In February 2003, a few weeks before the United States launched a full-scale invasion of Iraq, Alexander Phillips, an American then aged 18, participated in one of the anti-war protests which called upon the administration of President George W Bush against invading Saddam Hussein-led Iraq.&nbsp;<img alt="Alexander Phillips" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ed0600ac-ae30-406e-b154-8ddc61572903" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Alexander.jpeg" />

Alexander Phillips, with microphone, at an anti-war protest in Orange County, California, March 5, 2003 | Alexander Phillips

"We don't want a smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," the US declared, and went on to invade Iraq, citing the presence of 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' in the country, and characterising the West Asian nation as a 'sanctuary for terrorism'.

Many years later, no such weapons were found. "The Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were no more than a bit of improvised sham, a con man's counterfeit goods," J.D. Maddox, an American intelligence officer who led the Iraq Survey Group that was assigned the task to search the supposed WMDs, wrote in 2020.&nbsp;

The Iraqi capital Baghdad fell to the US forces within two weeks of the invasion. Saddam Hussein was captured by US forces nine months later in December 2003.&nbsp;

In May 2003, the United States installed the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) government at a walled-off segment of Baghdad known as the Green Zone, setting up a capital-within-a-capital.

The new government was seen as insulated from the Iraqi people whose lives and livelihoods were at stake. While Americans and their few Iraqi allies enjoyed clean streets, air conditioning and even fast food chains, ordinary Iraqis were subject to looting and violence.

Three years later, after a trial widely seen as a sham, Hussein was hanged to death in January 2006.&nbsp;<img alt="Saddam Hussein" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="c08d7ab8-af5f-4605-a69a-a5de26e2e591" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled%20design%20-%202023-03-23T235347.345.jpg" />

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein argues with prosecutors while testifying during cross-examination at his trial in Baghdad's Green Zone, April 5, 2006. He was hanged on December 30, 2006 | Reuters image

A cycle of political uncertainty followed.

The detractors of Hussein's mostly Sunni Ba'ath Party became part of armed groups based on sectarian allegiances, a move that was to snowball into the terror unleashed by Abu Baqr-al Baghdadi's 'Islamic State of Iraq and Syria' years later.&nbsp;

"Iraq was a combustible nation full of sectarianism that had the potential to be worse than civil wars in Syria and Lebanon," said Julian McBride, an anthropologist who tells the stories of victims of war through art and research, and is the founder and director of non-profit Reflections on War (ROW) Initiative.

While anti-war protestors like Alexander Phillips knew that it was unlikely that their protests were going to stop the impending invasion, the political climate post-9/11 terror attack of 2001 in the United States made it even more difficult for such a possibility to emerge in the first place.

Phillips told WION that he and his fellow protestors saw 'a lot of middle fingers' from the passersby at San Diego in February 2003.&nbsp;

ALSO READ |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/pretext-of-iraq-war-just-an-excuse-tony-blair-denounces-putins-ukraine-invasion-573321">Pretext of Iraq war just an ‘excuse’: Tony Blair denounces Putin’s Ukraine invasion</a>

"A lot of angry people were explaining to me that I was misguided. That in five years, Iraq would be a stable democracy," Phillips, 37, now an assistant professor of English at Ashoka University near New Delhi, told WION.&nbsp;

"We were going after war with the evidence that was flimsy at best. I think that it is too easy to say we were misled and that we were lied to," Phillips said, adding that the 'political and journalistic establishment seemed quite set on invading Iraq'.

Twenty years on, the assertions of the Bush administration have been proven false. Despite the commitment of over $60 billion in the US funds to reconstruction alone, Iraq remains fractured and vulnerable to violence.

"I would argue that anyone could have known this at the time. That case for going after the war was questionable at best. I understood this, as an 18-year-old. We could have all known this," Phillips added.

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In February 2003, a few weeks before the United States launched a full-scale invasion of Iraq, Alexander Phillips, an American then aged 18, participated in one of the anti-war protests which called upon the administration of President George W Bush against invading Saddam Hussein-led Iraq.

In February 2003, a few weeks before the United States launched a full-scale invasion of Iraq, Alexander Phillips, an American then aged 18, participated in one of the anti-war protests which called upon the administration of President George W Bush against invading Saddam Hussein-led Iraq. Alexander Phillips, with microphone, at an anti-war protest in Orange County, California, March 5, 2003 | Alexander Phillips "We don't want a smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," the US declared, and went on to invade Iraq, citing the presence of 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' in the country, and characterising the West Asian nation as a 'sanctuary for terrorism'. Many years later, no such weapons were found. "The Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were no more than a bit of improvised sham, a con man's counterfeit goods," J.D. Maddox, an American intelligence officer who led the Iraq Survey Group that was assigned the task to search the supposed WMDs, wrote in 2020. The Iraqi capital Baghdad fell to the US forces within two weeks of the invasion. Saddam Hussein was captured by US forces nine months later in December 2003. In May 2003, the United States installed the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) government at a walled-off segment of Baghdad known as the Green Zone, setting up a capital-within-a-capital. The new government was seen as insulated from the Iraqi people whose lives and livelihoods were at stake. While Americans and their few Iraqi allies enjoyed clean streets, air conditioning and even fast food chains, ordinary Iraqis were subject to looting and violence. Three years later, after a trial widely seen as a sham, Hussein was hanged to death in January 2006. Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein argues with prosecutors while testifying during cross-examination at his trial in Baghdad's Green Zone, April 5, 2006. He was hanged on December 30, 2006 | Reuters image A cycle of political uncertainty followed. The detractors of Hussein's mostly Sunni Ba'ath Party became part of armed groups based on sectarian allegiances, a move that was to snowball into the terror unleashed by Abu Baqr-al Baghdadi's 'Islamic State of Iraq and Syria' years later. "Iraq was a combustible nation full of sectarianism that had the potential to be worse than civil wars in Syria and Lebanon," said Julian McBride, an anthropologist who tells the stories of victims of war through art and research, and is the founder and director of non-profit Reflections on War (ROW) Initiative. While anti-war protestors like Alexander Phillips knew that it was unlikely that their protests were going to stop the impending invasion, the political climate post-9/11 terror attack of 2001 in the United States made it even more difficult for such a possibility to emerge in the first place. Phillips told WION that he and his fellow protestors saw 'a lot of middle fingers' from the passersby at San Diego in February 2003. ALSO READ | Pretext of Iraq war just an ‘excuse’: Tony Blair denounces Putin’s Ukraine invasion "A lot of angry people were explaining to me that I was misguided. That in five years, Iraq would be a stable democracy," Phillips, 37, now an assistant professor of English at Ashoka University near New Delhi, told WION. "We were going after war with the evidence that was flimsy at best. I think that it is too easy to say we were misled and that we were lied to," Phillips said, adding that the 'political and journalistic establishment seemed quite set on invading Iraq'. Twenty years on, the assertions of the Bush administration have been proven false. Despite the commitment of over $60 billion in the US funds to reconstruction alone, Iraq remains fractured and vulnerable to violence. "I would argue that anyone could have known this at the time. That case for going after the war was questionable at best. I understood this, as an 18-year-old. We could have all known this," Phillips added. WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

Iraq war, 20 years on | An American anti-war protestor remembers as world moves on

Britain&#39;s decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003 had a &quot;far from satisfactory&quot; legal basis and former prime minister Tony Blair&#39;s case for military action was over-hyped, a long-awaited inquiry into the conflict concluded on Wednesday. 
 
Below are some of the report&#39;s key findings: 
 
Unsatisfactory legal basis for war 
 
John Chilcot, head of the inquiry, said in his statement: &quot;We have concluded that the circumstances in which it was decided that there was a legal basis for UK military action were far from satisfactory.&quot; 
 
The report cited several shortcomings in the legal process, including: 
 
- The legal advice produced by the government&#39;s top lawyer was presented to a cabinet meeting of senior ministers, but not discussed in detail: 
 
&quot;There was little appetite to question Lord Goldsmith (Attorney General) about his advice&quot; that the invasion was legal, and &quot;no substantive discussion of the legal issues was recorded&quot;, the report said. 
 
Intelligence case 
 
The report criticised the way Prime Minister Tony Blair presented intelligence information to the public: 
 
- &quot;The deliberate selection of a formulation which grounded the statement in what Mr Blair believed, rather than in the judgements which the JIC (Joint Intelligence Committee) had actually reached in its assessment of the intelligence, indicates a distinction between his beliefs and the JIC&rsquo;s actual judgements.&quot; 
 
The intelligence itself was also criticised: 
 
- &quot;At no stage was the proposition that Iraq might no longer have chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or programmes identified and examined by either the JIC or the policy community.&quot; 
 
Last resort 
 
The report said that Britain chose to join the invasion of Iraq before peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted: 
 
&quot;At the time of the parliamentary vote of 18 March, diplomatic options had not been exhausted. The point had not been reached where military action was the last resort.&quot; 
 
Al-Qaeda 
 
Blair was warned about the threat of increased Al-Qaeda activity as a result of the invasion, the report said. 
 
- &quot;Mr Blair had been advised that an invasion of Iraq was expected to increase the threat to the UK and UK interests from Al-Qaida and its affiliates.&quot; 
 
- It cited Blair&#39;s response, made in a 2011 statement: 
 
&quot;I took the view then and take the same view now that to have backed down because of the threat of terrorism would be completely wrong.&quot; 
 
Strategic failure 
 
&quot;The Iraq of 2009 certainly did not meet the UK&#39;s objectives as described in January 2003: it fell far short of strategic success. Although the borders of Iraq were the same as they had been in 2003, deep sectarian division threatened both stability and unity.&quot; 
 
Post-invasion planning 
 
The report criticised the government&#39;s post-conflict planning for Iraq: 
 
- &quot;The information on Iraq available to the UK government before the invasion provided a clear indication of the potential scale of the post-conflict task.&quot; 
 
- &quot;When the invasion began, the UK Government was not in a position to conclude that satisfactory plans had been drawn up and preparations made to meet known post-conflict challenges and risks in Iraq and to mitigate the risk of strategic failure.&quot; 
 
(Reuters)

The report said that Britain chose to join the invasion of Iraq before peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted

Britain's decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003 had a "far from satisfactory" legal basis and former prime minister Tony Blair's case for military action was over-hyped, a long-awaited inquiry into the conflict concluded on Wednesday. Below are some of the report's key findings: Unsatisfactory legal basis for war John Chilcot, head of the inquiry, said in his statement: "We have concluded that the circumstances in which it was decided that there was a legal basis for UK military action were far from satisfactory." The report cited several shortcomings in the legal process, including: - The legal advice produced by the government's top lawyer was presented to a cabinet meeting of senior ministers, but not discussed in detail: "There was little appetite to question Lord Goldsmith (Attorney General) about his advice" that the invasion was legal, and "no substantive discussion of the legal issues was recorded", the report said. Intelligence case The report criticised the way Prime Minister Tony Blair presented intelligence information to the public: - "The deliberate selection of a formulation which grounded the statement in what Mr Blair believed, rather than in the judgements which the JIC (Joint Intelligence Committee) had actually reached in its assessment of the intelligence, indicates a distinction between his beliefs and the JIC’s actual judgements." The intelligence itself was also criticised: - "At no stage was the proposition that Iraq might no longer have chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or programmes identified and examined by either the JIC or the policy community." Last resort The report said that Britain chose to join the invasion of Iraq before peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted: "At the time of the parliamentary vote of 18 March, diplomatic options had not been exhausted. The point had not been reached where military action was the last resort." Al-Qaeda Blair was warned about the threat of increased Al-Qaeda activity as a result of the invasion, the report said. - "Mr Blair had been advised that an invasion of Iraq was expected to increase the threat to the UK and UK interests from Al-Qaida and its affiliates." - It cited Blair's response, made in a 2011 statement: "I took the view then and take the same view now that to have backed down because of the threat of terrorism would be completely wrong." Strategic failure "The Iraq of 2009 certainly did not meet the UK's objectives as described in January 2003: it fell far short of strategic success. Although the borders of Iraq were the same as they had been in 2003, deep sectarian division threatened both stability and unity." Post-invasion planning The report criticised the government's post-conflict planning for Iraq: - "The information on Iraq available to the UK government before the invasion provided a clear indication of the potential scale of the post-conflict task." - "When the invasion began, the UK Government was not in a position to conclude that satisfactory plans had been drawn up and preparations made to meet known post-conflict challenges and risks in Iraq and to mitigate the risk of strategic failure." (Reuters)

British inquiry into Iraq war: legal basis for UK military action 'far from satisfactory'

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Iraq war, 20 years on | An American anti-war protestor remembers as world moves on

British inquiry into Iraq war: legal basis for UK military action 'far from satisfactory'