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UN Opposition
France, Germany, and Russia were the leaders in the opposition to the draft resolution, and were very vocal in representing the disapproval of the resolution amongst members of the UN Security Council. On March 5, the foreign ministers of France (Dominique de Villepin), Germany (Joschka Fischer), and Russia (Igor Ivanov) held a mini-summit in Paris where they discussed their opposition to the resolution. There was no representative of China at the meeting, but Ivanov announced that China agreed with the three countries in opposition to the resolution. After the meeting, de Villepen spoke at a press conference, saying, “We will not allow a resolution to pass that authorises resorting to force...Russia and France, as permanent members of the security council, will assume their full responsibilities on this point.” de Villepen noted that Iraq should cooperate better with the inspectors, but all three agreed that they had seen progress from Iraq in disarmament and use of force against Iraq would not be the right decision.

Withdrawal of Draft Resolution
On March 17th, the revised draft resolution was withdrawn by the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Jeremy Greenstock. He spoke on behalf of the United Kingdom, United States, and Spain, and ended his statement by saying, “Given this situation, the co-sponsors have agreed that we will not pursue a vote on the UK/US/Spanish resolution in blue...The co-sponsors reserve their right to take their own steps to secure the disarmament of Iraq.” On the same day, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan announced the decision to pull United Nations employees out of Iraq. The 156 inspectors and employees of the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), were seen leaving their headquarters in Baghdad.

Bush’s Ultimatum
On the evening of March 17th, President Bush gave an address on live television explaining the current threat of Iraq’s weapons, and saying, “America tried to work with the United Nations to address this threat because we wanted to resolve the issue peacefully. We believe in the mission of the United Nations...the United States and our allies are authorized to use force in ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. This is not a question of authority, this is a question of will.” Expressing his disappointment in the disagreement within the Security Council, he said, “The United Nations Security Council has not lived up to its responsibilities, so we will rise to ours.” President Bush then issued an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, giving him and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq. If they chose not to comply, the country would face military action. President Bush also advised Americans working in Iraq to leave the country as soon as possible. He promised to aid Iraqis if the United States did go to war with the country’s government, and announced further security measures that were being undertaken by the states and coast.

Invasion of Iraq
The United States moved forward without the support of the United Nations on March 19, 2003. President Bush followed through on his ultimatum to Saddam Hussein and ordered the United States Army to invade Iraq without a declaration of war under the codename “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, signaling the 2003 invasion of Iraq. President Bush gave an address to the United States within an hour of the first attacks on Baghdad, and warned the country that the fight ahead may be, “could be longer and more difficult than some predict.” The operations continued for about a month and a half, On May 1st, President Bush gave his Mission Accomplished speech, in which he announced, “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.” with a banner reading “Mission Accomplished” visible behind him. However, this United States military involvement did not formally end until December 15, 2011, when United States held a ceremony to mark the full withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq.

Curveball
Much of the United States’ justification for starting the war was the claim that the Iraqi government was hiding a biological weapon mobile laboratory program. This came from an informant known as “Curveball”, who has since admitted made up the story because he saw an opportunity to topple Saddam Hussein's regime. Curveball was first discovered to be an unreliable source in 2005, and admitted to his false statements in February 2011, revealing himself to be Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, an Iraqi defector living in Germany. He stated, “I had a problem with the Saddam regime. I wanted to get rid of him and now I had this chance...Believe me, there was no other way to bring about freedom in Iraq. There were no other possibilities." Janabi stated to the Guardian that he is proud in his part in taking down Saddam. In 2007, Colin Powell told reporters that he had no idea that Curveball’s information was at all untrustworthy. Leaders in intelligence, including former deputy director of National Intelligence, Thomas Fingar, have made clear that the decision to trust Curveball was a mistake.