9781422277140

Moreover, Hussein was well on his way to developing the most powerful WMD of all, a nuclear bomb, or so the president said. Bush and his advisers even suggested that Iraq was somehow involved in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that brought down the World Trade Center in New York City. Bush said only military action could stop Hussein. Many disagreed. The run-up to war was contentious and hotly debated. As protesters chanted and politicians gave speeches, Bush put together a multinational force to fight Hus- sein. The force included Great Britain, Albania, Australia, and Poland, among other countries. Bush, seeking support from the United Nations, told the UN Security Council that it had a duty to combat the “grave and gathering danger” Iraq posed. The United Nations refused to sanction the impending war. Bush wasn’t totally off base about Hussein. The dictator was indeed blood- thirsty. He used biological weapons against the Iranians during the Iraq-Iran War in the 1980s. He also used poison gas against the Kurds, a minority group in Iraq that wanted to form an independent country. Despite the misgivings, war came. It was dubbed Operation Iraqi Free- dom. The first part was a sustained aerial bombing campaign to “shock and awe” the Iraqi army. A day later, on March 20, 2003, the invasion force arrived, and with it, 19-year-old Private Jessica Lynch. A Missed Turn Lynch and the other soldiers in the 507th were not frontline combat troops. They were supply clerks, cooks, and mechanics who found themselves part

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