The September 11, 2001, attacks heightened fears in the United States that Iraq might give terrorists weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Although the United Nations had pressed Iraq to dismantle its nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs after the 1991 Gulf War, President George W. Bush argued that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had continued to pursue them. The UN Security Council threatened Iraq with \u201cserious consequences\u201d in late 2002 if it failed to cooperate with weapons inspections, but it declined to authorize an invasion. The United States responded by organizing a \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d to oust Hussein. Operation Iraqi Freedom began on March 20, 2003, and quickly overran Iraqi forces. However, no evidence of any active Iraqi WMD programs was found. The United States became embroiled in a bloody war of occupation that lasted eight years and cost it dearly, damaging its global reputation and empowering anti-American forces throughout the Middle East and worldwide. SHAFR historians ranked the invasion of Iraq as the worst U.S. foreign policy decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The September 11, 2001, attacks heightened fears in the United States that Iraq might give terrorists weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Although the United Nations had pressed Iraq to dismantle its nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs after the 1991 Gulf War, President George W. Bush argued that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had continued to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1198,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-worst-decisions"],"acf":{"add_section":[{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"The 1991 Gulf War","add_section_content":"The U.S. invasion of Iraq was the second war between the two countries in a dozen years. In August 1990, Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait. Although the United States had aided Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, President George H.W. Bush vowed to liberate Kuwait. Hussein refused to back down in the face of UN sanctions. The United States responded by leading a multinational, UN-authorized force that drove Iraq from Kuwait in February 1991. Despite an overwhelming battlefield victory, Bush refused to go beyond his mandate and march on Baghdad.\r\n\r\nHussein\u2019s continued hold on power guaranteed more confrontation. The United States established no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq to limit his ability to persecute Iraqi minority groups. The United Nations sent weapons inspectors to uncover Iraq\u2019s remaining WMD programs, but Iraq hindered their work. The inspectors left Iraq in 1998 shortly before the United States led air strikes to destroy Iraqi military facilities. That same year, the Republican-controlled Congress passed the Iraq Liberation Act, which made it official U.S. policy to remove Hussein from power.","add_image":3469,"image_position":"right","background":true,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"September 11 and the \u201cAxis of Evil\u201d","add_section_content":"The September 11, 2001 attacks stunned the United States. Several of the younger Bush\u2019s senior advisers suspected that Iraq had orchestrated the attack. Bush shared that belief, directing his chief counterterrorism adviser on September 12 to \u201csee if Saddam did this.\u201d The next day he told his national security team, \u201cI believe Iraq was involved.\u201d The U.S. intelligence community found no evidence that Iraq had aided al-Qaeda, the group that had carried out the attacks, in any way. That finding, however, did not shake the Bush administration\u2019s conviction that Iraq and Saddam Hussein posed a singular threat to the United States.\r\n\r\nIn the remaining months of 2001, Bush focused on completing the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, which began that October. By December, U.S. forces had driven the Taliban government, which had harbored al-Qaeda, from power. On January 29, 2002, in his annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress, Bush turned his sights to Iraq. He argued that it \u201ccontinues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror\u201d and that it, along with Iran and North Korea, constituted \u201can axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.\u201d He vowed that he would \u201cnot permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons.\u201d","add_image":3467,"image_position":"right","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"videolink","add_section_title":"September 11 and the \u201cAxis of Evil\u201d","add_section_content":"The September 11, 2001 attacks stunned the United States. Several of the younger Bush\u2019s senior advisers suspected that Iraq orchestrated the attack. Bush shared that belief, directing his chief counterterrorism adviser on September 12 to \u201csee if Saddam did this.\u201d The next day he told his national security team, \u201cI believe Iraq was involved.\u201d The U.S. intelligence community found no evidence that Iraq had aided al-Qaeda in any way, but that finding did nothing to shake the Bush administration\u2019s conviction that Iraq and Saddam Hussein posed a singular threat to the United States.\r\n\r\nIn the remaining months of 2002, Bush focused on the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. By December, U.S. forces had toppled the Taliban government, which had harbored al-Qaeda. On January 29, 2003, in the annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress, Bush turned his sights on Iraq. He argued that it \u201ccontinues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror\u201d and that it, along with Iran and North Korea, constituted \u201can axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.\u201d","add_image":"","image_position":"null","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"President George W. Bush\u2019s \u201cAxis of Evil Speech,\u201d January 29, 2002","video_link":"","youtube_link":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=btkJhAM7hZw"},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"The One Percent Doctrine ","add_section_content":"Underlying Bush\u2019s focus on the purported Iraq threat was the conviction that 9\/11 had shown that U.S. power alone would not deter terrorists and so-called rogue states like Iraq. As a result, the burden of risk had shifted; the United States needed to proactively identify and neutralize threats. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked in November 2001 that \u201cif there\u2019s a 1 percent chance\u201d of countries providing terrorists with nuclear weapons, \u201cwe have to treat it as a certainty.\u201d Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who had mentored Cheney earlier in his career, shared the vice president\u2019s conviction that the United States could no longer afford to tolerate even small risks.\r\n\r\nThe One Percent Doctrine shaped Bush\u2019s June 2002 commencement address at West Point. He argued that the United States must \u201cconfront the worst threats before they emerge\u201d and \u201cbe ready for preemptive action.\u201d The National Security Strategy, released three months later, enshrined preemption in policy. The strategy defined preemption broadly, however, making it less about thwarting imminent attack\u2014the traditional definition of preemption\u2014than about preventing threats from emerging. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice warned that same month that \u201cwe don\u2019t want the smoking gun\u201d of Iraq\u2019s WMD programs \u201cto be a mushroom cloud.\u201d Waiting for proof was costly\u2014and deadly.","add_image":"","image_position":"bottom","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"Bush Axis of Evil Speech","video_link":"","youtube_link":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=btkJhAM7hZw"},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"Building Support for War ","add_section_content":"By spring 2002, Bush had decided on a showdown with Iraq. His advisers disagreed, however, over how to proceed. Secretary of State Colin Powell favored seeking a new UN mandate for robust weapons inspections. Cheney dismissed that as a trap; Iraq would do just enough to prevent an attack but not enough to end its WMD programs. Bush decided to take Powell\u2019s route to Cheney\u2019s goal. On September 12, he told the UN General Assembly that if the United Nations did not compel Iraq to accept intrusive weapons inspections, \u201caction will be unavoidable.\u201d\r\n\r\nBush\u2019s speech partially sought to defuse potential domestic opposition to a war. Polls showed that most Americans believed Iraq had nuclear weapons and favored using military force to oust Hussein. However, prominent Republicans had begun criticizing the march to war, especially in the absence of UN support. Bush\u2019s willingness to go to the United Nations, coupled with a coordinated administration effort to highlight the dangers of waiting, quieted the critics at home. The House of Representatives voted 396 to 133 on October 10 to authorize the use of force; the Senate followed suit by a vote of 77 to 23.\u202fThe resolution left it to Bush to decide whether and when to go to war.","add_image":"","image_position":"null","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"Bush Speech to UNGA on September 12, 2002","video_link":{"title":"President George W. Bush Speech to the United Nations General Assembly on the threat of Iraq on September 12, 2002","url":"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/program\/united-nations\/us-president-speech\/114892","target":""},"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"The Battle at the United Nations","add_section_content":"Bush faced a tougher time persuading the UN Security Council to act on Iraq. Many countries believed that he would use any resolution as a justification for war rather than as a way to avoid it. After eight weeks of intense negotiations, the Security Council approved Resolution 1441, which mandated the inspections that Bush demanded. However, it omitted his demand that countries be authorized to use force if Baghdad refused to fully comply, which it did. The resolution only threatened \u201cserious consequences.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn early 2003, Bush called for a special session of the UN Security Council to act on \u201cIraq\u2019s ongoing defiance of the world.\u201d On February 5, Powell, the most widely respected of Bush\u2019s advisors, presented what he claimed was evidence that Iraq was pursuing clandestine WMD programs and urged the world to act. Three weeks later, the United States, joined by Britain and Spain, introduced a Security Council resolution declaring that Iraq hadn\u2019t met its obligations. The resolution failed to pass, however. Even traditional U.S. allies like France and Germany refused to support it.","add_image":"","image_position":"null","background":true,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"President George W. Bush Addresses the UN General Assembly, September 12, 2002","video_link":{"title":"President George W. Bush Speech to the United Nations General Assembly on the threat of Iraq on September 12, 2002","url":"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/program\/united-nations\/us-president-speech\/114892","target":""},"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"videolink","add_section_title":"The Battle at the United Nations","add_section_content":"Bush faced a tougher time persuading the UN Security Council to act on Iraq. Many countries believed that he would use any resolution as a justification for war rather than as a way to avoid it. After eight weeks of intense negotiations, the Security Council approved Resolution 1441, which mandated the inspections that Bush demanded. However, it omitted his demand that countries be authorized to use force if Baghdad refused to fully comply, which it did. The resolution only threatened \u201cserious consequences.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn early 2003, Bush called for a special session of the UN Security Council to act on \u201cIraq\u2019s ongoing defiance of the world.\u201d On February 5, Powell, the most widely respected of Bush\u2019s advisors, presented what he claimed was evidence that Iraq was pursuing clandestine WMD programs and urged the world to act. Three weeks later, the United States, joined by Britain and Spain, introduced a Security Council resolution declaring that Iraq hadn\u2019t met its obligations. The resolution failed to pass, however. Even traditional U.S. allies like France and Germany refused to support it.","add_image":"","image_position":"null","background":true,"quote_content":"U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell Addresses the United Nations Security Council on the dangers of Iraq's Saddam Hussein and the existence of Iraqi \"weapons of mass destruction\" on February 5, 2003. NBC News\r\n","quote_footer":"U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell Addresses the United Nations Security Council on the existence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction on February 5, 2003. NBC News","video_title":"Secretary of State Colin Powell Addresses the UN Security Council, February 5, 2003","video_link":"","youtube_link":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DhWlPo3qxak"},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"Operation Iraqi Freedom","add_section_content":"Hussein refused to back down in the face of U.S. threats to topple his regime by force. Bush then made good on his threat. On the night of March 19, 2003, he announced in a nationwide address from the Oval Office that Operation Iraqi Freedom had begun. In the absence of a UN Security Council authorization, the Bush administration had assembled a multinational \"coalition of the willing\u201d to force Hussein from power.\r\n\r\nThe United States provided the bulk of the invasion force, with Britain (45,000 troops), Australia (2,000), and Poland (200) also providing combat troops. Three dozen other countries provided troops to manage support activities after Hussein\u2019s government fell. U.S. dominance of the skies over Iraq and the coalition\u2019s far superior weaponry enabled the U.S.-led forces to quickly defeat the Iraqi military. Baghdad fell on April 9, and with it, the Iraqi government. Hussein fled into hiding but was captured in December 2003. He was executed by the new Iraqi government in December 2006.\r\n\r\n ","add_image":3430,"image_position":"right","background":true,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"Secretary of State Colin Powell Addresses the UN Security Council, February 5, 2003","video_link":"","youtube_link":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DhWlPo3qxak"},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"\u201cMission Accomplished\u201d","add_section_content":"On May 1, 2003, Bush spoke to the nation from the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln<\/em> in front of a banner that read \u201cMission Accomplished.\u201d He declared that \u201cmajor combat operations in Iraq have ended\" and that the country's liberation constituted \u201ca crucial advance in the campaign against terror.\u201d Yet, even as Bush was declaring victory, U.S. forces in Iraq were coming up empty in their search for Iraqi WMDs. Over the next two years, inspectors scoured Iraq for evidence that it possessed chemical or biological weapons, or that it had an active nuclear weapons program. They found none. A presidential commission concluded in 2005 that the Bush administration had been \u201cdead wrong in almost all of its prewar judgments about Iraq\u2019s weapons of mass destruction.\u201d Hussein hid the fact he had disbanded Iraq's WMD programs because he feared that admitting that he had abandoned his nuclear ambitions would embolden his enemies to attack.","add_image":3338,"image_position":"bottom","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"Colin Powell Addresses United Nations Security Council On Iraq","video_link":"","youtube_link":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DhWlPo3qxak"},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"The Legacy of the Invasion of Iraq","add_section_content":"Historians today debate whether the United States went to war based on a sincere but mistaken judgment that Iraq was pursuing a nuclear weapon program, an intent to intimidate potential state and non-state challengers in the wake of 9\/11, a desire to finish what the elder President Bush left unfinished, or a na\u00efve belief that U.S. military power could remake the Middle East for the better. Even some members of the Bush administration say they saw no clear reason for war; most senior officials agreed that Hussein had to go but offered different justifications for his ouster. Whatever the ultimate reason for the war, its consequences were undeniable. The United States became embroiled in a military occupation of Iraq that lasted eight years. Efforts to stop a brutal insurgency left roughly 4,500 U.S. troops, more than 300 other coalition forces, and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead. The financial cost of the war and occupation totaled $3 trillion. By the time U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq in 2011, the United States had little to show for its pursuit of regime change.","add_image":"","image_position":"null","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""}],"add_testimonials":[{"author_name":"Christopher McKnight Nichols","add_testimonial_content":"The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was an unmitigated disaster from conception to withdrawal, sparking a downward turn in the region, generating enhanced anti-Americanism, and in the United States generating ill-will and pushback as well as a tremendous cost in human and financial terms that remains an albatross around the United States\u2019 neck in foreign and domestic policy and politics.","add_university_department":"Wayne Woodrow \u201cWoody\u201d Hayes Chair in National Security Studies and Professor of History, The Ohio State University","add_image":1797},{"author_name":"Kimber Quinney","add_testimonial_content":"If the United States has sought to create stability (in the wider world, let alone the Middle East,) that single decision [the invasion of Iraq] reversed decades in one fell swoop. It was not merely harmful to the reputation and national strength of the United States, of course. The invasion of Iraq opened the door and rolled out the red carpet to continuing human suffering in this century.","add_university_department":"Professor of History, California State University San Marcos","add_image":1434},{"author_name":"Adriane Lentz-Smith","add_testimonial_content":"The invasion of Iraq was morally wrong, tactically stupid, and has had a destabilizing effect on 21st-century politics ever since: it has distorted the budgetary environment, had devastating effects on the health and morale of the all-volunteer force and its veterans, and helped nurture paramilitary extremism both in foreign countries and domestically. It was a self-inflicted wound.","add_university_department":"Associate Professor of History, Duke University","add_image":2068},{"author_name":"Sally Burt","add_testimonial_content":"The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was not justified and cost the United States a lot in terms of being bogged down in a decades long conflict with little to show for it in the end and at the expense of having more options to address China's rise in the Pacific sooner.","add_university_department":"Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales","add_image":2074}],"learn_more_title":"Learn More","add_learn_more_content":"Primary documents, books, articles, and more on the Iraq War.","add_sources":[{"add_sources_title":"Primary Documents","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"George W. Bush, \u201cAddress Before a Joint Session of Congress on the State of the Union (Transcript),\u201d January 29, 2002 ","url":"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/address-before-joint-session-the-congress-the-state-the-union-22","target":""},"source_content":"The transcript of Bush\u2019s speech telling the nation that the United States faced an \u201cAxis of Evil\u201d comprised of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"George W. Bush, \u201cAddress Before a Joint Session of Congress on the State of the Union (Video),\u201d January 29, 2002","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OzLDlTAgYJc","target":""},"source_content":"The complete video of Bush\u2019s speech telling the nation that the United States faced an Axis of Evil comprised of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"George W. Bush, \u201cCommencement Address at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York,\u201d June 1, 2002","url":"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/commencement-address-the-united-states-military-academy-west-point-new-york-1","target":""},"source_content":"The text of Bush\u2019s speech arguing that deterrence and containment were no longer sufficient for defending the United States.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Condoleezza Rice, \u201cCNN Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer (Transcript),\u201d September 8, 2002","url":"https:\/\/transcripts.cnn.com\/show\/le\/date\/2002-09-08\/segment\/00","target":""},"source_content":"The transcript of Rice\u2019s CNN interview saying that \u201cwe don\u2019t want the smoking gun\u201d of Iraq\u2019s WMD program \u201cto be a mushroom cloud.\u201d","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"George W. Bush, \u201cAddress to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City (Transcript),\u201d September 12, 2002","url":"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/address-the-united-nations-general-assembly-new-york-city-1","target":""},"source_content":"The transcript of Bush\u2019s speech to the UN General Assembly calling Iraq \u201ca threat to peace.\u201d","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"National Security Strategy of the United States, September 2002","url":"https:\/\/georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov\/nsc\/nss\/2002\/","target":""},"source_content":"The text of the National Security Strategy that asserted that \u201cthe United States will, if necessary, act preemptively.\u201d","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, October 16, 2002","url":"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/107\/plaws\/publ243\/PLAW-107publ243.pdf","target":""},"source_content":"The text of the law authorizing Bush to use military force against Iraq.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"UN Security Council Resolution 1441, November 8, 2002","url":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/depts\/unmovic\/documents\/1441.pdf","target":""},"source_content":"The text of the Security Council resolution mandating the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq and warning Baghdad of \u201cserious consequences\u201d if it breached its obligations.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Colin Powell, \u201cAddress to UN (Transcript),\u201d February 5, 2003","url":"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/story?id=90883&page=1","target":""},"source_content":"The transcript of Powell\u2019s address to the UN Security Council on Iraq\u2019s WMD programs.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Colin Powell, \u201cSpeech at the UN (Video),\u201d February 5, 2003 ","url":"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/clip\/united-nations\/user-clip-colin-powells-speech-at-the-un\/4716794","target":""},"source_content":"The complete video of Powell\u2019s hour-long address to the UN Security Council on Iraq\u2019s WMD programs.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"George W. Bush, \u201cAnnouncement of the Start of the Iraq War,\u201d March 19, 2003","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5BwxI_l84dc","target":""},"source_content":"The video of Bush\u2019s five-minute address informing the nation that coalition forces had begun the invasion of Iraq.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"George W. Bush, \u201cAddress to the Nation on Iraq,\u201d March 19, 2003","url":"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/address-the-nation-iraq-0","target":""},"source_content":"The text of Bush\u2019s five-minute address informing the nation that coalition forces had begun the invasion of Iraq.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"George W. Bush, \u201cAddress to the Nation on Iraq From the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/address-the-nation-iraq-from-the-uss-abraham-lincoln","target":""},"source_content":"The text of Bush\u2019s speech announcing the end of major U.S. combat operations in Iraq.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, \u201cReport to the President of the United States,\u201d March 31, 2005","url":"https:\/\/policy.defense.gov\/portals\/11\/Documents\/hdasa\/references\/GPO-WMD.pdf","target":""},"source_content":"The report of the presidential commission that concluded that the U.S. conviction that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was wrong.","source_image":""}]},{"add_sources_title":"Books","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"Andrew Bacevich, America\u2019s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History","url":"https:\/\/nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.penguinrandomhouse.com%2Fbooks%2F241154%2Famericas-war-for-the-greater-middle-east-by-andrew-j-bacevich%2F&data=05%7C02%7COBerry%40cfr.org%7Cf66c8fd5c12343ffb44608de39c59fd1%7C146cc3db32f24b3c815625bcc3553464%7C0%7C0%7C639011718136910328%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=5hAoFQKxtnpIJ5PyHwd6Yst2sp80PRfG1eu%2BbZyshno%3D&reserved=0","target":""},"source_content":"A PhD historian, Vietnam veteran, and retired U.S. Army colonel, Bacevich explores why the United States became embroiled in conflicts in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.","source_image":2693},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Steve Coll, The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America\u2019s Invasion of Iraq","url":"https:\/\/nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/602066\/the-achilles-trap-by-steve-coll\/&data=05%7C02%7CJLindsay%40cfr.org%7Cc3d5236df4bd4ce5fa4208ddadded6fc%7C146cc3db32f24b3c815625bcc3553464%7C0%7C0%7C638857894788569267%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=p54pm4YYJApsMBp27\/EIfSX0H61o1ky7M1pXaz2ahTU%3D&reserved=0","target":""},"source_content":"A Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning\u202fauthor, Coll explores why Saddam Hussein encouraged the perception that Iraq had weapons of mass weapons that it did not possess.","source_image":2111},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor, Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq","url":"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/69617\/cobra-ii-by-michael-r-gordon-and-general-bernard-e-trainor\/","target":""},"source_content":"A look at the mistake of postwar planning from inside the headquarters of the U.S. occupation.","source_image":2117},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Richard Haass, War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars","url":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/book\/war-necessity-war-choice?_gl=1*1u45qe2*_gcl_au*MTA5MTY5MjI2OS4xNzYyMTk5NTI5*_ga*MTg2MjY4NzYwNC4xNzYyMTk5NTMw*_ga_24W5E70YKH*czE3NjIyNjA2MTMkbzYkZzEkdDE3NjIyNjQ4ODkkajYwJGwwJGgw","target":""},"source_content":"A member of the National Security Council staff during the Gulf War and the head of the State Department\u2019s Office of Policy Planning during the run up to the Iraq War, Haass compares the two conflicts.","source_image":2125},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Melvyn P. Leffler, Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq","url":"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/confronting-saddam-hussein-9780197610770?q=melvyn%20leffler&lang=en&cc=us","target":""},"source_content":"A distinguished historian of U.S. foreign policy, Leffler argues that Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq without resolving the inconsistencies in his strategy or thinking through what would follow a U.S. victory.","source_image":2133},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Thomas E. Ricks, Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003\u20132005","url":"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/296146\/fiasco-by-thomas-e-ricks\/","target":""},"source_content":"A reporter who worked at the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, Ricks tells the history of the Iraq War from the planning stages to the emerging insurgency.","source_image":1236},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack: The Definitive Account of the Decision to Invade Iraq","url":"https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/books\/Plan-of-Attack\/Bob-Woodward\/9780743255486","target":""},"source_content":"A longtime reporter for the Washington Post, Woodward interviewed President George W. 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McCoy, et al, \u201cA Roundtable on Melvyn P. Leffler, Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.shafr.org\/assets\/docs\/Passport\/2024\/passport-01-2024-leffler.pdf","target":""},"source_content":"Five historians assess Leffler\u2019s analysis of why the United States invaded Iraq and Leffler responds.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Joseph Steib, \u201cWhy Did the United States Invade Iraq? 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