The Second Iraq War 859biotech weapons lab committed suicide shortly after
the FBI prepared to file charges against him as the
sole culprit.)
Bush’s challenge was all the greater because of
his own stated opposition to ill-defined and far-flung
military operations. He had chastised the Clinton-
Gore administration for “extending our troops all
around the world.” He underscored his reticence for
such ventures by naming Colin Powell secretary of
state. Powell, who had been sobered by his experi-
ences in Vietnam, maintained that U.S. troops
should only be deployed when their political objec-
tive was clear, military advantage overwhelming, and
means of disengaging secure. This became known as
the Powell doctrine, and Bush had endorsed it dur-
ing the campaign. But the proposed war against ter-
ror adhered to none of its precepts. Now such
scruples did not matter; the president had little
choice but to fight.
Powell urged European, Asian, and even Islamic
states to crack down on terrorist cells in their coun-
tries and to provide assistance in the U.S. military
campaign against the Taliban; he also persuaded
anti-Taliban factions within Afghanistan to join
forces to topple the regime. On September 20 Bush
ordered the Taliban to surrender bin Laden and top
al-Qaeda leaders; when the Taliban refused, Bush
unleashed missiles and warplanes against Taliban
installations and defenses, much like the campaign
that had ended Serbian aggression against ethnic
Muslims in Kosovo.
For several weeks, Taliban soldiers cowered in
bunkers as bombs thudded nearby; but they defended
their positions when anti-Taliban forces attacked. Then
small teams of elite American soldiers, armed with
hand-held computers and satellite-linked navigational
devices, joined with anti-Taliban contingents, marking
Taliban positions with laser spotters and communicat-
ing with high-altitude bombers. These planes, circling
at 30,000 feet, dropped electronically guided bombs
on Taliban troops with uncanny (but not infallible)
accuracy. Within weeks the Taliban were driven from
power. Only one American soldier was killed by hostile
fire. The United States had won the first battles in the
war against terror.
The Second Iraq War
In January 2002, after the Taliban had been
crushed, President Bush declared that he would not
“wait on events while dangers gather.” The United
States would take “preemptive actions”—war—
against regimes that threatened it. He identified
Iran, North Korea, and Iraq as an axis of evilthat
warranted scrutiny. Immediately after September 11,
he secretly initiated plans to attack Iraq, ruled by
Saddam Hussein.
Secretary of State Powell advised Bush not to
attack Iraq. If Saddam were driven from power, Powell
warned, Bush would become “the proud owner of
25 million people—you’ll own it all.” Vice President
Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and oth-
ers in the administration insisted that the Iraqis would
welcome liberation and embrace democracy. A free
Iraq, they added, would stimulate democratic reforms
throughout the Middle East, as had happened in
Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet
Union. Bush agreed.
In September, Bush sought congressional sup-
port for an attack on Iraq. “The Iraqi regime pos-
sesses chemical and biological weapons,” he
declared, adding that Saddam also sought nuclear
weapons. Congress voted overwhelmingly for the
war appropriation.
Bush then called on the United Nations to join
the United States. That Saddam had used chemical
weapons during the Iran-Iraq war and also against
the Kurds was beyond dispute; but following
Saddam’s defeat in 1991, UN inspectors had
destroyed thousands of tons of Iraqi chemical
weapons. They doubted that more such weapons
had been stockpiled. Bush saw this as proof that
Saddam had hoodwinked the inspectors. When the
Security Council delayed taking action, Bush
formed a coalition to oust Saddam. The United
States was joined by Great Britain, Italy, Spain, and
a few other countries.
On March 20, 2003, American missiles and
bombs pounded Saddam’s defenses. The “Shock and
Awe” campaign to liberate Iraq had begun. Two
armored columns roared across the Kuwaiti border
into Iraq, passing burned-out Iraqi tanks from the first
Gulf War. British forces moved along the coast toward
the oil port of Basra. Television reporters, perched
atop Humvees and armored personnel carriers, pro-
vided live coverage. The first night, American units
advanced halfway to Baghdad.
On April 4, the U.S. Army seized the Baghdad
International Airport. That day, television footage
aired on Al Jazeera, an Arab television network,
showed a man—apparently Saddam—walking
through Baghdad and exhorting the Iraqis: “Resist
them, O courageous citizens of Baghdad. Our mar-
tyrs will go to paradise, and their dead will go to
hell.” The next morning, some 800 American sol-
diers in tanks and armored vehicles blasted their way
into downtown Baghdad. While some Iraqis poured
into the streets to celebrate, others looted offices,