page_title: 2003 invasion of Iraq
section_title: Related phrases
hierarchical_section_title: 2003 invasion of Iraq / Related phrases
context_page_description: The 2003 invasion of Iraq was the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 and 20 March 2003 and lasted just over one month, including 26 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq. This early stage of the war formally ended on 1 May 2003 when U.S. President George W. Bush declared the "end of major combat operations", after which the Coalition Provisional Authority was established as the first of several successive transitional governments leading up to the first Iraqi parliamentary election in January 2005. U.S. military forces later remained in Iraq until the withdrawal in 2011.
  The U.S.-led coalition sent 177,194 troops into Iraq during the initial invasion phase, which lasted from 19 March to 1 May 2003. About 130,000 arrived from the U.S. alone, with about 45,000 British soldiers, 2,000 Australian soldiers, and 194 Polish soldiers. 36 other countries were involved in its aftermath. In preparation for the invasion, 100,000 U.S. troops assembled in Kuwait by 18 February.
context_section_description: This campaign featured a variety of new terminology, much of it initially coined by the U.S. government or military. The military official name for the invasion was Operation Iraqi Freedom. Also notable was the usage "death squads" to refer to Fedayeen paramilitary forces. Members of the Saddam Hussein government were called by disparaging nicknames – e.g., "Chemical Ali" (Ali Hassan al-Majid), "Baghdad Bob" or "Comical Ali" (Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf), and "Mrs. Anthrax" or "Chemical Sally" (Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash).
  Terminology introduced or popularized during the war include:
  "Axis of evil", originally used by Bush during a State of the Union address on 29 January 2002 to refer to the countries of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.
  "Coalition of the willing", a term that originated in the Clinton era (e.g., interview, Clinton, ABC, 8 June 1994), and used by the Bush Administration for the countries contributing troops in the invasion, of which the U.S. and UK were the primary members.
  "Decapitating the regime", a euphemism for killing Saddam Hussein.
  "Embedding", United States practice of assigning civilian journalists to U.S. military units.
  "Freedom fries", a euphemism for French fries invented to protest the non-participation of France
  "Mother of all bombs", a bomb developed and produced to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. Its name echoed Saddam's phrase "Mother of all battles" to describe the first Gulf War.
  "Old Europe", Rumsfeld's term for European governments not supporting the war: "You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe."
  "Regime change", a euphemism for overthrowing a government.
  "Shock and Awe", the strategy of reducing an enemy's will to fight through displays of overwhelming force.
  Many slogans and terms coined came to be used by Bush's political opponents, or those opposed to the war. For example, in April 2003 John Kerry, the Democratic candidate in the presidential election, said at a campaign rally: "What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States." Other war critics use the name "Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL)" to subtly convey their belief with respect to the cause of the war, such as the song "Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL)" by David Rovics, a popular folk protest singer.
caption: Poland was part of the "coalition of the willing"
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "A Polish Soldier uses a cord to steady his 7.62 mm PKM light machine gun as he takes part in an afternoon patrol around the perimeter of Camp Babylon, Iraq during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM.", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "197", "Image YResolution": "197", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2004:09:30 11:15:12", "Image Artist": "SSGT RICKY A. BLOOM, USAF", "Image ExifOffset": "392", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "530", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6438", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1974", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1312"}