The Iraq War — The West’s Greatest Foreign Policy Blunder of the 21st Century
This is not the time to falter. This is the time for this house … to show that we will confront the tyrannies and dictatorships and terrorists who put our way of life at risk, to show at the moment of decision that we have the courage to do the right thing.
Tony Blair addresses the House of Commons, 18th March 2003, two days before the beginning of the Iraq War
BAGHDAD, IRAQ. Thursday 20th March 2003. As the city’s residents slept through the early hours of the morning, the first airstrikes came. Two US Air Force F-117 Nighthawk stealth aircraft dropped precision-guided bombs on a bunker believed to be containing the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein. Within the hour of the bombs falling, US, British and coalition tanks rolled across Iraq’s southern border with Kuwait signaling the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The coalition forces advanced quickly up the Tigris-Euphrates valley on their journey north to Baghdad, encountering little resistance from the Iraqi Army, many of whom simply refused to fight. The US Army and Marines pressed on to Baghdad while the British held back to take Basra, then…
