On 6 January 2003 Iraq celebrated the 82nd anniversary of its army’s existence. In Baghdad and elsewhere, there was apprehension about the future, but the top leadership did not imagine that those were to be the last celebrations that would take place under their regime. Iraq’s defeat in Operation “Iraqi Freedom” less than three months later was a dramatic finale for a regime—and for Saddam himself—that had ruled the country with an iron hand for a third of a century, a period that had witnessed more wars than any other chapter in modern Iraqi history. As Saddam put it, “Has there ever been an army that fought harder and longer than the Iraqi Army?”...
