The Iraq war began on March 20, 2003, to rid Iraq of a dictator and eliminate his weapons of mass destruction. The images remain fresh even as the memories fade - the blinding flash of "shock and awe" bombing, the square-jawed confidence of an American president leading his people into war, the cowering prisoner trembling on the ground in the face of a small piece of American power.
(FILE - U.S. Army Stf. Sgt. Chad Touchett, center, relaxes with comrades from A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, after a search of one of Saddam Hussein's bomb-damaged palaces in Baghdad on Monday, April 7, 2003. (AP Photo/John Moore, File))