Answer:
After the attacks on September 11, 2001, and the overthrow of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the United States Government turned its attention to Iraq and the regime of Saddam Hussein. Citing intelligence information that Iraq had stockpiled and continued to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD) such as poison gas, biological agents, and nuclear weapons, as well as harboring and supporting members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network, the United States and Great Britain led a coalition to topple Hussein's regime in March 2003. Since the end of the Persian Gulf War of 1990-1991, the United States Air Force had maintained a continuous presence in the Middle East, enforcing no-fly zones in the northern and southern portions of Iraq, termed Operation NORTHERN WATCH, based out of Turkey, and Operation SOUTHERN WATCH, based out of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
The Air Force command and control element for Operation IRAQI FREEDOM was the Combined Force Air Component Commander (CFACC), Lt. General T. Michael Moseley, who had overseen operations in Afghanistan. The primary political goal of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM was to create "a stable Iraq, with its territorial integrity intact and a broad based government that renounces WMD development and use, and no longer supports terrorism or threatens its neighbors." Based on that primary objective, the combined force commander' s top three objectives were to "defeat or compel capitulation of Iraqi forces, neutralize regime leadership, and neutralize Iraqi theater ballistic missile/WMD delivery systems." Although Operations NORTHERN WATCH and SOUTHERN WATCH had significantly degraded the Iraqi air defense system and the Iraqi Air Force had essentially ceased to exist, planners remained concerned with Iraqi Air Defenses. Indeed, during the initial invasion of Iraq, the Air Force noted more than 1,000 anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) firings, and more than 1,600 surface to air missile (SAM) launches. During the same period, however, the Air Force lost just one A-10 to enemy fire and two Air Mobility Command (AMC) aircraft suffered SAM strikes out of 236 attempts. The first air operation of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM was a psychological operation leaflet drop on 9 March 2003. The leaflets urged non-interference and stressed coalition support for the Iraqi people.