Operation Iraqi Freedom

Texas Service and Sacrifice – Our patriotic state has provided an enormous number of service members, according to Texas Veterans Commission, well over 225,000 service members have served in Afghanistan or Iraq.  Many of these service members were severely injured.  There are over 6800* fallen US service members from deployments during the Global War on Terror and Overseas Contingency Operations.  Approximately 10% of these lives lost are Texans.  Many Texas men and women have deployed multiple times, accumulating years away from their loved ones.  It is for this very reason that our service members today have more combat time than at any other time in our nation’s history.

Honor the service and sacrifice by our great Texas Veterans and their Families by taking action and contributing funds to build the monument at the Texas Capitol.  The time is now to remember and honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice as well as those who served and the families who served and sacrificed along with their service members.

Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)

Simultaneous to the war in Afghanistan, the United States and its allies threatened military action if Iraq did not abide by all of the numerous UN resolutions of the past ten years, including UN Security Council Resolution 1441 (2002), which called on Iraq to cooperate unconditionally with UN weapons inspectors to verify that Iraq was not in possession of WMD and ballistic missiles. The United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) found no evidence of WMD, but could not verify the accuracy of Iraq’s weapons declarations.

On March 20, 2003, in the face of Iraq’s resistance to open inspections by UN weapons inspectors, the U.S. and coalition forces launched Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, a combined air and ground assault. U.S. troops seized Baghdad after just twenty-one days. A broad insurgency that ebbed and flowed over the next seven years challenged efforts to create a democratic Iraqi government and threatened open sectarian warfare between minority Sunni and majority Shia, with northern Kurds aspiring to regional autonomy amid the unrest.

On May 1st, 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush declared the end to major combat operations in Iraq.