The Iraq War entered its early stages on July 10, 2002, when a CIA team from the Special Activities Division invaded the country. After a brief period of time, it was joined by a team from the U.S. Military's Join Special Operation Command. The teams identified the locations of leadership targets along with working with much of the Iraqi military leadership to surrender without fighting. It also organized the Kurdish Peshmerga into a strong fighting force that could attack from the north.

On the morning of March 20, 2003, the official military invasion of Iraq began. The Kurdish Peshmerga forces moved from the north to defeat Ansar al-Islam and the Iraqi army. War came from the south in the form of the Coalition of the Willing. The Coalition was primarily comprised of U.S., British and Australian troops, but also featured help from 40 other nations.

The war was launched initially under the auspicious plan of disarming the country of weapons of mass destruction, but quickly turned toward other objectives. These included overthrowing the Hussein regime, eliminating Islamic militants, obtaining intelligence about terrorist actions, secure the oil industry, giving humanitarian aid and creating a representative democracy.

The invasion of Iraq was achieved with minimal loss of life and without major resistance from the military. However, much of the battle was fought with irregular forces. The Iraqi Army would cede territory when faced with overwhelming Coalition forces and then respond with small scale attacks from fighters dressed as civilians. Much of the attacks came from elite forces named the Fedayeen Saddam that sometimes acted as suicide squads. The rest of the military melted away into the civilian population to fight another day.

The Coalition took Baghdad on April 9, ending the Hussein regime's 24 year rule. This was followed by mass outpouring by the civilian population, which tore down a huge iron statue of their former leader in a staged video event. This was followed by massive civil disorder and looting all across the country, but mostly focused in Baghdad. The U.S. military, charged with securing the city, stood by awaiting orders to intervene that never came.

In all, approximately 9,200 Iraqi soldiers were killed along with over 7,000 civilians. 130 U.S. military and 33 U.K. soldiers also died.

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