On March 19, 2003, the United States and its Coalition partners launched the first air strikes of Operation Iraqi Freedom. On the evening of April 9, 2003, Iraqis danced and waved their country's flag in central Baghdad as U.S. Marines toppled a huge statue of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. In a matter of weeks, Hussein's decades-old regime had been removed, liberating 25 million Iraqis from one of the world's most brutal tyrannies. |