The U.S. invasion of Iraq 20 years ago gripped the entire nation. Today it is far from the minds of most Americans, though not for the veterans who served there.
"Those initial weeks and months there, it was such elation that things went so fast. And I remember talking to a lot of my friends in April and May of 2003 thinking, 'Oh my gosh, this is exciting,'" he says. Cooper ended up serving five tours in Iraq, the last in 2008.
Jaslow served two tours, during the most violent years of the war, as Americans reckoned with the fact that no significant weapons of mass destruction — the given reason for the war — would be found, and the mission shifted to nation building as an uninvited occupying army.Allison Jaslow is shown here while serving in Iraq in 2005. She's now the head of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America."All of our experiences were different," she says."It was such a long war.
"I came back as a more serious, more cold person, and I lost people in the past that were very dear to me because of who I became," says Rodriguez.Alejandro Rodriguez is shown during his time in Iraq as an Army medic."I think it was a big mistake and I do not dwell on it. One tries to not dwell on things," he says of the war.Alejandro Rodriguez is shown during his time in Iraq as an Army medic."I think it was a big mistake and I do not dwell on it.
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