The Iraqi Conflict, Operation Iraqi Freedom, started on March 17, 2003, when President George W. Bush sent an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq, and his two sons, Uday and Qusay Hussein, to leave Iraq within 48 hours. On March 19, 2003, the military offensive started. The goal was to replace Saddam and his Baathist government with a new democratic government.

At the end of the 1991 Gulf War the United Nations passed resolutions requiring Iraq to cease their chemical, biological, nuclear and long range missile programs. At the same time the UN created a program to verify Iraq’s compliance with UN sanctions, but in 1998 UN weapons inspectors left Iraq due to the lack of cooperation from the Iraqi government.

Iraq is primarily a Muslim country made up of Kurds, Shia and Sunni. Saddam’s support came from the Sunni. Hussein repressed the Kurd and Shia movement, considering them a threat to his stability. The majority of Iraq’s population is Shia Muslims. The Kurds, from the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, function as an autonomous entity.