A TIMELINE OF THE IRAQ WAR

2003
March 19 — President G.W. Bush’s Invasion begins
March 30 — Defense Secretary D. Rumsfeld: We know location of WMD
April 1 — Pfc. J. Lynch “rescued”
April 9 — S. Hussein statue falls
April 11 — Rumsfeld: “Stuff happens.”
April 16 — Bush signs $79 billion supplemental
spending bill
May 1 — Bush: “Major combat operations in Iraq
have ended.”
May 9 — P. Wolfowitz: WMD rationale agreed upon
for bureaucratic reasons
May 29 — Bush: “We found the (WMD).”
July 2 — Bush: “Bring them on.”
July 6 — J. Wilson’s op-ed runs in NY Times
July 14 — Bush: “The speeches I have given were
backed by good intelligence.”
July 22 — U. and Q. Hussein killed
Aug. 7 — Car bomb kills 11 at Jordanian embassy
in Baghdad
Aug. 20 — Bomb kills 17 at U.N. headquarters
in Baghdad
Sept. 3 — Secret report prepared for Joint Chiefs:
U.S. unprepared for post-war ops
Nov. 6 — Bush signs $87 billion supplemental
spending bill
Nov. 20 — R. Perle: War may have been illegal
Nov. 28 — Bush visits Baghdad, poses with fake turkey
Dec. 14 — S. Hussein captured

2004
Jan. 17 — Death toll of U.S. soldiers: 500
Jan. 22 — CIA officers warn of civil war
Jan. 28 — Iraq Survey Group inspector D. Kay:
“We were all wrong.”
Feb. 4 — Suicide bombs kill 109 Iraqis
Feb. 10 — U.S. military finds letter to al-Qaeda operatives seeking help waging “sectarian war”
Feb. 19 — A. Chalabi: He and Bush administration
have been “heroes in error.”
March 5 — U.N. weapons inspector H. Blix: War was illegal
March 24 — At media dinner, Bush pretends to look
for WMD
April 19 — B. Woodward: CIA Director G. Tenet told Bush WMD rationale was “slam dunk”
April 21 — Suicide bombs kill 74 near Basra
April 28 — Abu Ghraib torture images revealed
May 5 — Bush, on Arab TV, expresses sorrow over
prisoner abuse
May 11 — Video shows beheading of N. Berg
May 31 — Four U.S. contractors killed, mutilated
in Fallujah
June 28 — Sovereignty transferred to Iraq. Bush:
“Let freedom reign.”
Aug. 27 — Bush admits “miscalculation of what the
conditions would be” in postwar Iraq
Sept. 7 — Death toll of U.S. soldiers: 1,000
Sept. 15 — Bush asks Senate to shift $3.4 billion from reconstruction package to Iraq security
Sept. 16 — NYT: National Intelligence Estimate gives dark assessment; Bush: CIA “just guessing”
Sept. 16 — U.N. Secretary General K. Annan: War was illegal
Oct. 5 — L.P. Bremer: “We never had enough troops
on the ground.”
Oct. 7 — CIA report: Iraq did not have WMD
Oct. 25 — NYT: About 380 tons of powerful explosives disappeared after war started
Nov. 2 — Bush re-elected
Nov. 8 — U.S. forces launch all-out assault on Fallujah
Dec. 8 — D. Rumsfeld: “You go to war with
the Army you have.”
Dec. 20 — Blasts kill more than 60 in Iraq’s holy cities

2005
Jan. 12 — WMD search declared over
Jan. 27 — 30 marines, sailor die in helicopter crash
Jan. 30 — U.S. loses track of nearly $9 billion in
Iraqi funds
Jan. 30 — Iraqis vote to form Transitional National Assembly
Feb. 28 — Car bomb kills at least 114 Iraqis in Hilla
March 3 — Death toll of U.S. soldiers: 1,500
March 31 — Presidential commission on WMD:
Intelligence community “dead wrong” in almost all
prewar judgments
May 1 — Downing Street memo revealed: Bush fixed intelligence
May 11 — Bush signs $76 billion supplemental
spending bill
May 30 — D. Cheney: Insurgency in “last throes”
June 27 — Rumsfeld: Insurgencies can last “five, six, eight, 10, 12 years.”
July 18 — Suicide bomb kills 100
Aug. 7 — C. Sheehan sets up camp near Bush ranch
Aug. 31 — Nearly 1,000 Shiites killed in stampede during religious festival
Sept. 9 — C. Powell: Pre-war speech to U.N. is a “blot” on his record
Oct. 7 — M. El Baradei wins Nobel Peace Prize
Oct. 15 — Iraqis ratify draft constitution
Oct. 26 — Death toll of U.S. soldiers: 2,000
Nov. 8 — Evidence emerges that U.S. dropped
phosphorous on Fallujah
Nov. 18 — Rep. J. Murtha: Get U.S. troops out
Nov. 30 — White House releases National Strategy
for Victory in Iraq
Dec. 14 — Iraqis elect members of assembly
Dec. 7 — Sen. J. Lieberman: Bush has turned corner in Iraq
Dec. 18 — Bush: “Much of the intelligence turned out
to be wrong.”

2006
Jan. 24 — Pentagon study: Army a “thin green line.”
Feb. 2 — Rumsfeld: War won’t be a long one
Feb. 3 — Bush requests $70 billion for Iraq, Afghanistan
Feb. 22 — Bomb attack on Golden Mosque fuels
sectarian tensions
March 19 — Bush promises “complete victory”
March 19 — Time magazine: U.S. marines killed unarmed Iraqi civilians
March 21 — Bush: Troops to remain until at least 2009
March 30 — Journalist J. Carroll freed by captors
April 12 — Washington Post: Officials knew mobile “labs” had no WMD
April 21 — J. al-Maliki replaces I. al-Jaafari as prime minister
April 23 — Former top CIA official says Bush knew Iraq had no WMD
April 30 — Powell: Not enough troops
May 25 — Maliki: Iraqi troops will handle security by
end of ’07
June 8 — A.M. al-Zarqawi killed
June 15 — Death toll of U.S. soldiers: 2,500
June 20 — Two kidnapped U.S. soldiers found dead, mutilated
July 3 — Pfc. Steven Green charged with rape, murder of young Iraqi girl
July 8 — Four other soldiers charged in rape, murder
July 12 — White House budget document: Administration will request another $110 billion
July 13 — More than 140 killed in Baghdad
Aug. 3 — CentCom Gen. J. Abizaid: Civil war “possible”
Aug. 7 — Gen. G. Casey: Civil war a “significant threat”
Aug. 19 — War hits 1,249th day, surpassing WWII
Aug. 21 — Bush: Iraq had “nothing” to do with 9/11
Aug. 22 — Marines begin ordering inactive members back to duty
Aug. 28 — Suicide bomb, clashes between Shiite militia and Iraqi security forces kill at least 50
Aug. 29 — Rumsfeld: War critics are “quitters”
Aug. 30 — Rumsfeld: Critics are like those who thought Hitler could be “appeased”
Sept. 10 — Secretary of State C. Rice: There were ties between Saddam, al Qaeda
Sept. 11 — Sen. J. McCain: Iraq critics “schizophrenics”
Sept. 11 — Cheney: Critics abet terrorists
Sept. 20 — White House releases “fact sheet” on “Iraq’s links to al Qaeda”
Oct. 4 — C. Powell: “Staying the course” not good enough
Oct. 4 — NYT: Military spending bill included $20 million for celebration of success; money not spent
Oct. 6 — Sen. J. Warner: government should determine
if “change of course” necessary
Oct. 11 — Washington Post: Johns Hopkins study
estimates 655,000 Iraqi deaths since 2003
Oct. 12 — British Army chief: “We must quit Iraq soon.”
Oct. 15 — Sen. C. Hagel: Find a new way out of Iraq
Oct. 16 — Bush disapproval rating reaches 61 percent
Oct. 18 — Ten U.S. soldiers killed
Oct. 18 — Brookings Institution: Baghdad residents
receiving 2.4 hours of electricity per month
Oct. 19 — House Veterans Affairs Committee: Number of Iraq, Afghanistan vets seeking PTSD treatment has doubled since 2005
Oct. 23 — Sen. A. Specter: Face the fact of civil war
Nov. 1 — NYT: Classified briefing says Iraq “edging
toward chaos”
Nov. 5 — S. Hussein sentenced to die by hanging
Nov. 8 — Rumsfeld: I quit
Nov. 16 — Bush: Let’s surge
Nov. 23 — Suicide bombs kill 145 in Sadr City
Nov. 25 — NYT: Iraq insurgency now self-sustaining financially
Nov. 28 — Former Rep. N. Gingrich: War a “failure”
Nov. 28 — Powell: It’s a civil war
Dec. 5 — NPR: U.S. soldiers punished for having PTSD
Dec. 6 — Iraq Study Group report released
Dec. 6 — Senate confirms R. Gates as Defense Secretary
Dec. 19 — Washington Post: White House plans to send 15,000 to 30,000 more troops
Dec. 26 — Death toll of U.S. soldiers: 2,977 (more deaths than 9/11)
Dec. 30 — Saddam hanged

2007
Jan. 2 — Military Times: Barely one-third of troops approve of Bush’s handling of war
Jan. 16 — Bush: Saddam hanging looked like “revenge killing”
Jan. 22 — Sen. J. Warner introduces resolution opposing escalation
Jan. 26 — R. Gates: Senate’s proposed resolution
emboldens enemy