15 years ago, the US invaded Iraq ' here's how it changed the Middle East country

The US invaded Iraq 15 years ago on Tuesday.The invasion was approved by Congress and had majority support among the American public, but is now considered one of the greatest foreign policy blunders in US history.Former President George W. Bush's administration sold it on the pretext that Saddam Hussein had, or was trying to make, weapons of mass destruction (most notably nuclear weapons), and that Iraq's government had connections to various terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda.While Hussein's links to terrorism and nuclear ambitions turned out to be untrue, the US occupied the country for nearly eight years before pulling out, creating a power vacuum that ISIS filled.Two years later, the US military was back in the countrythis time fighting a completely different enemy.Here's a look back at the last 15 years:SEE ALSO:Weapons sales are on the rise ' here are the top 10 countries exporting arms around the world"The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade," Bush said during the 2002 State of the Union Address.For more than a year after 9/11, the Bush administration made similar comments about Hussein's nuclear ambitions, and also his ties with terrorism."Simply stated, there isno doubtthat Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction," Vice President Dick Cheney said in August 2002."We don't want the smoking gun to be amushroom cloud," National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice said on CNN in September 2002.These statements, and others made by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, turned out to be based on faulty intelligence.Somedisagreed with the Bush administration's intelligence assessments, including former Commander ofUS Central CommandGen. Anthony Zinni, and evenargued that the administration lied about Hussein's nuclear ambitions and links to terrorism.On March 20, 2003, after Bush gave Hussein 48 hours to relinquish power, the US launched Tomahawk cruise missiles on Baghdad in a strategy the Pentagon called "shock and awe."The "shock and awe" bombing strategy was followed by an invasion of about 130,000 US troops.In early April 2003, Baghdad fell, symbolized by the toppling of a state of Hussein in Firdaus Square.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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