Under the command of then-President George W. Bush, US forces invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003, accusing Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein of having weapons of mass destruction. After eight years of war, Washington began withdrawing its forces from Iraq in 2011, having found no evidence of WMDs. The invasion brought forward sectarian warfare, the rise of violent militias and armed groups, and overall destruction and chaos which still impact all walks of life in the Iraqi state to this day. Over 100,000 Iraqi civilians and around 4,500 US troops were killed as a result of the war. Rudaw Media Network and Chinese state-run CGTN collaborated to produce "Iraq 20 years on: post-war reconstruction," a special program dissecting the aftermath of the US invasion and Washington’s failure to deliver on the promises made to the Iraqi nation.
