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I RAQ AT W AR AND R EBUILDING

President George W. Bush (left) and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, two of the archi- tects of the war to topple Saddam Hussein, hoped that the establishment of a democratic Iraq would lead to wide-ranging reforms among the Arab regimes of the Middle East.

the three-day operation, missiles were fired at strategic Iraqi mili- tary targets and suspected weapons sites. However, U.N. inspectors were not permitted to return to Iraq after this attack. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States, the U.S. government revised its policy toward Iraq, replacing “containment” with “regime change.” President George W. Bush, who had taken office in January 2001, and key members of his administration argued that the United Nations would become “irrelevant” if it did not respond to Saddam Hussein’s flouting of its many resolutions regarding dis- armament. In November 2002, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 1441. The resolution gave Iraq “a