The United States in Iraq: the consequences of occupation

US policies subsequent to its March 2003 invasion of Iraq bear a direct responsibility for the nature of the violent insurgency, the failure to establish a stable democratic government and the country's growing sectarian strife. It is unlikely that any kind of stable, peaceful, democratic Iraq could have emerged following a foreign invasion even if the subsequent occupation and transition was handled more responsibly, yet the miscalculations by Bush administration officials greatly worsened the situation. Among the most important of these was the decision to impose a neo-liberal economic strategy on the country.