A Look Back at the U.S.-led Invasion of Iraq, 23 Years On

“We’d hear the shooting and the explosions,” Sally Mars recalled. “I remember that a missile hit very close to our house. And my mom, she threw herself on top of us, me and my brothers.”

Sally Mars was a six-year-old Iraqi girl, living in Baghdad, when the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began 23 years ago this week. She recounted her experiences in the 2020 FRONTLINE documentary Once Upon a Time in Iraq.

At the start of the war in March 2003, President George W. Bush said that the U.S. and its allies were aiming to “disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger” and the threat of “weapons of mass murder.”

By April 2003, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s government had been toppled, but weapons of mass destruction were never found. Efforts to transition Iraq to a democracy would become bogged down in missteps, deep internal divisions and the emergence of a violent insurgency. U.S. and allied troops would remain for eight more years, only withdrawing in 2011, with Iraq still unstable and volatile.

The Iraq War and its legacy have taken on new relevance as the U.S. and Israel launched attacks against Iraq’s neighbor, Iran, last month, with experts and politicians debating the parallels.

FRONTLINE covered the Iraq War from the beginning, tracing the events and decisions that led up to the U.S.-led invasion and how inadequate planning for the aftermath of Hussein’s ouster contributed to more violence. Our documentaries chronicled the impact of the war on Iraqi civilians and U.S. soldiers, examined the choices that Presidents George W. Bush and President Barack Obama made in the aftermath that helped lay the groundwork for the emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and investigated the aftershocks of the war in the region and across the world.

To understand the legacy of the Iraq War, revisit FRONTLINE’s collection of documentaries examining the war from many different angles.

Truth, War & Consequences (2003)

This film traced the roots of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq back to the days immediately following 9/11, when then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the creation of a special intelligence operation to quietly begin looking for evidence that would justify a war to remove Saddam Hussein from power. The film asked tough questions about the George W. Bush administration’s claims that Hussein posed an imminent threat to the Western world and showed how inadequate planning for the aftermath of Hussein’s ouster created conditions for continuing violence.

The Soldier’s Heart (2005)

This documentary told the stories of U.S. soldiers who came home haunted by their experiences in the Iraq War and asked whether the U.S. government was doing enough to help.

Rules of Engagement (2008)

FRONTLINE investigated what happened in Haditha, Iraq, where 24 of the town’s residents were killed by U.S. forces in what many in the media branded “Iraq’s My Lai.” Read about the ultimate outcomes of the cases featured in the film.

Losing Iraq  (2014)

As ISIS burst onto the world stage and seized vast swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, this documentary traced how the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, its aftermath and the decisions of Presidents Bush and Obama laid the groundwork for the terrorist group’s emergence.

The Rise of ISIS  (2014)

This documentary laid out the unheeded warnings, failures and missed opportunities that allowed Al Qaeda in Iraq to evolve and expand into ISIS.

Escaping ISIS (2015)

Using undercover footage, this documentary presented the gripping, firsthand accounts of women from a religious minority targeted by ISIS who escaped the group’s brutal reign, and followed an underground network that helped them escape.

The Secret History of ISIS  (2016)

This film showed how, in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al Qaeda in Iraq leader and Sunni extremist, developed what would become the foundation for ISIS’s playbook of brutal violence and fear. The film also traced how Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi followed Zarqawi’s method.

Confronting ISIS (2016)

An on-the-ground investigation of the complexities of the U.S.-led fight against ISIS, this documentary delved into the conditions and political decisions that allowed ISIS to rise in Iraq and Syria, and the role of powerful, Iran-backed Shia militias in Iraq that were accused of abusing civilians while fighting ISIS.

Battle for Iraq (2017)

Reporter Ghaith Abdul-Ahad went inside the battle against ISIS for control of the city of Mosul.

Mosul (2017)

The battle to drive ISIS out of Mosul, Iraq, was brutal and grueling. Shot over the course of the nine-month battle, this film followed four young soldiers on an Iraqi special forces squad.

Iraq Uncovered (2017)

Shia militias played a crucial role in Iraq’s fight against ISIS. But some of the Iranian-backed Shia forces battling ISIS had themselves been accused of atrocities, including kidnapping, imprisoning, torturing and killing ordinary Sunni civilians whom the militias saw as ISIS suspects.

Once Upon a Time in Iraq (2020)

This is the story of the Iraq War, told by Iraqis who lived through it. They shared their personal accounts and lasting memories of life under Saddam Hussein, the U.S.-led invasion of their country and the years of chaos that followed — from the sectarian violence to the rise and brutal reign of ISIS. 

Iraq’s Assassins (2021)

This documentary examined one outgrowth of the political instability and sectarian divides that intensified after the U.S. invasion: the rise of Shia militias with ties to Iran. These militias played a prominent role in the fight to defend Iraq from ISIS. But this film investigated allegations they had been threatening and killing critics and activists with impunity, and examined how they stepped up their attacks on U.S. and coalition targets following the U.S. drone killing of Qassem Soleimani, a powerful Iranian military commander, in Iraq in 2020.

America After 9/11 (2021)

This two-hour documentary special explored how the 9/11 attacks ushered in an era of fear, mistrust and division in the U.S. — and examined the legacy of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Once Upon a Time in Iraq: Fallujah (2023)

In this documentary, U.S. Marines, journalists and ordinary Iraqis recount their experiences of living through one of the defining episodes of the Iraq War: the battle of Fallujah.