The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
•
It took less
than a month to achieve the departure of Saddam Hussein and the
fall
of Baghdad.
•
The decision
to advance into Basra was made by military commanders on
the
ground.
•
The UK was
unprepared for the media response to the initial difficulties. It
had also
underestimated
the need for sustained communication of key strategic
messages
to inform
public opinion about the objectives and progress of the military
campaign,
including
in Iraq.
•
For any future
military operations, arrangements to agree and disseminate
key
strategic
messages need to be put in place, in both London and on the
ground,
before
operations begin.
•
The UK acceded
to the post-invasion US request that it assume leadership of
a
military
Area of Responsibility (AOR) encompassing four provinces in
southern Iraq,
a position
it then held for six years, without a formal Ministerial decision
and without
carrying
out a robust analysis of the strategic implications for the UK or
the military’s
capacity to
support the UK’s potential obligations in the region.
4.
The combat
phase of military operations is widely judged to have been
a
success.
The Iraqi armed forces were defeated so rapidly by the Coalition
that US
forces were
in Baghdad and Saddam Hussein’s regime had fallen by 14 April
2003.
On 1 May,
just six weeks after launching the invasion, President Bush
declared
that major
combat operations had ended.
5.
Those who
deployed on the operation and those who planned and supported
it,
military
and civilian, deserve recognition for what they
achieved.
6.
Coalition
Forces were led by General Tommy Franks, the Commander in
Chief
US Central
Command (CENTCOM). The Coalition campaign was designated
Operation
Iraqi
Freedom.
7.
Gen Franks
recorded in his memoir that, by the third week of March 2003,
“total
strength in
all components – including our Gulf State Coalition allies in
Kuwait”
numbered
292,000 individuals, including ground forces of around
170,000.1
8.
At a press
briefing on 18 March 2003, Mr Richard Boucher, the US
State
Department
Spokesman, gave a “definitive list” of 30 countries2
that had
agreed to
be part of
the Coalition, each of which was “contributing in the ways that it
deems
1
Franks T
& McConnell M. American
Soldier.
HarperCollins, 2004.
2 Afghanistan,
Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Colombia, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, El Salvador,
Eritrea,
Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Korea,
Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia,
the
Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia,
Spain, Turkey, the UK and
Uzbekistan.
4