A U.S. soldier watches as a statue of Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein falls in central Baghdad, April 9, 2003. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic  

USA Today: On the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, these photos tell the story of the war 

Sunday marks 20 years since American and coalition forces invaded Iraq on a mission to topple Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and find weapons of mass destruction. 

Former President George W. Bush and his administration wagered to the American public and the international community that Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction. 

The coalition found no such weapons, and two years later the WMD Commission, established by Bush, acknowledged in a report that the “WMD” fiasco was “one of the most public – and most damaging – intelligence failures in recent American history.” 

Forces did succeed in knocking Hussein out of power, clearing the way for a fraught nation-building project that would stretch for nearly a decade.  

Read more ….  

Update #1: 3 takeaways 20 years after the invasion of Iraq (NPR)
 

Update #2: Iconic images from the Iraq War, 20 years after it began (Reuters)  

WNU Editor: What a difference 20 years make.  

Update #3: Of course they do not want any comparisons made …. Tony Blair: Putin can’t use Iraq to justify Ukraine invasion (DW).