I recall that there were massive global demonstrations against the Iraq war in particular. I went to a couple of them myself. Everyone could see that this was a

I recall that there were massive global demonstrations against the Iraq war in particular. I went to a couple of them myself. Everyone could see that this was a war that did not need to happen, that the rationale was BS. But at the executive level, yes, little action; indeed, willing cooperation. The parallels to the current situation are obvious--planners thought that the mission would be easy, that the US would be 'greeted as liberators'. In a conventional military sense, that wasn't entirely wrong. The regular army capitulated quickly, and Saddam was no Zelensky, able to rally people and nations to his side. But the Iraqi people were willing to make things difficult for US forces for years.