The Iraqi War was a conflict between the United States and its allies, against Saddam Hussein's Baath Socialist government from 2003 to 2011, although most UN coalition forces left the country in 2009 as support for the war across the war waned. The entire war was started based on claims by Iraqi defectors and moles the Central Intelligence Agency had within Iraq that Iraq was in possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD's). Saddam Hussein came into to power in 1968, when he participated in a bloodless coup and became deputy of the country under Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. He finally became the leader of the country when he took over in 1979 by executing many of Ba'ath officials and forcing the incumbent president, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, to resign. He formally assumed the presidency after that. .
On March 20th, 2003, the United States and its allies arrived in Iraq, attacking and crippling the Iraqi army as Bush ordered an airstrike on Hussein's compound in Baghdad. In only twenty days, Iraq's capital, Baghdad fell, and soon, Saddam Hussein was captured and executed for his crimes in the Iraqi war and the first Persian Gulf War. However, UN inspectors entered the country in late 2003 and searched for Iraqi possession of WMDs. However, the inspectors concluded that they did not find any WMDs. The claim that Iraq possessed WMDs was based on information from a CIA informant who presented evidence to the CIA that Iraq possessed biological weapons. However, on February 15th, 2011, the defector openly admitted that he lied to the CIA to get the United States to attack Iraq and bring down Saddam Hussein. However, George W. Bush publicly announced that Saddam Hussein was purposely provoking the West by avoiding the sanctions and embargos set on Iraq. .
This war had many cultural, economic, and political effects on the Iraqi state. One of the most significant cultural effects was the Sunni and Shia uprisings after Hussein' s socialist government fell.
