Aftermath

Weapons inspectors failed to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after the fall of the Hussein regime. As a result, many people came to believe that the United States and British government had exaggerated the Iraqi threat prior to the war. Investigators found that intelligence agencies in both countries had provided incorrect estimates of Iraqs weapons capabilities.

At the same time, leaders in the U.S. Congress raised concerns about the human and economic costs of the continuing Iraqi occupation. Gulf War II appeared to have turned political opinion in many countries against the United States, eclipsing the outpouring of international sympathy it had received in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks