A government building burns during heavy bombardment of Baghdad by U.S. forces on March 21, 2003. The attack was called "shock and awe," describing the Pentagon's strategy of hitting the Iraqis hard enough to stun them into quick surrender.
Jerome Delay / AP Photo
Marines pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein in the center of Baghdad, April 9, 2003.
Mirrorpix / Getty Images
President George W. Bush declares mission accomplished and an end to the major combat in Iraq aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003. Bush promised to “solve problems, not pass them on to future presidents and future generations.”
J. Scott Applewhite / AP Photo
Private First Class Jessica Lynch waves to the crowd on the last leg of her journey home on July 22, 2003 in Elizabeth, West Virginia. Lynch had been taken prisoner after being caught in an ambush. She returned home after three months of treatment at Walter Reade Medical Center for injuries sustained while trying to escape.
John Himelrick / Getty Images
Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein entered and left his underground hiding place near his hometown of Tikrit through this small hole in the ground southeast of Tikrit, Iraq. Members of the Fourth Infantry Division's First Brigade and U.S. Special Forces captured Hussein at the site during a raid in December 2003.
Efrem Lukatsky / AP Photo; inset: AP Photo
Private First Class Lynndie England holding a leash attached to a detainee in late 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. England became an icon of the Abu Ghraib scandal, in which U.S. soldiers tortured captured enemy combatants. The abuse came to light in April and May 2004.
AP Photo
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testifies on Capitol Hill on U.S. military strategy in Iraq, June 23, 2005, before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Rumsfeld said it "would be a mistake" to set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
Dennis Cook / AP Photo
Cindy Sheehan, who became an anti-war activist following the death of her son in Iraq, places flowers at a cross at Camp Casey next to President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, on August 24, 2005.
LM Otero / AP Photo
President George W. Bush speaks in Washington D.C., on December 14, 2005. Bush accepted responsibility for taking the U.S. to war in Iraq based on faulty intelligence, while saying the invasion was nonetheless justified by the threat posed by Saddam Hussein and international terrorism.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP Photo
Saddam Hussein and his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti berate the court during their trial in Baghdad.
David Furst, AFP / Getty Images
An Iraqi woman walks past a burnt car on September 24, 2007, at the site where Blackwater guards who were escorting U.S. embassy officials opened fire in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Yarmukh, leaving as many as 17 civilians dead. Blackwater became a symbol of the conflicts caused by private security companies operating in the war zone. Today, Blackwater is called Xe, and its role in Iraq remains an open debate.
Ali Yussef, AFP / Getty Images
A man throws a shoe at President Bush during a news conference with Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on December 14, 2008, in Baghdad. The man threw two shoes at Bush, one after another. Bush ducked both throws, and neither man was hit.
APTN / AP Photo
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker attend the signing of a Iraqi-U.S. security pact on November 17, 2008 at the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad. As part of the deal, U.S. troops were expected to withdraw from the streets of Iraqi towns by next year, leaving Iraq completely by the end of 2011. The Obama administration's timeline for leaving Iraq is in line with this agreement.
Getty Images
On April 7, 2009, the new commander-in-chief addresses military personnel at Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq.
Charles Dharapak / AP Photo
Iraqis gather at the site of a massive bomb attack at the Ministry of Justice in Baghdad, Iraq, on October 25, 2009. Violence continues to be a problem in Iraq, especially around major events like this month's parliamentary elections.
Karim Kadim / AP Photo
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates speaks to soldiers on December 11, 2009, in Kirkuk. Gates stopped in Iraq following a two day trip to Afghanistan one week after U.S. President Barack Obama announced that he will send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Officials count parliamentary election ballots at the tally center in Baghdad on March 11, 2010.
Saad Shalash / Reuters
