The United States and a coalition of Allies, including its principal western allies, on this day in 2003, commenced operations against Iraq. The war commenced with air operations.
The causa belli of the undeclared war was Iraq's lack of cooperation with weapons inspectors.
President Bush went on the air and stated:
At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.
Congress is just now considering a bill to deauthorize military force in Iraq, which at this point would be more symbolic than anything else.
The initial invasion went well and swiftly, but the war yielded to a post-war, war, against Islamic insurgents that lasted until 2011. Iraq has remained unstable, but not Baathist, and it has retained democracy, although frequently only barely. Iran has gained influence in the country, which has a large Shiia population, which was not expected.
The war remains legally problematic in that it was a full scale invasion of a foreign power with no declaration of war, setting it apart from any post World War Two war, with perhaps the exception of the war in Afghanistan, that had that feature but lacked such a declaration. At least arguably it was illegal for that reason. Amongst other things, Art 1, Section 8, of the Constitution provides that Congress has the power to:
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
Presidents are the commanders in chief of the armed forces, and in Washington's day actually took to the field with it, so it would not be correct to assume that only Congress can deploy troops, even into harm's way. But full scale wars. . . that seems pretty exclusively reserved to Congress.
The war also came while the U.S. was already fighting, albeit at a low level, in Afghanistan, and the Iraq episode would prove to be a distraction from it, leading in no small part to that first war ended, twenty years later, inconclusively.
The war redrew the political map of the Middle East, which it was intended to do, so to that extent it was at least a partial success, although it took much longer than expected. It's effect on the national deficit, discussed this past week by NPR, is staggering and the nation still is nowhere near paying for it, something that will have very long term consequences for the nation going forward, and providing a reason, amongst others, that undeclared wars should not really be engaged in. Congress, for its part, simply chose not to debate the topic in that context, an abrogation of its duty, although it did authorize military action in another form.
The war contributed to the rise of ISIL, which was later put down. It increased Syrian instability, which has yet to be fully addressed.
It also contributed to a rising tide of military worship in the US, while ironically would be part of the right wing reaction to "forever wars" that gave rise to Donald Trump.
One of only two wars, the other being the First Gulf War, initiated by a Republican President since World War Two, the war had huge initial support from the left and the right, something that many of the same people who supported it later conveniently forgot.
