Iraqi capital Baghdad due to an explosion launched by US troops.

After the explosion, US President George W. Bush delivered a televised address. The speech was addressed to all US citizens. "From now on, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of a military operation to disarm Iraq, to raise its people and to defend the world from grave dangers," Bush was quoted as saying by history.com.

President Bush and his advisers argued that the war against Iraq under Saddam Hussein's regime was carried out because Iraq had or at least was in the process of building weapons of mass destruction. Hostilities began about 90 minutes after the US-set deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq.

If not, the US will fight them. The first targets the US attacked were military bases that were attacked using Tomahawk missiles from US warplanes and warships stationed in the Persian Gulf.

"The evil people, the enemies of Allah, homeland and humanity, have committed foolish aggression against our homeland and our people," Republic of Iraq radio broadcast in Baghdad in response to attacks by US forces.

In the face of that war, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was initially optimistic. As early as March 2003, he once said, "There is no doubt that the believer will win against aggression." However, after the US invasion became more and more, Saddam Hussein immediately went into hiding and only spoke to his people using video footage, only occasionally.

Finally, coalition forces were able to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime and seize the major cities of Iraq in just three weeks. On May 1, 2003, Bush announced the end of major combat operations on May 1, 2003. America won.

Despite the defeat of the Iraqi forces, the insurgency still continued on a guerrilla basis. The insurgency that comes years after the US military declared victory resulted in thousands of US coalition troops being killed.

Even though the war was over, US soldiers continued to hunt Saddam Hussein from hiding. After nine months of searching, on December 13, 2003, Saddam Hussein was arrested. He was caught hiding in a small hole in his hometown, Tikrit.

Saddam Hussein did not fight back and looked resigned when he was arrested. He was later arrested and tried on charges of genocide crimes against his people in October 2005. Saddam was hanged to death on December 30, 2006. The US then announced the end of the Iraq war on December 15, 2011. Until now, Bush's accusations about Iraq harboring weapons of mass destruction have not been proven.