The Iraq war was launched on fabricated claims and triggered a sectarian catastrophe

Evidence

Almost instantly after the 9/11 attacks, the US launched a bloody war in Afghanistan. There was a bloodier one on the horizon. Less than two years later, a second war would be launched in Iraq—a nation said, despite lack of evidence, to be hiding “weapons of mass destruction” and “harboring Al-Qaeda terrorists.” A nation that, in the days that followed, would be sunk into a bloody sectarian war spurred by an illegal American crusade that left millions dead, and by subsequent proxy “conflicts within Islam” that continue to claim the lives of innocents. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 262

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 262
• XREF: connects to: The Iraq War backfired by strengthening Iran and alienating European allies — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 489