2003 invasion of Iraq 2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was the first stage of the Iraq War (also called "Operation Iraqi Freedom"). The invasion phase began on 20 March 2003 and lasted just over one month, including 21 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq. This early stage of the war formally ended on 1 May 2003 when U.S. President George W. Bush declared the "End of Major Combat Operations", after which the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was established as the first of
Withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan major hurdles in putting aid projects into practice thus far. The U.S. was set to hand over responsibility for security to local Afghans by 2014, and efforts were underway to draw down U.S. forces, but Obama never specified a date for the withdrawal of all American troops from the country. Obama said on 1 September 2012 that he had a "specific plan to bring our troops home from Afghanistan by the end of 2014." On 2 September 2012 White House press secretary Jay Carney then clarified Obama's statement by saying that Obama had "never said that all the troops would