March 19, 2003: President G. W. Bush announced the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The following is his announcement that was re-aired on C-SPAN on the 10 year anniversary.
Saddam Hussein was eventually captured outside of Tikrit in 2005, where he was hiding in a hole. He was arrested and tried for crimes against his own people, including mass murder. He was found guilty and hanged for his crimes in 2006.
The Iraqi people elected a 275-member Iraqi National Assembly in January 2005, and a new constitution for the country was ratified that October.
With the help of the liberating forces, the insurgent uprising was put to rest and things were stabilized. Iraqis, along with the liberating forces, began rebuilding the country and educating the people.
Two-and-a-half years after President Obama took office, the Obama administration, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, failed to negotiate a Status of Forces Agreement that would have allowed troops to remain in Iraq to help keep the region stable. This enabled Obama to follow through on his campaign promise to remove all U. S. troops from Iraq. On December 18, 2011 the last U. S. troops left Iraq, even though the region wasn’t stable enough to stand on its own.
This set the stage for the rise of ISIS.
In June of 2014, U. S. forces resumed operations in the form of air support to protect Iraq from ISIS. Additionally “boots on the ground” were deployed and remain deployed today.
h/t AF Vet
