On August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussain invaded Kuwait. The US response was swift and effective. On January 16, 1991, the U.S. and other U.N. members began daily bombing raids, and on February 23, 1991, the ground assault began. Within one hundred hours Kuwait was liberated and the first President Bush declared a cease-fire.
In his State of the Union address in January 2002, the second President Bush stated that we must "prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction." On the night of March 19, 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom began, and by mid- April Saddam's statues were toppling. Swift and short, on May 1, 2003, standing before a huge banner declaring "Mission Accomplished" aboard an aircraft carrier, President Bush declared victory in the Iraq War. Was this declaration premature?