20 years after the start of the invasion of Iraq, Coloradan looks back on experience building democracy
This week marks 20 years since the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq when airstrikes and cruise missiles lit up the night skies over Baghdad. It was known as the Iraq War and also called the Second Persian Gulf War.
Efforts to create a democracy in that country in the years since have been a serious struggle. One Colorado veteran played an important role in rebuilding Iraq after the war. For Col. Joe Rice, the war and rebuilding became personal.
"It was a large part of my life, and I certainly built a lot of relationships with U.S. soldiers, allies and Iraqis," he told CBS Colorado this week.
On Dec. 11, 2003, U.S. troops found Iraqi president Saddam Hussein hiding in a hole. He was later tried and hung. A dictatorship ended, and Rice wound up in the middle of a conflict to help create a democracy.
"It wasn't like the streets were on fire, which I think which was a lot of times people's perception -- that there were always bombs going off," he said.
After Rice's first 1 year tour, CBS News Colorado interviewed him when he returned to Colorado in 2004.
"I kind of worry about the people I know that I'm not able to be in touch with over there," he said at the time.
His job was to build an effective local government in Baghdad. He met with the city council in that Iraqi city and many came to Denver to see how it's done here.
"The system that we work with them to work with local government lasted in Baghdad largely as it was until just a couple years ago," Rice said.
He says it still influences the system now in place.
As a former Colorado state legislator and mayor of Glendale, he had the right credentials.
Rice, who is now retired from the Army Reserves, put it the following way:
"They had been under a dictatorship for 35 years and they are smart, well-meaning people, but didn't have an idea about local government how it was structured."
20 years on, Iraq is a far different place than it was when coalition forces invaded.
"There is an expectation and a practice of democracy that didn't exist before," he said.
Rice served five tours in Iraq and is among the many Coloradans who put in time there. Likewise, many refugees have come to live in Colorado as a result of the war.
