Jacques Baute, Director of the IAEA's Iraq Nuclear Verification Office, stated in his report published in June 2004: "… they had found no evidence, up to March 2003, that the programme had been revived since 1998.". Notwithstanding the above, and despite worldwide protests and demonstrations, the United States, in a coalition with the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq. The invasion began on 19 March 2003 and formally ended on 1 May 2003 when U.S. President George W. Bush declared the "end of major combat operations" in his infamous 'Mission Accomplished Speech'. The 'liberation' was accompanied by countrywide lootings of especially governmental facilities which included all means of infrastructure and services. These lootings are commonly known in Iraq as "hawassem". A crowd of furious Iraqi people stole everything that can be stolen as a revenge for their sacrifice. At this point it is noteworthy to mention, that comprehensive thievery and demands for bribes within the ordinary population had already started during the 1990s as a result of the sanctions. As an example, for the 2003 lootings, it is estimated that around 15,000 artefacts of the Iraq museum were stolen. The collection of the National Museum of Modern Art had reached around 8,000 artworks by the beginning of 2003. Only 2,112 items remained in the hands of the museum after the 2003 looting events. 

The U.S.-led Coalition forces established the Coalition Provisional Authority (CAP) on 19 March 2003, the interim government until its dissolution on 28 June 2004. Paul Bremer was the country's chief executive during the transitional period. He banned the Baath Party and removed its members from leading positions. He introduced 'muassasah' as the guiding principle for government formation in Iraq. On 23 May 2003, he dissolved the army and on 7 June 2003, he legalised the militias of the former opposition parties and declared them to be the new Iraqi armed forces. Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq on 30 January 2005 to elect the new National Assembly, alongside governorate elections and a parliamentary election in Kurdistan Region. The new constitution was approved on 15 October 2005. The 2005 Constitution stated that 'the Republic of Iraq is a single federal, independent and fully sovereign state in which the system of government is republican, representative, parliamentary, and democratic. Islam is the official religion of the State.' However, the reality was different. In the wake of the invasion, violent insurgencies, most of them religiously motivated, emerged and ripped the country. In February 2006, the insurgencies even escalated into a sectarian civil war which would last until 2008, and longer. The reasons for these insurgencies are many and would need a detailed analysis, but one root goes back to the toppled Saddam Hussein.

The hiding Saddam was captured on 13 December 2003. The Iraqi Special Tribunal sentenced him to death by hanging which was executed on 30 December 2006. Saddam Hussein was a brutal despot. Between 2003 and 2004 the Combined Forensic Team of the CAP found 259 mass graves. His regime's strategy of Baathification created misperceptions about Iraqi state-society relations, especially in regard to its control over the religious landscape. Religious extremists and sectarian ideas had always existed in the underground. Over three decades Saddam was able to build up an effective puppet control system to suppress these religious actors and their ideas. This foreign misperception laid the groundwork for the religious insurgencies that followed. Another mistake during the interim government was the introduction of muhassasa, an informal consociationalism adopted in 2003 which later will lead to prioritising party interests over technocratic competence. It divides government power among party members who hold the authority to appoint some 800 civil service positions across ministries and which will be widely misused during the next two decades.

On 21 October 2011, U.S. President Obama announced the full withdrawal of troops from Iraq, leaving an ambivalent legacy. The result of the U.S. occupation was a troubled and increasingly insecure country in which insurgency, lawlessness and sectarian conflict claimed again a growing number of Iraqi lives.

This article was written by Hella Mewis and is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.