Before the U.S. rolled into Baghdad 20 years ago, Iraqis warned us what would happen

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/21/ [login to see] /iraq-invasion-anniversary-20-years
When the so-called "shock and awe" U.S. missile strikes started in Baghdad 20 years ago this week, I was among a small group of Western reporters watching from hotel balconies along the Tigris River. Explosions, smoke and debris erupted from government buildings in what would soon become the Green Zone. Reports came in of U.S. troops entering the country from the south. We ventured out with government minders, then increasingly on our own, to bomb sites and hospitals treating the wounded.

We worried for our own safety, doing our work with anxious, rumor-fueled uncertainty about whether we'd be made "human shields" or detained. Four of our colleagues were jailed by Iraqi authorities a few days after the invasion began and held for a week while we appealed to officials for their release. And we counted on U.S. forces knowing our two hotels, though we saw soon enough that, tragically, not all of them did.

The toll of the invasion — and violent events that followed for decades — is still being calculated, but it's clear it was high. The Costs of War Project at Brown University counts as many as 210,038 Iraqi civilians who've died in violence since 2003, along with tens of thousands of Iraqi combatants — security forces and insurgents. There were 4,599 U.S. troops killed along with thousands more contractors working for the U.S.