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Iraq War 10th Anniversary Photos: Iconic Images Show Destruction, Sacrifice, Uncertainty

LOOK: Iconic Images Of The Iraq War
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Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a dubious milestone for two countries whose relationship has grown even more muddled over the past decade. The $800 billion war has left Baghdad ravaged and thousands of civilians and soldiers dead, the purpose of their sacrifice as yet unclear.

A simple question is often asked with regard to both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars: "What would winning look like?" Though our collective inability to answer this question -- to picture victory, so to speak -- has bred mixed success and uncertainty in the region, there is certainly no dearth of images to help us evaluate the impact of 10 years of war.

Take a look at these iconic images of the Iraq war, throughout a decade of invasion and insurgency.

Iraq War: 10 Years Later
(01 of10)
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Smoke covers the presidential palace compound in Baghdad 21 March 2003 during a massive U.S.-led air raid on the Iraqi capital. (RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(02 of10)
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A US Marine covers the face of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's statue with the US flag in Baghdad's al-Fardous square April 9, 2003. The world was stunned when iconic images of US marines and Iraqis pulling down a statue of Saddam Hussein flashed across television screens. (RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
(03 of10)
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In this April 9, 2003 file photo, Iraqi civilians and U.S. soldiers pull down a statue of Saddam Hussein in downtown Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File) (credit:AP)
(04 of10)
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This 01 May 2003 file photo shows US President George W. Bush addressing the nation on Iraq beneath a banner reading 'Mission Accomplished' aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln as it sails for Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California. (STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
(05 of10)
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Samar Hassan screams after her parents were killed by U.S. Soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division in a shooting January 18, 2005 in Tal Afar, Iraq. The troops fired on the Hassan family car when it unwittingly approached them during a dusk patrol in the tense northern Iraqi town. Parents Hussein and Camila Hassan were killed instantly, and a son Racan, 11, was seriously wounded in the abdomen. Racan, who lost the use of his legs, was treated later in the U.S. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(06 of10)
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An Iraqi girl gets embarrassed after offering flowers to a US female soldier from Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment during a joint house-by-house search operation between Iraqi and US forces, in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, 16 April 2007. (MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(07 of10)
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An Iraqi woman cries as she successfully identified the remains of a relative after looking through the remains of hundreds of bodies in a school where bodies have been brought from a mass grave discovered in the desert in the outskirts of Al Musayyib, 50 km south of Baghdad, May 27, 2003 in Iraq. People searched for days for identity cards or other clues among the skeletons to try to find the remains of family members, including children, from the grave that locals say contain the remains of hundreds of Shi'ite Muslims executed by Saddam Hussein's regime after their uprising following the 1991 Gulf War. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(08 of10)
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This is an image obtained by The Associated Press which shows an unidentified detainee standing on a box with a bag on his head and wires attatched to him in late 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo, File) (credit:AP)
(09 of10)
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Members of the US Army Old Guard serve as the carry team for US Army Specialist Israel Candelaria Mejias from San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, as they bear his transfer case shortly after his body was returned on a C-17 to the US from Iraq on April 7, 2009 at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The flag-draped coffin of 28-year old Candelaria Mejias, who died in Baghdad on April 5, was among the first photographed by media late April 7, 2009, after Defense Secretary Robert Gates lifted a longstanding ban on press coverage of the return of fallen soldiers. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(10 of10)
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Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division board a C-17 transport plane to depart from Iraq at Camp Adder, now known as Imam Ali Base, on Saturday Dec. 17, 2011, near Nasiriyah, Iraq. Around 500 troops from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division ended their presence at Camp Adder, the last remaining American base, and departed in the final American military convoy out of Iraq, arriving into Kuwait in the early morning hours of December 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Mario Tama) (credit:AP)

Clarification: The day on which the invasion of Iraq is observed has been changed for consistency. The invasion took place on March 19, 2003 in the U.S., but March 20, 2003 in Iraq.

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