Home Front

The Iraq War began in March 2003 when President George W. Bush initiated Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). (In the novel, Jolene refers to herself as an OIF veteran when she returns home.) The Bush administration launched this campaign on the pretense that Iraq was harboring “weapons of mass destruction.” To launch this campaign, the Bush administration overrode US law by declaring war on executive orders, without first consulting Congress and various other bodies. The US, United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland began the invasion through a bombing campaign that evolved into a ground campaign, which quickly overran Iraqi forces.

The invading forces captured Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in December 2003; the subsequent trial condemned Hussein to death by hanging for crimes against humanity. Hussein’s execution occurred in December 2006. Hussein’s capture brought an end to the Ba’athist socialist regime while the invaders established their own interim government. However, Hussein’s death initiated a civil war between the Sunnis and Shias, which prolonged Iraq’s fight against the US and its allies.

President Bush began withdrawing American troops from the Middle East in 2008. The war ended in December 2011 under President Barack Obama, although the United States continues to maintain a military presence in Iraq.

Upwards of 400,000 Iraqi people died in the conflict, most of them civilians; body counts are difficult to estimate due indiscriminate bombings. Experts estimate over 4,000 American military deaths. The war cost the US $3-6 trillion, including the estimated long-term veteran costs and the overall economic impact. There was a lot of international and domestic opposition to the war from both politicians and citizens. In 2004, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared that the United States’ invasion of Iraq “was not in conformity with the UN charter. From our point of view […] it was illegal” (MacAskill, Ewan and Julian Borger, “Iraq War Was Illegal and Broke UN Charter, Annan Says.” The Guardian, 2004). International human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have alleged that US-led coalition troops committed “war crimes and other atrocities” during the war for which no justice has been served (“Iraq: 20 Years Since the US-Led Coalition Invaded Iraq, Impunity Reigns Supreme.” Amnesty International, 2023). In the novel, Michael and his friends exemplify some Americans’ negative feelings toward the war. Just as Michael does, Americans thought the war took their service men and women into extreme danger unnecessarily and that the outcomes of the war were not worth the risks to the military personnel.