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Foreign
Relations
I
n early April 2003, after just a few weeks of fighting, U.S.
Marines helped a crowd of cheering Iraqis topple an enormous
statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. To many people around
the world, this scene was a symbol of the toppling of Saddam
Hussein’s regime.
“Regime change” in Iraq had been a long-standing goal of
President George W. Bush. Bush administration officials and their
supporters expressed the hope that if Saddam’s dictatorship fell,
the United States could help build Iraq into a democracy—the first
real democracy among the Arab states. And a successful, demo-
cratic Iraq, U.S. leaders said openly, might serve as a model for
other Arab societies.
The early plan for postwar Iraq was for the creation of an inter-
im government consisting of a council of leaders (numbering per-
haps eight or nine) from various Iraqi groups. Under U.S. direction,
this interim government would allow the country to function while
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Two Iraqi boys pose beside a toppled statue of Saddam Hussein, April 14, 2003. Iraq’s emer-
gence from 24 years of ruthless rule under Saddam presented exciting possibilities—but also
significant challenges.