2.+Controversy+Continues+Surrounding+the+Iraq+War

  December 12, 2003 marked the beginning of the end of the Iraq war when United States soldiers captured Dictator Saddam Hussein. In March, U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq in operation Iraqi Freedom. The invasion was successful in April with the fall of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital city. And in May of 2003, President George W. Bush declared an end to combat in Iraq. A year later, in March of 2004, Iraq created a constitution and on June 28, the Iraqi people gained sovereignty. Following this, the Iraqi people had their first election of a 275 member National Assembly with Jalal Talabani as President and Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister. But five years after the war ended, in 2007, the U.S. military still had a strong presence in Iraq. In 2004, and insurgency group of many Middle Eastern peoples tried to begin a war with American coalition troops In Iraq. And in early 2007, a civil war between the Sunnis and Shiites erupted, tearing Iraq apart. As this happened, Bush ordered a “surge” of 20,000 troops to Iraq to help stabilize Baghdad. During this time, U.S. military presence in Iraq became a very controversial topic. Iraqi civilian and American troop casualties continued to rise. Most other countries involved in the initial coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003, were long gone from Iraq. And many of these countries believed that America should leave or reduce their influence too. Some Americans believed that troops must stay until Iraq is stabilized while some believed American presence was causing Iraq to be unstable. Some Americans also worried that the involvement would spread conflict to other parts of the Middle East.  media type="youtube" key="KLVNrx-j5t8?fs=1" height="385" width="480" align="center"