In March 2003, a US-led coalition invaded Iraq. They took control within a matter of weeks. But the country was about to descend into chaos.
What started as an insurgency would soon turn into an all-out sectarian civil war. One that would take hundreds of Iraqi lives every day. But it didn’t have to be this way.
The violence in Iraq was not inevitable, it was caused by a myriad of mistakes. Why did the Iraqi people turn against the Coalition? What caused the Civil War? And where did Coalition forces actually succeed?
Using objects, film and photography from the IWM collection IWM Curator Jack Gelsthorpe takes an in-depth look at the Coalition Occupation from 2003 to 2011 in effort to understand what went wrong in Iraq?
Find out more about the Iraq War: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-important-facts-about-the-iraq-war
What was Iraq like for British reservists?: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/iraq-war-reservist
Plan your visit to IWM London: https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-london
Explore and licence the film clips used in this video from IWM Film:
https://film.iwmcollections.org.uk/collections/_Yaw7gxaq
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:58 Initial mistakes
04:09 Insurgency
07:37 Descent into chaos
10:21 Civil War
13:26 The Surge
17:22 Withdrawal
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CC Attributions:
ISI icon photo by الشيخ ياسر بن راشد الدوسري on Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
Badr Corps icon photo by Fars Media Corporation on Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
Ansar Al-Sunnah and Islamic Army in Iraq Icon photo by بدر الإسلام on Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
Mahdi Army Icon photo by Nicoleon on Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en