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Letter to the editor

Key events in Iraq war for Bush presidency

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 14, 2007

Iraq war time line

March 17, 2003: President Bush gives Saddam Hussein a 48-hour deadline to give up power. U.S.-led invasion of Iraq begins three days later.

May 1, 2003: On an aircraft carrier under a "Mission Accomplished" banner, President Bush declares "major combat operations in Iraq have ended."

Dec. 13, 2003: Hussein captured while hiding in hole in ground near Tikrit; hanged in December 2006.

April 2004: Photographs surface of prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

June 28, 2004: The U.S. occupation authority turns formal power over to the interim Iraqi government.

Oct. 6, 2004: Top U.S. arms inspector in Iraq finds no evidence that Hussein's regime produced weapons of mass destruction after 1991, discounting a main justification of the war.

May 3, 2005: The first democratically elected Iraqi government is sworn in.

Feb. 23, 2006: At least 136 Iraqis are killed in sectarian violence a day after an explosion destroys the dome of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra.

Nov. 7, 2006: In U.S. congressional elections widely viewed as a referendum on the war, Republicans lose control of both the House and Senate.

Nov. 8, 2006: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigns; Bush nominates former CIA director Robert Gates as successor.

Dec. 31, 2006: American deaths in the Iraq war reach 3,000.

Jan. 10: Bush commits more than 21,500 additional American troops to Iraq - a military buildup that has grown to 30,000 with support troops.

July 12: White House report required by Congress says Iraq has made satisfactory progress on eight of 18 political and security benchmarks, unsatisfactory progress on eight and that it's too early to judge progress on two.

Cost of war

The United States has spent about a half-trillion dollars on the Iraq war. Here's a look at war spending:

- The military spends about $9-billion a month in Iraq.

- Congress has appropriated about $450-billion for the war in Iraq, and $127-billion for Afghanistan.

- Bush has requested, but Congress has not approved, $147-billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for budget year 2008, which starts Oct. 1. About $116-billion of that would go toward Iraq.

[Last modified September 13, 2007, 23:37:16]