After just three weeks, Baghdad is taken by coalition forces. Residents flood onto the streets welcoming the troops and looting.
1. Saddam toppled: A huge statue of Saddam Hussein is toppled in the heart of the capital. There is no word on the fate of the dictator or his sons. UN aid agencies warn of civic disorder in the coming days, and possible humanitarian crisis with supply lines yet to be secured.
2. Celebrations: As word of events in Baghdad spread, rejoicing crowds take to the streets in the northern cities of Arbil and Halabja.
3. Struggle for oil fields: US special forces, allied with local Kurdish fighters, take Maqloub mountain, nine miles north of Mosul while US planes bomb Iraqi positions around Kirkuk. Ground troops have yet to occupy those two cities or Saddam's birthplace of Tikrit.
4. Civil unrest: In possible taste of things to come for Baghdad, residents of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, complain of a power vacuum as armed men roamed the streets, looting and pillaging.
Death toll: US troops: 96 killed, 10 missing. British troops: 30 killed. Iraqi troops: 5,000-10,000 killed (independent estimates). Iraqi civilians: 1,500+ killed (Iraqi estimate). Journalists: 10 killed.
Quotes of the war:
"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for idiocy" - caption on front-page cartoon in Le Monde showing US-UK landing.
"War continues in Iraq. They're calling it Operation Iraqi Freedom. They were going to call it Operation Iraqi Liberation until they realised that spells 'OIL'" - US talk-show host Jay Leno.
"It's none of your business" - Iraqi Foreign Minister Mr Naji Sabri when asked if Saddam had survived initial bomb attacks.
"Nahnoo hoonaa limoo saa edu tek" - British soldier trying to communicate with a local driver at a Basra checkpoint (by reading from an Arab translation of "We are here to help you").
"What is he saying. Is it English?" - the driver's reply.
"We have defeated them. In fact we have crushed them. We have pushed them outside the whole area of the airport" - Iraqi Information Minister Mr Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, speaking as TV images show US troops walking through Baghdad Airport.
"I resigned from my job. I said goodbye to my wife and children thinking I would die. Now I am back. It's pathetic" - Cairo resident Mohamed Gallel after being sent home by the Egyptian authorities for trying cross into Iraq to fight against the coalition.
"Today, we are very, very happy. Saddam is finished. He will burn in hell" - an Iraqi speaking on the streets of Baghdad yesterday.
GOOD WAR
Richard Downes: Gave RTÉ balance and insight but most importantly something different.
The Onion: Online satirical magazine was perfect counterbalance to Fox News (see Media Watch below).
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf: Saddam's mouthpiece, an unlikely media star. One only hopes he survives to host his own TV talk-show.
SUV drivers: A short war means good news for gas-guzzlers. Analysts predict oil prices will fall $2 a barrel.
Tony Blair: Won widespread applause at home. Now the envy of the EU.
Arms industry: At least 14,000 laser-guided missiles and 750 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired by coalition forces.
BAD WAR
Charlie Bird: Breathless reports from Kuwaiti hotel bedroom struck wrong chord.
Geraldo Rivera: Kicked out of Iraq by US military for revealing location of American troops.
Weapons of Mass Destruction: Thankfully didn't materialise - but then why the war?
Fatwa fighters: Told by fleeing Iraqi troops to defend Baghdad, then set upon by local population.
Jacques Chirac: No one outside of France thinks he's worth a fig.
French wine: Like French fries and French toast, may never be the same again.
An unsung hero of reporting in the war has been the satirical press. Occasionally tasteless, sometimes crude, it has nonetheless performed a public service in challenging war propaganda, and highlighting the double-speak and hypocrisy of some of the war's armchair generals. One of the best practitioners was www.whitehouse.org, which posted a series of war "briefings" by President Bush, including his "real" speech at this week's Northern summit, entitled "Reaffirming the Worthlessness of World Opinion".
Masters of the genre, however, are The Onion (www.theonion.com) whose coverage of "Operation Piss Off the Planet" - as it called the war - included stories like "US forms own UN" and "137 More Oil Wells Liberated For Democracy". Yesterday it led with the all-too-plausible news that President Bush, during a White House meeting with the Spanish prime minister "subconsciously sized up Spain for invasion". Bush was said to have asked José Maríe Aznar if his country had any chemical or biological weapons. "Just curious," he apparently said before shaking his head "as if to chase the thought away".
Today's WarBriefing is the last. But new developments can be followed on the Irish Times website at www.ireland.com/focus/iraq