United States

With some international assistance, notably from the United Kingdom, the United States launched a brief air bombing campaign in Iraq followed by a massive ground invasion, arising from Kuwait in the south. The resistance encountered was heavier than expected, especially in the major cities, which nevertheless capitulated and fell under U.S. or British control by the end of April; on May 1 President Bush declared an end to major combat. Armed resistance, however, continued and even increased, primarily as guerrilla attacks on U.S. soldiers and on Iraqis assuming positions of leadership. The American goal of a rebuilt, democratic state in Iraq proved elusive, as U.S. administrators struggled to reinstitute basic infrastructure to the country following the victory. Just as elusive were Iraq’s former leader, Saddam Hussein, who was eventually captured in December, and hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction. The lack of such evidence and continuing American casualties emboldened critics of the administration, who questioned the prewar intelligence gathered to support the invasion.

Iraq WarExplosions illuminating the skies of Baghdad during the U.S.-led air bombardment of the city, March 2003.Ali Heider/AP Images

As a result, the Iraq War became a major issue in the campaign for the 2004 presidential election between Bush and his Democratic challenger, U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. Other campaign issues included joblessness, homeland security, free trade, health care, and the role of the country in the international community, as well as debates over religion, abortion, marriage, and civil rights. Candidate spending, voter turnout, and partisan dissension were high, and Bush defeated Kerry in a contentious and close election, which seemed, like the 2000 election, to hinge on the electoral votes of a single state, this time Ohio.

Bush began his second term emboldened by a larger Republican majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, with promises to prop up the sagging economy, allay domestic security fears, reduce the national debt, lower unemployment, and help usher in an era of democracy in Iraq. In particular, he sought to privatize Social Security and overhaul the tax system.

By mid-decade the economy showed strong signs of revival, based partly on the continuing upsurge of the housing market. Bush’s plan for Social Security reform, however, proved unpopular and never even came to a vote. The president’s personal popularity and that of his party began to wane as it was beset with a series of ethics-related scandals. In 2005 Republican House majority leader Tom Delay was forced to step down after a Texas grand jury indicted him on election-law violations; later he was further linked to influence-peddling indiscretions that led to the conviction and imprisonment of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In 2006, reports of national security-related government wiretapping and allegations of torture of some suspected terrorists alarmed civil libertarians. The next year Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was forced to resign after a probe into the “political” firing of eight U.S. attorneys; and Lewis (“Scooter”) Libby, special assistant to Vice Pres. Dick Cheney, was convicted of lying to a special counsel regarding his involvement in the politically motivated leak of a CIA agent’s covert identity.

Even more damaging to Bush’s standing with many Americans was what was widely seen as the federal government’s failure to deal promptly and effectively with the fallout from Hurricane Katrina, which devastated parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana, especially New Orleans, in late August 2005. Moreover, with casualties mounting in Iraq, more people had come to believe that the Bush administration had misled the country into war. As a result of all these factors, the Democrats were able to win narrow majorities in both houses of Congress following the 2006 midterm election. Determined to stay the course in Iraq and in spite of strong Democratic opposition, Bush authorized a “surge” of an additional 30,000 troops that brought the total of U.S. combatants in the country to some 160,000 by autumn 2007. But even as the surge reduced violence in Iraq, the war and the president remained unpopular.