On this day, Iraqis recall the scenes of the US forces entering the heart of the capital, Baghdad, on the ninth of April 2003, after about 3 weeks of heavy bombardment and unequal battles, to start a cycle of chaos, looting and destruction.

The war began with a violent bombing campaign called "shock and awe", in which Baghdad alone received a thousand air strikes in one night.

The retired Brigadier General, Dr. Sobhi Nazim, explains that the strategy of shock and intimidation was represented by the size of the projectiles that targeted all parts of Iraq and focused on Baghdad, and caused chaos and destroyed command centers, which caused great shock to some leaders and members of the armed forces.

He adds to Al Jazeera Net that the use of excessive destructive force, despite the weakness of Iraqi capabilities, reveals that the strategic goal is to destroy Iraq.

Nazim considered that the American strategy of shock and intimidation caused chaos and destroyed command centers (Al-Jazeera)

Reasons for the success of the invasion

Nazim attributes the reasons for the success of the invasion to the air control of the US forces and their allies, in addition to the daring attack plan of bypassing the cities and reaching directly to Baghdad, while the Iraqi plan relied on convergence within the cities, waiting for the attacking forces to come and confront them with light and medium weapons.

He points out that the arrival of US ground forces to the outskirts of Baghdad after 5 days, during which they cut off the Najaf desert, led to the collapse of the morale of the Iraqi forces, and there are psychological reasons related to the rosy hopes promised by the Iraqi Americans that made many Iraqis want to get rid of the regime.

Al-Shaher believes that the reason for the quick resolution of the Battle of Baghdad is due to the lack of preparation for its defense (Iraqi Press)

In the same context, military expert Abdul-Khaleq al-Shaher says that the use of shock and intimidation and scorched earth was not justified, but that the American forces were keen on them even to incur human losses in their ranks, so they are exposed to American popular pressures demanding them to withdraw from the war.

He added to Al Jazeera Net, "If we want to be fair and realistic, we must not count the 20 days that took the invasion of Iraq, but rather count the 12 years of a suffocating siege and an almost comprehensive economic war, preceded by a global war of 33 countries, and interspersed with attacks that destroyed Iraqi air defenses and weapons."

Al-Shaher is likely that the reason for the rapid entry into Baghdad and the resolution of its battle is due to the lack of preparation for the defense of Baghdad, and even the Republican Guard divisions were attached to the army corps in the north and south.

He points out that important battles took place in Baghdad, including the battle of the airport, but the invading forces used advanced phosphorous weapons and were able to occupy Baghdad, under heavy bombardment and the use of excessive fire against anything that moved. Many residents were victims of this American apprehension.

heavy losses

Regarding the losses of the invasion, Dr. Khawla Taleb Lafta, professor of modern and contemporary Asian history, says that there is a discrepancy in the number of Iraqis killed, as a study prepared by the British Survey Institute reported the fall of about one million Iraqis during the period from 2003-2007.

And she adds to Al Jazeera Net, that the report of the British scientific magazine "The Lancet", which was issued in 2006, estimated the number of Iraqi dead at about 655,000 dead since the invasion, while the World Health Organization indicated that 140-230 thousand Iraqis were killed, which is a number close to the estimates of the leaked WikiLeaks documents. In 2010, which indicated the killing of about 109,000 Iraqis, while the US military admitted the killing of 77,000 Iraqis, including 63,000 civilians.

With regard to material losses, Gesture mentions that they were huge, starting with the destruction of infrastructure, and the looting, looting and burning that accompanied the invasion of most ministries and government institutions, in addition to looting of museums.

She points out that the psychological losses suffered by the Iraqis cannot be measured, as the psyche of the citizen who is worried about the loss of the homeland and the ambiguity of the future has been shattered.

Hussein considered that one of the intangible losses in Iraq is that they have become the most in the world in terms of tension and sadness (Al Jazeera Net)

In the same context, journalist Bilal Hussein confirms that there are no official statistics or even accurate statistics for humanitarian organizations about the human losses caused by the invasion of Iraq, but many sources have suggested that more than two million and 400 thousand Iraqis were killed during the years of the invasion and the violence that followed it to this day, and more than 5 million internally and externally displaced persons, in addition to hundreds of thousands of detainees and the disappeared.

He talks to Al Jazeera Net about invisible losses represented by Iraq being at the forefront of the most tense and saddest peoples due to the turmoil. Wars have long-term effects that affect the physical and mental health of the individual.

Khalil sees the US invasion of Iraq as a strategic mistake that caused crises for the entire region (Al Jazeera Net)

Ongoing repercussions

The entire regional situation in the Middle East was affected in terms of security, economics and politics by the invasion of Iraq, not to mention the situation inside Iraq after 19 years, says writer and political analyst Bahaa Khalil.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Khalil considered that the invasion of Iraq was one of the major strategic mistakes made by the United States and was almost worse than the decision of the Vietnam War, and the reason was not in its human and material losses in Iraq, but rather in the loss of control over the groups and the entire region.

He explains that when America made Iraq a focus for terrorist groups and militias, it allowed the Russian intervention in the region and the landing of its forces in Syria, and thus Washington lost much of its hegemony over the region.

Khalil points out that "Iraq before the invasion was a state, but after the invasion and even after the US withdrawal in 2011, there is no real state, because America brought people unqualified to lead Iraq and thus put the country in a mill that destroyed it economically, security and politically."

He talks about many repercussions, including the disarmament of weapons and the economic, health, service, educational and environmental deterioration, in addition to the interference of some countries in Iraqi affairs.

Khalil points out that the spread of corruption and Iraq's total dependence on oil and the collapse in its prices in the recent period, led to the bankruptcy of the Iraqi state, and it was forced to borrow large sums of money, with poverty rising by about 40%.

For his part, Hussein believes that the invasion of Iraq led to the dismantling of society by building a political system based on sectarian quotas for the purpose of spreading the spirit of hostility and discrimination among the people.

US forces target locations on the outskirts of the capital as they head towards Baghdad (Getty Images - Archive)

regional balance

The invasion of Iraq brought about fundamental changes on the reality of the regional region, with repercussions related to this process of varying intensity and impact on the reality and future of the regional countries surrounding Iraq, according to the researcher in international affairs, Professor Walid Mahmoud al-Najo.

He adds to Al Jazeera Net, that the region was affected by the results of the invasion in two different directions. The first worked in favor of the stability of its political systems in a desire to maintain its social cohesion, as is the case in Jordan, while the second trend prompted the need to adopt preliminary democratic steps to avoid going into a socio-political rift, as it is It is in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

But the matter was different in the Syrian case, whose political system did not meet the approval of the West, so the regional countries were most affected by the results of the invasion and its repercussions.

Al-Naju considered that the invasion of Iraq produced tangible repercussions on the countries of the regional region (Al-Jazeera Net)

Al-Najo continues, that the invasion process produced tangible repercussions on the countries of the region, including those related to the issue of the regional balance of power in favor of the domination of two non-Arab regional powers, in addition to that, there were changes in the political relations that ruled the countries of the region.

He added that the invasion of Iraq removed the Iraqi force from the equation of the equivalent balance of the Israeli force, and it is on its way to regional hegemony to ensure its absolute supremacy.

The Iraqi researcher warns that the continuing state of political and social fragmentation in Iraq has regional repercussions that necessarily follow the nature of the intellectual trend of the Iraqi political vision, which may adopt different and perhaps contradictory directions.

But this does not excuse the regional countries from receiving the repercussions of Iraqi fragmentation, which may lead to effects on the orientations of their political elites and their social fabric, and in what draws new political roles for the countries of the region that may not be in harmony with their previous trends.