ARCHIVED WEBSITE: No new data posted since Dec. 31, 2011.
On March 20, 2003, a US-led coalition of 49 countries invaded Iraq and overthrew the government within three weeks. The US declared an official end to the war on Dec. 15, 2011, although some military personnel and security contractors remain in Iraq as members of the US diplomatic mission. Over 4,000 US soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died in the war.
Proponents argue that liberating the people of Iraq from Saddam Hussein’s human rights abuses, spreading democracy in the region, enforcing UN regulations, finding suspected weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), and making the US safer from terrorism in a post-9/11 world, all justified the war.
Opponents argue that Iraq had no WMDs or connection to 9/11, and that the Bush administration wanted Iraqi oil and any excuse to remove Hussein. They say the attack violated international law, killed countless civilians, wasted billions of dollars, and made the US more vulnerable to terrorism.
ARCHIVED WEBSITE: No new data posted since Dec. 31, 2011. On Dec. 31, 2011 we archived this site – meaning we will
likely no longer make any updates to it. The site was archived because on Dec.
15, 2011 the United States declared an end to the war in Iraq and on Dec. 19,
2011 the last convoy of US troops left Iraq, thus ending the nine-year conflict
which began on Mar. 23, 2003. The site will remain accessible so that our
readers can continue to benefit from the information it provides. If something
materially significant occurs on this subject, we may update or even
"unarchive” the site. For a list of all our websites, please visit www.procon.org.
US Iraq ProCon.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit website that presents facts, studies, and pro and con statements on questions related to whether or not the US should have attacked Iraq.
