In March 2003 , President George W. Bush ordered an invasion of Iraq , a state which the Bush administration claimed was linked to the September 11 attacks in 2001 , and claimed was producing weapons of mass destruction . That May , just two months after the initial invasion , Bush announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq . In the following months , insurgents began resisting the American occupation . Additionally , religious tensions between majority Shiite and minority Sunni Muslims , tensions which had been suppressed under the grip of the Hussein regime , began to result in violence . By the end of 2003 , despite the war being initially popular , the post-war occupation was losing support from the American public . A November 2003 Gallup poll showed that Bush 's job approval rating had fallen to 50 % from a high of 71 % at the outset of the war
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
2006 United States elections