By Adrian Jaulmes
Posted 3 hours ago, updated 5 minutes ago
Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defense, George W. Bush, US President, and Richard Cheney, Vice President, during the Armed Forces Honor Review December 15, 2006 in Washington. Larry Downing/Portal
HISTORY – Decided twenty years ago by George W. Bush under the influence of neoconservatives, the invasion of Iraq turned out to be a colossal geopolitical blunder that seriously damaged the United States’ international credibility and undermined its domestic politics.
Washington correspondent
In March 2003, the United States invaded Iraq in an operation with ill-defined objectives and dubious justifications. After a quick military victory, in a matter of months this expedition turned into a strategic disaster from which the Americans took years to recover. Twenty years later, the consequences of this conflict are still significant.
Historians are still debating the underlying reasons for this war, decided by George W. Bush’s team. Everyone agrees that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was entirely avoidable. Twenty years later, the linkage of events remains almost implausible: the return of George HW Bush senior’s collaborators, particularly Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, frustrated by their victory in the first Gulf War ten years earlier; the tragedy of September 11, 2001, which gave them the opportunity to complete this unfinished operation; the frustrations of a white-hot country…
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