IRAQ saw a brutal era end, and an uncertain one begin. After threatening to do so for a year, the Bush administration sent troops into Iraq to unseat Saddam Hussein. From the start, on March 19, little happened according to plan. Airstrikes proved less shocking to Iraq than anticipated. But lines of Iraqi defenders barely materialized, giving way to skirmishing by irregular Iraqi forces, which did little to stall the rapid American advance.
With the fall of Baghdad in April, the full horror of Saddam Hussein's rule was revealed in dusty lots of mass graves and the anguished search for loved ones lost to Iraqi gulags. The city itself quickly descended into power shortages and looting. For many Iraqis, the relief over Mr. Hussein's removal turned to impatience with the pace of rebuilding efforts and resentment over the presence of American troops.
Mr. Hussein's loyalists disappeared from view to wage a resistance that left more Americans dead than before President Bush declared major combat operations over on May 1. The American toll climbed above 300, with more than 2,100 wounded.
Terror bombings, perhaps aided by outside fighters, heightened the sense of unease by making targets of anyone assisting the new democratic experiment, even those rarely drawn into the conflict before, like the Red Cross and the United Nations. The American military responded with a more aggressive mix of bombings and raids, and the Bush administration responded by speeding up plans for a transfer of sovereignty, proposing to hand power to an interim Iraqi government by next summer. Weapons of mass destruction, the primary reason stated by Bush administration officials for choosing war, proved more elusive than Mr. Hussein. Bearded and disheveled, the strongman who terrorized Iraqis for 35 years, was found on Dec. 13 cowering in a hole near Tikrit.Continue reading the main story