Ten years ago today, President George W. Bush announced the U.S. invasion of Iraq, to "disarm" the country, "free its people," and transform it into a "united, stable and free country."

Today, more than 50 people are dead in a dozen explosions across Baghdad and south today as Sunni insurgents seeking to undermine the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government picked up their bombing campaign against Shi'ite targets.

Among the targets were a crowded market near the Green Zone, Shi'ite neighborhoods in Baghdad, and a Shi'ite town south of the capital.

"I was driving my taxi and suddenly I felt my car rocked. Smoke was all around. I saw two bodies on the ground. People were running and shouting everywhere," said Ali Radi, a taxi driver caught in one of the blasts in Baghdad's Sadr City.

Elections have been postponed in two provinces over security fears; Sunni protestors are demonstrating against the prime minister; and "security officials say al Qaeda is regrouping in the vast western desert of Anbar province bordering Syria." (Syria, of course, poses its own set of problems to Iraq.)

In his announcement, President Bush warned that the campaign "could be longer and more difficult than some predict." Indeed.

[Reuters, image via AP]