#14 of 14
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Before Operation New Dawn was ever a thing, Operation Iraqi Freedom, or as we civilians know it as, “The Iraqi War,” saw a massive buildup of U.S., military presence in Iraq. This makes sense as we had started a huge coalition-based war against Saddam Hussein’s regime in hopes of finding both his weapons of mass destruction and ties to militant Islam. Which we did not, Saddam always having been more concerned about himself than some terroristic Jihad. In any case, the U.S. entered the war in 2003 with more than 190,000 ground troops — a huge buildup of military force for a 21st century conflict. Between 2004-2009, when the “drawdown” of U.S. troops began, we were still maintaining well over 100,000 troops in-country. This doesn’t include our Air Force, Navy, or support numbers of course. I’m not sure if we secured any kind of freedom for any Iraqi, but it sure wasn’t from a lack of trying.
