Question: The 2003 march from Kuwait to Baghdad signalled the start of what war?

Context articles: Ray L. Smith
Battle of Haditha Dam
2003 invasion of Iraq
Kuwaiti Government in exile
Oliver Poole (journalist)
Baghdad or Bust
Taurus Express
2012 Arab League summit
Kuwait (Kanso series)
22 January 2007 Baghdad bombings

Ray L. Smith is a retired United States Marine Corps major general.
 Smith is a highly decorated Marine who has commanded infantry units at all levels.
 His awards received for service in combat during the Vietnam War include the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, the Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. MajGen Smith retired from the Marine Corps in 1999 after almost 34 years of service.
 In 2003, after nearly four years of retirement, Smith went to Iraq with the 1st Marine Division; and penned an eyewitness account of the march from Kuwait to Baghdad — "The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division."
One of the largest dams in the world, the Haditha complex provided fully one-third of the Iraqi electrical grid load in 2003.
 Located northwest of Baghdad, the dam was built during the Cold War to provide hydroelectric power for central Iraq, including Baghdad.
 The Haditha Dam also controlled the flow of the Euphrates into the lower Euphrates/Tigris River Valley.
 During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, United States Army Rangers seized the Haditha Dam on 1 April in order to prevent it from being destroyed.
 The destruction of the dam would have significantly affected the functioning of the country's electrical grid and could cause major flooding downstream from the dam.
 Along with providing flood control and a third of Iraq’s electrical generation capacity, the dam provided the only other crossing of the Euphrates River west of Baghdad.
 An additional bonus would be by capturing both locations the Iraqi Army would drawn away from their defense of Baghdad, which was under assault by the US Army V Corps.
 However, the Iraqi high command were not ignorant of the dam’s strategic value, and they had stationed a powerful defensive force in and around the Haditha Dam.
The 2003 invasion of Iraq lasted from 20 March to 1 May 2003 and signalled the start of the Iraq War, which was dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the United States (prior to 19 March, the mission in Iraq was called Operation Enduring Freedom, a carryover from the War in Afghanistan).
 The invasion consisted of 21 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and deposed the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein.
 The invasion phase consisted primarily of a conventionally fought war which included the capture of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad by American forces with the implicit assistance of the United Kingdom, alongside Australia and Poland.
The Kuwaiti Government-in-exile (Arabic: الحكومة الكويتية في المنفى‎ ‎ ) was the government-in-exile of Kuwait following the Ba'athist Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait, during the Gulf War.
 On 2 August 1990, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and senior members of his government fled to Saudi Arabia, where they set up a government-in-exile in Ta'if.
 The Kuwaiti government in exile was far more affluent than most other such governments, having full disposal of the very considerable Kuwaiti assets in western banks—of which it made use to conduct a massive propaganda campaign denouncing the Ba'athist Iraqi occupation and mobilizing public opinion in the western hemisphere in favor of war with Ba'athist Iraq.
 In March 1991, following the defeat of Ba'athist Iraq at the hands of coalition forces in the Persian Gulf War, the Sheikh and his government were able to return to Kuwait.
Oliver Poole is a British journalist and author who has had articles published by The Independent, The Guardian, BBC News and The Observer.
 He has also published two books detailing his experiences of the war in Iraq; "Black Knights: On the Bloody Road to Baghdad" and "Red Zone: Five Bloody Years in Baghdad".
 In "Black Knights", Oliver details his experiences embedded in a US tank corps known as the Black Knights as they spearheaded the push into Baghdad in spring 2003.
 Following on from this experience, "Red Zone" provides an account of daily life for Iraqis, as well as the British and American soldiers sent to Iraq.
 It is also the story of Ahmed Ali, tourist guide turned Telegraph interpreter, a job that made him an insurgent target.
Baghdad or Bust was a small budget documentary filmed in Canada, Turkey, Kurdistan, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Washington, D.C. USA during the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq.
 "Baghdad or Bust" was an official selection at several Film Festivals including Hot Docs, the Bergen Film Festival in Norway, and it received the top award for Best Documentary at the 2003 Whistler Film Festival.
 "Baghdad or Bust" was described as "a funny, poignant piss-take on the war in Iraq, chronicling the misadventures of Gordon and two fellow Yellowknifers as they meander through the Middle East during the U.S. invasion, interviewing such stranger-than-fictional characters as a piratical Kurd and a Turkish rug-monger with a cat named Bush.
 Armed with a microphone, director Matt Frame's self-effacing and sardonic wit wins the day with his parody of Michael Moore's filmmaking style. "
The Taurus Express (Turkish: "Toros Ekspresi" ) is an overnight train operating between Eskişehir and Adana.
 In the past it was a premier passenger train operated by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits between İstanbul and Baghdad.
 After 1972, passengers could travel down to Basra via connection to the Express 2 made at Baghdad Central Station.
 However, service was suspended in 2003, due to the outbreak of war in Iraq.
 In 2012, the State Railways renewed service between Eskişehir and Adana and will once again service İstanbul when track work in the city is complete.
 There is a chance that the train may continue to its former terminus in Baghdad in the future, but the possibility remains low for the time being.
The 23rd Arab League Summit was the third one held in Baghdad and the first one since 1990, before the start of the Gulf War.
 The decision to grant the host rights to Iraq was made at the previous summit in Sirte.
 Among the subjects discussed were the Iraqi debts to its neighbors and the uprising in Syria.
 The summit marked the first time since the Invasion of Kuwait that an acting Emir (Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah) paid a visit to Iraq.
 The summit was also notable as being the first held since the beginning of the Arab Spring, during which the governments of several member states were overthrown by popular revolutions.
Kuwait is a group of approximately 40 paintings made by Nabil Kanso in 1990-91 on the Gulf War and Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
 The works in the series were first exhibited in Kuwait in March – April 1992 at the Free Atelier Art Center and traveled in June to Caracas for a special exhibit at the Palacio de Gobierno in honor of the Emir of Kuwait’s visit to Venezuela.
 Then, the exhibition proceeded to Geneva and was held at the Red Cross Museum in July – August 1992.
The 22 January 2007 Baghdad bombings was a terrorist attack that occurred when two powerful car bombs ripped through the Bab Al-Sharqi market in central Baghdad, killing at least 88 people and wounding 160 others in one of the bloodiest days since the US invasion of Iraq.
 The attack occurred two days after the start of the 10-day Shiite festival leading up to Ashoura.
 It also coincided with the arrival of 3,200 additional troops into Baghdad as part of the Iraq War troop surge of 2007.