As the conflict entered its sixth year, peace activists staged hundreds of protests around the world and U.S. President George Bush defended his tainted legacy.
"Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight America can and must win," Bush said at the Pentagon.
In his speech, he acknowledged the war has "come at a high cost in lives and treasure".
"There's still hard work to be done in Iraq," Bush said.
"The gains we've made are fragile and reversible, but on this anniversary, the American people should know that since the surge began, the level of violence is significantly down, civilian deaths are down, sectarian killings are down.
"The battle in Iraq will end in victory," he insisted.
Anti-war activists are not impressed.
“The war was based on lies. One million Iraqis have died, five million have been made refugees, thousands of U.S. soldiers and marines have been killed or wounded,” said protest leader Brian Becker of the Answer Coalition.
The war has killed more than 4,000 soldiers from the United States and its allies as well as tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians – between 104,000 and 223,000 died between the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003 and June 2006 alone, according to the World Health Organization.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, in its latest report, said the plight of millions of Iraqis who still had little or no access to clean water, sanitation or health care was the “most critical in the world”.
Public services like water and electricity have yet to be fully restored.
Nevertheless, there has been progress towards peace in large areas of southern and central Iraq, where the situation is far less violent than it was even a year ago.
A “surge” in U.S. forces, which over the past year increased the level of troops to more than 160,000, has helped reduce the violence, and tens of thousands of Sunni former insurgents have been recruited to fight Al-Qaeda.
At the same time, radical Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered his powerful Mahdi Army militia to refrain from attacks on Iraqi civilians and security forces.
Insurgents, however, continue to carry out deadly attacks.
The economy is also a disaster, with unemployment running at 25 to 50 percent, according to government figures. Oil exports are the country’s main money-earner and a key source of contention between rival political factions.
Iraq’s parliament has been paralyzed by competition between parties driven by sectarian interests.
The war is estimated to have already cost Washington more than $400 billion, which makes it the most expensive conflict in history. |
