In March 2003, then President George W Bush approved the military attack, with major repercussions for US politics, and global perceptions of the country

2003年3月，时任总统乔治·W·布什批准了这次军事进攻，这对美国政治和全球对美国的看法产生了重大影响。

Twenty years ago, the world was shaken by one of the major geopolitical events of this century. On the morning of March 20, 2003, the US officially launched its illegal invasion of Iraq. The rationale was based on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s alleged ties with terrorists, and intelligence regarding the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. However, both claims turned out to be false and were later refuted.
Russian political analysts believe that the real reasons behind the invasion of Iraq included a desire for control over oil fields, the naive hope of creating a ‘showcase of democracy’ in the Middle East, and a demonstration of the ‘fight against terrorism’ to US voters. None of these goals were achieved, but the grievous consequences of the endeavor are evident.

20年前，本世纪的一次重大地缘政治事件震动了世界。2003年3月20日上午，美国正式对伊拉克发动非法入侵。理由是伊拉克总统萨达姆·侯赛因据称与恐怖分子有联系，以及有关伊拉克存在大规模杀伤性武器的情报。然而，这两种说法都被证明是错误的，后来都被驳斥了。
俄罗斯政治分析人士认为，入侵伊拉克的真正原因包括渴望控制油田，天真地希望在中东创造一个“民主的橱窗”，并向美国选民展示“打击恐怖主义”。这些目标都没有实现，但这种努力的严重后果是显而易见的。

The reasons behind the invasion
Washington initially called its operation ‘Shock and Awe’, but later renamed it ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’. Official Baghdad called it ‘Harb al‑Hawasim’ (the Final War).
American society had been carefully prepared for the war over the course of several years. On January 30, 2002, then-President George W. Bush first used the expression ‘axis of evil’ in his State of the unx address when referring to North Korea, Iran, and Iraq. In February of that year, US Secretary of State Colin Powell publicly discussed a potential change of regime in Baghdad.

入侵背后的原因
华盛顿最初称其为“震慑”行动，但后来更名为“伊拉克自由行动”。巴格达官方称之为“决定性战争”。
美国社会已经为这场战争做了几年的精心准备。2002年1月30日，时任美国总统乔治·W·布什在国情咨文中首次使用了“邪恶轴心”一词，指的是朝鲜、伊朗和伊拉克。同年2月，美国国务卿科林·鲍威尔公开讨论了巴格达政权更迭的可能性。

Bush's team stated that one of their main goals in Iraq was the fight against terrorism, which was launched after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The US government claimed that Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terrorist organization was responsible and was also being supported by then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. However, on September 9, 2006, the US Senate released a report which proved that Hussein had no lixs with Al-Qaeda. Moreover, as the report showed, he had “tried, though unsuccessfully,” to find and capture Iraqi terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

布什的班子说，他们在伊拉克的主要目标之一是打击2001年9月11日恐怖袭击后发动的恐怖主义。美国政府声称，奥萨马·本·拉登的基地恐怖组织对此事件负责，该组织还得到了时任伊拉克总统萨达姆·侯赛因的支持。然而，2006年9月9日，美国参议院公布了一份报告，证明侯赛因与基地组织没有联系。此外，正如报告所显示的那样，他曾“试图(尽管没有成功)”找到并抓获伊拉克恐怖分子头目阿布·穆萨布·扎卡维。

Another reason for the invasion was Iraq’s supposed development of weapons of mass destruction. At a meeting of the UN Security Council on February 5, 2003, Colin Powell showed a test tube with white powder that he claimed contained samples of chemical weapons found in the country. But this ‘proof’ also turned out to be fake. On October 6, 2004, the Iraq Survey Group, comprised of 1,400 US, British, and Australian weapons experts, established that by 2003, the country “had no nuclear, chemical, or bacteriological weapons programs, or WMD arsenals.”

入侵伊拉克的另一个原因是伊拉克据称正在发展大规模杀伤性武器。2003年2月5日，在联合国安理会的一次会议上，科林·鲍威尔展示了一个装有白色粉末的试管，他声称这是在伊拉克发现的化学武器的样本。但这个“证据”也被证明是假的。2004年10月6日，由1400名美国、英国和澳大利亚武器专家组成的伊拉克调查小组确定，到2003年，伊拉克“没有核武器、化学武器或细菌武器计划，也没有大规模杀伤性武器库”。

In other words, both accusations which were supposed to justify the US military intervention turned out to be false. As Andrey Chuprygin, a senior lecturer at the HSE School of Asian Studies, explains, the real reason behind the illegal invasion was that the ‘war on terror’ declared by Bush in 2001 yielded no visible results by 2003.
“By 2003, the US spent a huge amount of money and lost military personnel, but there was still nothing tangible to show voters – there was no victory over terror. It seems that Iraq and Saddam Hussein were chosen as scapegoats in order to gain an illustrious victory and present it to voters. And that was exactly what happened,” Chuprygin told RT.

换句话说，这两项旨在为美国军事干预辩护的指控都是错误的。正如HSE亚洲研究学院高级讲师安德烈·楚普里金所解释的那样，非法入侵背后的真正原因是布什在2001年宣布的“反恐战争”到2003年没有取得明显的成果。
“到2003年，美国花费了巨额资金并损失了军事人员，但是，仍然没有什么实质的东西可以向选民展示——没有战胜恐怖主义。伊拉克和萨达姆·侯赛因被选为替罪羊，似乎是为了获得辉煌的胜利，并将其呈现给选民。事实就是这样，”丘普里金告诉《今日俄罗斯》。

He believes that Hussein’s main political mistake – the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 – made him a target for the US. “He set himself up and became a convenient target for the Americans, who wanted to kill two birds with one stone: Demonstrate victory in the war on terror by labeling Hussein a terrorist accomplice, and also help their ally, Saudi Arabia.”
The invasion of Iraq revealed the true goals of the war against terrorism, Vladimir Vasiliev, chief researcher at the Institute for US and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, believes. In his opinion, the US was chiefly concerned about establishing control over the oil fields in the Near and Middle East.

他认为侯赛因的主要政治错误——1990年入侵科威特——使他成为美国的攻击目标。“他自取其祸，成为美国人的靶子。美国人想一箭双雕：给侯赛因贴上恐怖分子帮凶的标签，展示反恐战争的胜利，同时帮助他们的盟友沙特阿拉伯。”
俄罗斯科学院美加研究所首席研究员弗拉基米尔·瓦西里耶夫认为，入侵伊拉克揭示了反恐战争的真正目标。在他看来，美国主要关心的是建立对近东和中东油田的控制。

“They wanted to have control over the global market, over the energy and oil prices. They wanted to make a big profit and directly influence the global energy market. American energy monopolies were the main sponsors of the Republican Party at the time,” he told RT.
Vasiliev also said the US wanted Iraq to become a kind of ‘showcase of democracy’, a Western-type country in the Middle East. Washington hoped that these ideas would later spread west and east of Iraq, and come to influence Syria and other countries.
Close relations between the US and Israel may have also played an important role in the Iraqi operation, Vasiliev noted. Under the leadership of Hussein, Iraq was then seen as one of the main threats to Israel’s national security.

他告诉RT，“他们想控制全球市场，控制能源和石油价格。他们想大赚一笔，并直接影响全球能源市场。当时，美国的能源垄断企业是共和党的主要支持者。”
瓦西里耶夫还表示，美国希望伊拉克成为一种“民主的橱窗”，成为中东地区的一个西方式国家。华盛顿希望这些想法后来能传播到伊拉克的西部和东部，进而影响叙利亚和其他国家。
瓦西里耶夫指出，美国和以色列之间的密切关系可能也在伊拉克行动中发挥了重要作用。在侯赛因的领导下，伊拉克被视为以色列国家安全的主要威胁之一。

The military campaign
The joint operation of US and British troops against Iraq was not sanctioned by the UN Security Council. Powell stated that the governments of 45 states either directly or indirectly supported the US, and 30 states unconditionally supported America’s goal of overthrowing Hussein.
The operation was led by the Joint Central Command (JCC) of the US Armed Forces. A 280,000-strong grouping of US and British troops took part in combat in the Persian Gulf zone. The Air Force was equipped with over 700 combat aircraft. The coalition had over 800 American M‑1 Abrams tanks, around 120 British Challenger tanks, over 600 American M‑2/M‑3 Bradley armored vehicles, and around 150 British Warrior armored vehicles.
The Iraqi Army numbered 389,000 soldiers, 40-60,000 p aramilitary and police formations, and 650,000 reservists. It was armed with around 2,500 tanks, 1,500 BMP‑1 and BMP‑2 infantry fighting vehicles, and around 2,000 artillery pieces over 100mm in caliber. Iraq had around 300 combat aircraft (mainly Mirage F‑1EQ, MiG‑29, MiG‑25, MiG‑23, and MiG‑21), 100 combat helicopters, and 300 transport helicopters.

军事行动
美国和英国军队对伊拉克的联合行动没有得到联合国安理会的批准。鲍威尔说，45个州的政府直接或间接地支持美国，30个州无条件地支持美国推翻侯赛因的目标。
这次行动由美国武装部队联合中央司令部领导。一支28万多名美国和英国士兵组成军队参加了波斯湾地区的战斗。空军装备了700多架战斗机。联军拥有800多辆美国M-1艾布拉姆斯坦克，大约120辆英国“挑战者”坦克，600多辆美国M-2/M-3布雷德利装甲车和大约150辆英国“勇士”装甲车。
伊拉克陆军有38万9千名士兵，40-6万名宪兵和警察，65万名预备役军人。它装备有大约2500辆坦克，1500辆BMP -1和BMP-2步兵战车，大约2000门口径超过100毫米的火炮。伊拉克拥有大约300架作战飞机(主要是幻影F-1EQ、米格-29、米格-25、米格-23和米格-21)、100架战斗直升机和300架运输直升机。

The US began its operation with isolated strikes on strategically important military targets and government facilities in Baghdad, using sea-based cruise missiles and precision-guided munitions. It took the Americans 20 days to capture the capital. Baghdad was occupied on April 9, followed by two of Iraq’s largest cities, Kirkuk and Mosul, on April 10 and 11.
On May 1, 2003, the US president announced the end of hostilities and the beginning of the military occupation of Iraq. Not until November 2008 did the Iraqi government and parliament, which had effectively been installed by Washington, approve an agreement on the withdrawal of US troops and the regulation of their temporary stay on Iraqi territory. In the winter of 2009, when Barack Obama was elected US president, 90,000 troops were withdrawn from Iraq. On August 31, 2010, Obama announced the end of the active stage of the military operation. The last column of American troops left Iraq on December 18, 2011.

美国在行动开始时，使用海基巡航导弹和精确制导弹药，对巴格达具有重要战略意义的军事目标和政府设施进行了孤立的打击。美军花了20天占领了首都。巴格达4月9日被占领，伊拉克两个最大的城市基尔库克和摩苏尔4月10日和11日被占领。
2003年5月1日，美国总统宣布结束敌对行动，开始对伊拉克的军事占领。直到2008年11月，伊拉克政府和议会(实际上是由华盛顿设立的)才批准了一项关于美军撤离和美军在伊拉克领土上临时停留的协议。2009年冬天，当巴拉克·奥巴马当选美国总统时，美国从伊拉克撤出了9万名士兵。2010年8月31日，奥巴马宣布军事行动的活跃阶段结束。2011年12月18日，美军最后一支纵队离开伊拉克。

Iraq no longer exists
The US invasion resulted in the overthrow of Hussein’s government. In 2006, he was found guilty of murdering 148 Shiites and was sentenced to death by hanging.
Chuprygin believes that Iraq ceased to exist as a unified state after the US invasion. The country broke apart into different regions controlled by hostile political forces. To this day, there has been no end to the confrontation.
The new Iraqi Constitution was adopted in 2005. It proclaimed Iraq a democratic federal parliamentary republic, approved autonomous governance in the country’s north and south regions, and redistributed power in favor of the Shiites and Kurds.
“Iraq seems to be a single state (at least to the outside observer), but this is really not the case. Opinions differ whether it will remain unified or, as many experts said a few years ago, would break up into two or even three territories – Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish,” Chuprygin said.

伊拉克已不复存在
美国的入侵导致侯赛因政府被推翻。2006年，他被判谋杀148名什叶派教徒，并被处以绞刑。
丘普里金认为，在美国入侵后，伊拉克就不再是一个统一的国家了。这个国家分裂成由敌对政治势力控制的不同地区。直到今天，双方的对抗还没有结束。
伊拉克新宪法于2005年通过。它宣布伊拉克为民主联邦议会制共和国，批准伊拉克北部和南部地区实行自治，并重新分配了有利于什叶派和库尔德人的权力。
丘普里金说:“伊拉克似乎是一个单一的国家(至少在外部观察员看来是这样)，但事实并非如此。它是会保持统一，还是像许多专家几年前说的那样，会分裂成两个甚至三个地区——什叶派、逊尼派和库尔德人。”

Terrorism and countless victims
The biggest global consequences of the US intervention include the formation of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in Syria and Iraq – which in military and economic terms, became the world’s most powerful terrorist organization. As Vasiliev notes, IS was originally made up of former officers of Hussein’s army who remained loyal to him. The Islamists viewed the US as occupiers and staged numerous attacks against US troops in Iraq.
In the years that followed, hundreds of thousands of people became victims of the military invasion, terrorism, and the civil war between the Shiites and Sunnis. It is still not known exactly how many people died during the eight years of the US operation in Iraq. The non-governmental organization Iraq Body Count (IBC) claims that by the summer of 2010, the number of civilian deaths ranged from 97,000 to 106,000 people. Other estimates state that almost half a million Iraqis died as a result of combat from 2003 to 2011. According to the Pentagon, the losses of US servicemen amounted to 4,487 people, and 66 soldiers died in Iraq after the end of the operation.

恐怖主义和无数受害者
美国干预的最大全球后果包括在叙利亚和伊拉克形成伊斯兰国(IS，前身为ISIS)——从军事和经济角度来看，伊斯兰国已成为世界上最强大的恐怖组织。瓦西里耶夫指出，IS最初是由忠于侯赛因的前军官组成的。伊斯兰主义者视美国为占领者，对驻伊美军发动了多次袭击。
在接下来的几年里，成千上万的人成为军事入侵、恐怖主义和什叶派和逊尼派之间内战的受害者。目前还不清楚在美国在伊拉克的8年行动中究竟有多少人死亡。非政府组织伊拉克尸体统计(IBC)声称，截至2010年夏季，平民死亡人数在9.7万至10.6万之间。另有估计称，从2003年到2011年，近50万伊拉克人死于战争。
根据五角大楼的数据，美国军人的死亡人数达到4487人，行动结束后，66名士兵在伊拉克丧生。

In 2015, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq stated that the number of internally displaced persons in the country topped 3 million people.
Human Rights Watch also noted that a system of collective punishment against families suspected of affiliation with the Islamists formed in areas liberated from ISIS.

2015年，伊拉克副总理穆特拉克表示，国内流离失所者的人数超过300万。
人权观察还指出，在从伊斯兰国解放出来的地区，建立了一个针对涉嫌与伊斯兰主义者有关联的家庭的集体惩罚制度。

US fiasco
“The Iraqi operation ended in a total fiasco in all aspects,” Vasiliev said.
He claims that the US failed in its crusade against the Islamic world, so Obama’s election was important not only from the standpoint of the anti-war movement in the US, but also in view of "extending an olive branch to the Islamic world.”
Washington did not manage to create a ‘showcase of democracy’ in Iraq which other Persian Gulf countries could emulate. The attempt to use Iraq as a stronghold for solving other geopolitical issues, including the fight against Iran, also fell through.
Moreover, Vasiliev believes that when US energy policy shifted, previous calculations regarding control over oil resources were no longer justified.

美国惨败
瓦西里耶夫说:“在伊拉克的行动在各方面都以彻底失败告终。
他声称，美国对伊斯兰世界的十字军东征失败了，所以奥巴马的当选不仅从美国反战运动的立场来看很重要，而且从“向伊斯兰世界伸出橄榄枝”的角度来看也很重要。华盛顿没能在伊拉克创造一个其他波斯湾国家可以效仿的“民主样板”。利用伊拉克作为解决包括对抗伊朗在内的其他地缘政治问题的据点的企图也失败了。
此外，瓦西里耶夫认为，当美国能源政策发生变化时，之前关于控制石油资源的计算不再合理。

“The reason for the fiasco was that, from the American standpoint, the neoliberal world order that won over Europe in the 1990s could be also applied to the Middle East. But this was not destined to come true,” Vasiliev said.
Ultimately, the invasion of Iraq turned many world leaders against the US.
“A powerful anti-American wave emerged. Never was it so strong as in that first decade of the 21st century. Germany and France, along with Russia, spoke out against the actions of the United States,” he explained.
Vasiliev added, however, that Europe’s “anti-Americanism vaccine” soon wore off, and the negative aspects of the US invasion gradually faded from memory with the departure of George W. Bush and the election of Barack Obama.

失败的原因是，从美国的立场来看，上世纪90年代赢得欧洲的新自由主义世界秩序也可以适用于中东。但这注定不会成真，”瓦西里耶夫说。
最终，入侵伊拉克让许多世界领导人转而反对美国。
他解释说，“一股强大的反美浪潮出现了。它从未像21世纪第一个十年那样强大。德国、法国以及俄罗斯都公开反对美国的行动。”
然而，瓦西里耶夫补充说，欧洲的“反美主义疫苗”很快就失效了，随着乔治·W·布什的离任和巴拉克·奥巴马的当选，美国入侵的负面影响逐渐从记忆中消失。