09/04/2008 Every year since April 9, 2003, Iraq folds another page in the book of its occupation written by the United States with the blood of Iraqis; a book the US began writing five years ago but when will they finish it? There is still plenty of Iraqi blood…
  
Two weeks were enough to end Saddam Hussein's 24-year rule and invade Iraq. On the 20th of March, 2003 the US launched its war against the Arab country after convincing its army that it will be received by the oppressed Iraqi's with flowers and cheers. Washington also convinced its army that it's going to Iraq on a mission to spread democracy.  
 
The US invasion and the weak Iraqi resistance led to the quick fall of Baghdad, the flight of Saddam, his capture in December, 2003 and his execution in December, 2006.
 
Sadness prevailed in the Arab and Islamic worlds as another Arab country fell under occupation; a feeling associated with finite US pride. It was not long until Iraqis found out that what lied behind the American "democracy slogan" was a bath of blood spilled from more than a million Iraqis killed to hide the crime of controlling the country's riches by major US companies.
 
But shortly after the invasion, anti-US groups were formed, mostly among Sunnis and among various sectarian groups. Unfortunately, some of these groups didn't distinguish between the occupation and Iraqi civilians. As a result, the "Anbar Awakening" rose up against al-Qaeda in Iraq.
 
At the time Mahdi Army launched two uprisings against the US occupation; several Shiite resistance groups came into being and carried out successful anti-occupation attacks. But at the same time, prisoners and abuses were starting to pile up at a notorious prison west of Baghdad called Abu Ghraib. The start of 2004 was marked by a relative lull in violence in which millions of Iraqis were forced to immigrate.
  
Nevertheless, Iraqi people were able to overcome difficulties and establish political groups and factions. The country's first free elections were held and several competing parliamentary blocs emerged.
 
Moreover, as the US casualties have piled up, the occupation has been increasingly haunted by the pre-war warning reportedly delivered by secretary of state Colin Powell to President George W. Bush: "You break it, you own it."
 
Five years on, the Americans are still picking up the pieces.
 
Estimates of the number of US soldiers killed reached 4,024 since the March 2003 invasion. The financial cost of the war has been more than £4.5 billion ($9 billion) to the UK, and over $845 billion to the U.S., with the total cost to the U.S. economy estimated at $3 to 5 trillion. Member nations of the US-led occupation force began to withdraw their troops as public opinion favoring withdrawals increased.
 
Occupying another country is usually a messy affair, but it didn't take long for the United States to find out that it had gotten more than it bargained for when it invaded Iraq.