A thank you goes out to 'Think Progress' for this Iraq Timeline. link
THREE YEARS OF WAR IN IRAQ: A TIMELINE
2003
MARCH 19, 2003: Bush launches invasion of Iraq
MARCH 30, 2003: Donald Rumsfeld: We know where the WMD are
We know where [the weapons of mass destruction] are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat. [ABC This Week, 3/30/03]
APRIL 1, 2003: Pfc. Jessica Lynch recovered by U.S. forces. What the Pentagon framed as a heroic rescue was later revealed to have been staged. [Guardian, 5/15/03]
APRIL 9, 2003: Saddam Statue Toppled
The Los Angeles Times later reported that the fall was “stage-managed” by the Army. [LAT, 7/3/04]
APRIL 11, 2003: Donald Rumsfeld: Stuff happens
Think what’s happened in our cities when we’ve had riots, and problems, and looting. Stuff happens! … Freedom’s untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They’re also free to live their lives and do wonderful things, and that’s what’s going to happen here. [DoD briefing, 4/11/03]
APRIL 16, 2003: Bush signs $79 billion supplemental spending bill for Iraq [DoD, 4/16/03]
MAY 1, 2003: Mission Accomplished
[M]y fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. [Bush, 5/1/03]
MAY 9, 2003: Paul Wolfowitz: We agreed on WMD rationale for bureaucratic reasons
The truth is that, for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on which was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason [to go to war]. [Wolfowitz, 5/9/03]
MAY 29, 2003: Bush: We found the WMD
We found the weapons of mass destruction. [Bush, 5/29/03]
JUNE 6, 2003: Rumsfeld blames Iraq problems on “pockets of dead-enders”
In those regions where pockets of dead-enders are trying to reconstitute, Gen. Franks and his team are rooting them out. In short, the coalition is making good progress. [USA Today, 6/18/03]
JULY 2, 2003: Bring ‘Em On
There are some who feel like — that the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring them on. [Bush, 7/2/03]
JULY 6, 2003: Joseph Wilson writes op-ed in the New York Times
It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such [yellowcake] transaction had ever taken place. [NYT, 7/6/03]
JULY 11, 2003: Condoleezza Rice: Doubts about Iraq intel were not communicated to Bush
All that I can tell you is that if there were doubts about the underlying intelligence in the NIE, those doubts were not communicated to the President. [WH Gaggle, 7/11/03]
JULY 14, 2003: Bush says he had good intelligence before the war
I think the intelligence I get is darn good intelligence. And the speeches I have given were backed by good intelligence. [Bush, 7/14/03]
JULY 22, 2003: Saddam’s sons, Uday and Qusay, are killed in a U.S. raid in Mosul [CNN, 7/22/03]
AUGUST 7, 2003: Attack on Jordanian Embassy
Violence returned to the streets of Baghdad with a vengeance yesterday when at least 11 people were killed in a massive car bomb explosion outside the Jordanian embassy, leading to fears that guerrilla fighters may now be turning their attention towards so-called soft targets. [Guardian, 8/8/03]
AUGUST 20, 2003: Attack on United Nations Headquarters in Baghdad.
The U.N. special representative in Iraq [Sergio Vieira de Mello] and at least 16 others died Tuesday in a bomb explosion that ripped through the organization’s headquarters in Baghdad. … At least 100 people were wounded. [CNN, 8/20/03]
SEMPTEMBER 3, 2003: Report shows Bush failed to plan
A secret report for the Joint Chiefs of Staff lays the blame for setbacks in Iraq on a flawed and rushed war-planning process that ‘limited the focus’ for preparing for post-Saddam Hussein operations. [Washington Times, 9/3/03]
OCTOBER 19, 2003: Bush ignored the experts
A yearlong State Department study predicted many of the problems that have plagued the American-led occupation of Iraq, according to internal State Department documents and interviews with administration and Congressional officials. [NYT, 10/19/03]
NOVEMBER 6, 2003: Bush signs $87 billion supplemental spending bill into law [Bush, 11/6/03]
NOVEMBER 20, 2003: Richard Perle suggests Iraq war was illegal
I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing. [Guardian, 11/20/03]
NOVEMBER 28, 2003: Bush makes surprise Thanksgiving visit to Iraq, poses with fake turkey
DECEMBER 14, 2003: Saddam is captured
Ladies and gentlemen. We got him! [Bremer, 12/14/03]
2004
JANUARY 17, 2004: 500 U.S. soldiers dead in Iraq since the invasion [Commondreams.org, 1/19/04]
JANUARY 22, 2004: CIA officers warn of civil war
CIA officers in Iraq are warning that the country may be on a path to civil war, current and former U.S. officials said Wednesday, starkly contradicting the upbeat assessment that President Bush gave in his State of the Union address. [Knight-Ridder, 1/22/04]
JANUARY 28, 2004: Iraq Survey Group inspector David Kay reports
It turns out that we were all wrong, probably in my judgment, and that is most disturbing. [Kay, 1/28/04]
FEBRUARY 4, 2004: 109 Iraqis die in suicide bomb attacks in Kurdish-held Irbil [AP, 2/4/04]
FEBRUARY 10, 2004: U.S. Military uncovers letter addressed to senior al-Qaida operatives seeking help in waging a “sectarian war”
Brigadier general Mark Kimmit: “There is clearly a plan on the part of outsiders to come into this country and spark civil war, breed sectarian violence and try to expose fissures in the society.” [Guardian, 2/10/04]
FEBRUARY 19, 2004: Chalabi declares that he and Bush administration have been “heroes in error.” [Telegraph, 2/19/04]
MARCH 5, 2004: Former chief U.N. weapons inspector declares Iraq war illegal
The former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has declared that the war in Iraq was illegal, dealing another devastating blow to Tony Blair. [Independent, 3/5/04]
MARCH 18, 2004: General Garner speaks out
Jay Garner, the US general abruptly dismissed as Iraq’s first occupation administrator after a month in the job, says he fell out with the Bush circle because he wanted free elections and rejected an imposed program of privatization. [Guardian, 3/18/04]
MARCH 24, 2004: Bush jokes at the Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner
Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere. [Bush, 3/24/04]
APRIL 19, 2004: Bob Woodward reveals CIA Director George Tenet said there was a “slam dunk case” against Iraq
About two weeks before deciding to invade Iraq, President Bush was told by CIA Director George Tenet there was a “slam dunk case” that dictator Saddam Hussein had unconventional weapons, according to a new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward. [CNN, 4/19/04]
APRIL 21, 2004: Five suicide car bombings strike near police stations in the southern city of Basra, killing at least 74 people. [AP, 4/21/04]
April 28, 2004: Images of torture at Abu Ghraib are revealed
APRIL 2004: Up to this point, the deadliest month in Iraq, and second highest total overall. 135 U.S. servicemembers lost their lives. [Washington Post, 11/1/05]
MAY 5, 2004: Appearing on Arab TV, Bush expresses sorrow over prisoner abuse
The American people are just as appalled at what they have seen on TV as Iraqi citizens have. The Iraqi citizens must understand that. [NYT, 5/5/04]
MAY 11, 2004: Video released showing Nicholas Berg, an American contractor, being beheaded by Iraqi militants. [USA Today, 5/11/04]
MAY 31, 2004: Four Blackwater contractors killed and their bodies mutilated in Fallujah
The group were shot and burnt in their cars, before a cheering crowd dismembered the corpses and hung two of them from a bridge. [BBC, 3/31/04]
JUNE 28, 2004: U.S. transfers sovereignty to Iraq. Bush’s response: “Let freedom reign!”
AUGUST 27, 2004: Bush acknowledged for the first time that he made a “miscalculation of what the conditions would be” in postwar Iraq [Reuters, 8/27/04]
AUGUST 30, 2004: “Catastrophic Success”
BUSH: Had we had to do it over again, we would look at the consequences of catastrophic success—being so successful so fast that an enemy that should have surrendered or been done in escaped and lived to fight another day. [Time, 8/30/04]
SEPTEMBER 7, 2004: Death toll of U.S. soldiers in Iraq reaches 1,000 [CNN.com, 9/8/04]
SEPTEMBER 15, 2004: Bush administration requests that the Senate shift $3.4 billion of the $18.4 billion Iraqi aid package meant for reconstruction work to improving security measures [NYT, 9/15/04]
SEPTEMBER 16, 2004: Intelligence report delivered to Bush warns of civil war. Bush’s response: the CIA is “just guessing”:
A classified National Intelligence Estimate prepared for President Bush in late July spells out a dark assessment of prospects for Iraq, government officials said Wednesday. The estimate outlines three possibilities for Iraq through the end of 2005, with the worst case being developments that could lead to civil war, the officials said. [NYT, 9/16/04; Bush, 9/21/04]
SEPTEMBER 16, 2004: U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan declares Iraq war illegal
When pressed on whether he viewed the invasion of Iraq as illegal, he said: “Yes, if you wish. I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN charter from our point of view, from the charter point of view, it was illegal.” [BBC, 9/16/04]
SEPTEMBER 23, 2004: Bush heralds Iraqi poll
I saw a poll that said the right track/wrong track in Iraq was better than here in America. [Bush, 9/23/04]
SEPTEMBER 28, 2004: Another report showing Bush was warned about conditions in post-war Iraq
The same intelligence unit that produced a gloomy report in July about the prospect of growing instability in Iraq warned the Bush administration about the potential costly consequences of an American-led invasion two months before the war began, government officials said Monday. [NYT, 9/28/04]
OCTOBER 5, 2004: Paul Bremer: Never had enough troops
We never had enough troops on the ground. [CNN, 10/5/04]
OCTOBER 7, 2004: Duelfer Report: Iraq did not have WMD
Saddam Hussein did not possess stockpiles of illicit weapons at the time of the U.S. invasion in March 2003 and had not begun any program to produce them, a CIA report concludes. [CNN, 10/7/04]
OCTOBER 25, 2004: The New York Times reports that about 380 tons of powerful explosives disappeared from military installation called Al Qaqaa sometime after the U.S.-led war began in March 2003 [NYT, 10/25/04]
NOVEMBER 2, 2004: Bush wins re-election [Washington Post, 11/4/04]
NOVEMBER 8, 2004: U.S. forces launch all-out assault on Fallujah
The U.S. military said 10 troops and two members of Iraq’s security forces were killed in the first two days of the battle, the largest military operation since the U.S.-led invasion last year. U.S. and Iraqi leaders hope the assault will break the grip of insurgents who have held Fallujah for nearly seven months. [Washington Post, 11/10/04]
NOVEMBER 2004: The most deadly month in Iraq ever. 137 U.S. troops died. [Washington Post, 11/1/05]
DECEMBER 8, 2004: Donald Rumsfeld: You go to war with the Army you have
As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They’re not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time. [Rumsfeld, 12/8/04]
DECEMBER 20, 2004: Blasts kill at least 64 in Iraq’s holy cities [Washington Post, 12/20/04]
2005
JANUARY 12, 2005: WMD search in Iraq is declared over
U.S. inspectors have ended their search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in recent weeks, a U.S. intelligence official told CNN. [CNN, 1/12/05]
JANUARY 27, 2005: 30 Marines, Sailor Die In Copter crash in Iraq, the deadliest single event for U.S. forces since the invasion [Washington Post, 1/27/05]
JANUARY 30, 2005: U.S. loses track of nearly $9 billion in Iraqi funds
The CPA provided less than adequate controls for approximately $8.8 billion of Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) funds provided to Iraqi ministries through the national budget process. [CPA Report, 1/30/05]
JANUARY 30, 2005: Iraqis vote to form a Transitional National Assembly
JANUARY 2005: 3rd most deadly month in Iraq. 106 U.S. troops killed. [NYT, 11/1/05]
FEBRUARY 28, 2005: Car bombs kill at least 114 Iraqis in Hilla. [BBC, 2/28/05]
MARCH 2, 2005: Army missed its February recruiting goal by more than 27 percent, the first time in almost five years that the Army failed to meet a monthly target. [USA Today, 3/2/05]
MARCH 3, 2005: Death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq hits 1,500 [London Telegraph, 3/3/05]
MARCH 31, 2005: Silberman-Robb commission, the presidential commission on Iraqi WMD, concludes:
[T]he intelligence community was dead wrong in almost all of its prewar judgments. [USA Today, 3/31/05]
MAY 1, 2005: Downing Street Memo revealed
Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. [Downing Street Memo, 7/23/02]
MAY 11, 2005: Bush signs supplemental spending bill, providing nearly $76 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan [State Department, 5/12/05]
MAY 30, 2005: Dick Cheney: Insurgency in its “last throes”
I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency. [CNN Larry King Live, 5/30/05]
JUNE 12, 2005: National Guard misses recruiting target for ninth month in a row
The Army National Guard, a cornerstone of the U.S. force in Iraq, missed its recruiting goal for at least the ninth straight month in June and is nearly 19,000 soldiers below its authorized strength. [AP, 7/12/05]
JUNE 23, 2005: Cheney revises “last throes” comment
BLITZER: “He says that the insurgency now is at a strength undiminished as it was six months ago, and he says there are actually more foreign fighters in Iraq now than there were six months ago. That doesn’t sound like the last throes.”
CHENEY: “No, I would disagree. If you look at what the dictionary says about throes, it can still be a violent period — the throes of a revolution.” [CNN, 6/20/05]
JUNE 27, 2005: Rumsfeld: “Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years.” [Fox News Sunday, 6/27/05]
JULY 18, 2005: Death toll rises to 100 in suicide blast in Iraq [Washington Post, 7/18/05]
AUGUST 7, 2005: Cindy Sheehan camps out at Bush’s Texas ranch
SEPTEMBER 9, 2005: Colin Powell, on his pre-war speech to the U.N.:
It’s a blot. I’m the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and [it] will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It’s painful now. [ABC News, 9/9/05]
SEPTEMBER 30, 2005: Army misses recruiting target for previous fiscal year by widest margin since 1979
The Army is closing the books on one of the leanest recruiting years since it became an all-volunteer service three decades ago, missing its enlistment target by the largest margin since 1979 and raising questions about its plans for growth. [AP, 9/30/05]
OCTOBER 7, 2005: IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei, who disputed U.S. pre-war assertions that Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq had an active atomic weapons program, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. [AP, 10/7/05]
OCTOBER 13, 2005: Bush administration paid no attention to warnings of post-war chaos
A review by former intelligence officers has concluded that the Bush administration ‘apparently paid little or no attention’ to prewar assessments by the Central Intelligence Agency that warned of major cultural and political obstacles to stability in postwar Iraq. [NYT, 10/13/05]
OCTOBER 15, 2005: Iraqis vote to ratify draft constitution. [AP, 10/25/05]
OCTOBER 26, 2005: American military death toll reaches 2,000 [MSNBC.com, 10/26/05]
OCTOBER 2005: 4th deadliest month in Iraq. 92 American servicemembers killed. [NYT, 11/1/05]
NOVEMBER 8, 2005: Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004 [Independent, 11/8/05]
NOVEMBER 15, 2005: U.S. Senate votes 79-19 to demand regular reports from the White House on progress towards a phased pullout of troops from Iraq. [CNN, 11/16/05]
NOVEMBER 18, 2005: Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) calls for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq
The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion. The American public is way ahead of us. The United States and coalition troops have done all they can in Iraq, but it is time for a change in direction. Our military is suffering. The future of our country is at risk. We can not continue on the present course. [Murtha, 11/17/05]
NOVEMBER 30, 2005: National Strategy for Victory In Iraq unveiled by White House
DECEMBER 15, 2005: Iraqis vote to elect members of Iraqi Assembly. The United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite Muslim’s most powerful party, won a majority of the seats. [CNN, 1/20/06]
DECEMBER 17, 2005: Lieberman: Bush has turned corner on Iraq
The last two weeks have been critically important and I believe may be seen as a turning point in the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism. [AP, 12/17/05]
DECEMBER 18, 2005: Bush: “[M]uch of the intelligence turned out to be wrong.” [Bush, 12/18/05]
2006
JANUARY 6, 2006: Approximately 140 killed in Iraq, “one of the bloodiest days since the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003” [Washington Post, 1/6/06]
JANUARY 24, 2006: Army has become “thin green line”
Stretched by frequent troop rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has become a “thin green line” that could snap unless relief comes soon, according to a study for the Pentagon. [AP, 1/24/06]
FEBRUARY 2, 2006: Rumsfeld doubts “long war” in Iraq
“Is Iraq going to be a long war?” Mr. Rumsfeld answered, “No, I don’t believe it is.” [Washington Times, 2/2/06]
FEBRUARY 3, 2006: Bush requests additional $70 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan, $120 billion total for 2006 [Washington Post, 2/3/06]
February 22, 2006: Iraq’s Golden Mosque in Samarra badly damaged in a bomb attack that fuels sectarian tensions.
Up to 1,300 Iraqis feared dead. [Washington Post, 2/27/06]
FEBRUARY 28, 2006: Another report reveals Bush administration did not plan for post-war
The Bush administration never drew up a comprehensive plan for rebuilding Iraq after the March 2003 invasion. [Washington Times, 2/28/06]
MARCH 11, 2006: “Bush Goes on Offensive To Explain War Strategy” [Washington Post, 3/11/06]
MARCH 19, 2006: “Complete victory”
On the eve of the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion, President Bush yesterday promised to “finish the mission” with “complete victory,” urging the American public to remain steadfast but offering no indication when victory may be achieved. [Washington Post, 3/19/06]
MARCH 19, 2006: Time Magazine reveals that U.S. Marines killed at least 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha the previous November
According to eyewitnesses and local officials interviewed over the past 10 weeks, the civilians who died in Haditha on Nov. 19 were killed not by a roadside bomb but by the Marines themselves, who went on a rampage in the village after the attack, killing 15 unarmed Iraqis in their homes, including seven women and three children. [Time, 3/19/06]
MARCH 21, 2006: Bush says some U.S. troops will remain in Iraq at least until 2009
QUESTION: [W]ill there come a day when there will be no more American forces in Iraq?
BUSH: That, of course, is an objective, and that will be decided by future Presidents and future governments of Iraq. [Bush press conference, 3/22/06]
MARCH 30, 2006: Jill Carroll, a Christian Science Monitor journalist, is freed by her captors in Iraq [CSM, 3/31/06]
APRIL 12, 2006: Washington Post reports that Pentagon-commissioned team had concluded in May 2003 that trailers did not produce WMD
On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile “biological laboratories.” He declared, “We have found the weapons of mass destruction.” The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true. [Washington Post, 4/12/06]
APRIL 21, 2006: Jawad al-Maliki, “an experienced political operator and advocate for Iraq’s Shiite Muslims,” is chosen to replace Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister [Washington Post, 4/22/06]
APRIL 23, 2006: A former top CIA official, Tyler Drumheller, reveals evidence that Bush was told before the war by a high-level Iraqi informant that Iraq did not possess WMD [CBS News, 4/23/06]
APRIL 30, 2006: Powell says Bush went to war without enough troops
Powell: “I made the case to General Franks and Secretary Rumsfeld before the president though that it was not sure we had enough troops… [They] believed they had the appropriate troop level.” [ITV, 4/30/06]
MAY 18, 2006: CIA Director Michael Hayden: “I wasn’t comfortable” with Bush administration approach to prewar intelligence [CNN, 5/18/06]
MAY 20, 2006: Prime Minister Maliki oversees the formation of Iraq’s first permanent constitutional government since the fall of Saddam Hussein [Washington Post, 5/20/06]
MAY 25, 2006: Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki says Iraqi troops will be ready to handle security by end of 2007 [CNN, 5/25/06]
JUNE 8, 2006: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, is killed during a U.S. air raid [AP, 6/8/06]
JUNE 15, 2006: Number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq reaches 2,500 [Reuters, 6/15/06]
JUNE 15, 2006: With support of Iraq’s President, Iraqi Vice President asks Bush for a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq [AP, 6/15/06]
JUNE 20, 2006: Japan announces it plans to withdrawal its 600 soldiers from Iraq in the coming weeks [ABC News, 6/20/06]
JUNE 20, 2006: Iraqi National Security Adviser writes that U.S. troops should be out of Iraq by the end of 2007
We envisage the U.S. troop presence by year’s end to be under 100,000, with most of the remaining troops to return home by the end of 2007. [Washington Post, 6/20/06]
JUNE 20, 2006: Mutilated bodies of two U.S. soldiers who were kidnapped four days earlier are found dead
Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, an Iraqi Defense Ministry official, said the soldiers “were killed in a barbaric way.” [USA Today, 6/20/06]
JULY 3, 2006: Pfc. Steven Green charged with the rape and murder of a young Iraqi girl
Revealed last week and denounced by clerics as showing the “real, ugly face of America”, the case could be particularly damaging to the U.S. image in Iraq’s conservative Muslim society even after several other murder cases in the past few weeks. [Reuters, 7/3/06]
JULY 8, 2006: Four other soldiers charged with participating in the rape and murders; a fifth charged with dereliction of duty for failing to report the crimes [Bloomberg, 6/9/06]
JULY 12, 2006: White House budget document reveals that administration will ask for another $110 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan [White House Office of Management and Budget, 7/12/06]
JULY 13, 2006: Rampant violence grips Baghdad, over 140 people killed
Last month, Mr. Maliki implemented a security plan for Baghdad, where the sharp rise in violence over the past few months has been felt most acutely. But the strategy, which features a constellation of new checkpoints, has not curbed the mayhem. [NYT, 7/13/06]
video; hear it from Lt. Watada 
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