Second South African War (RSA-SWM)

The Second South African War was a conflict between the and the Republic of South Africa between June 2002 and August 2005. The United States, and to a lesser extent its ally, the, launched an attack on , , , and on 9 June 2002 as part of its War on Terror. Officially, the reason for the invasion was to emancipate the non-whites living in South Africa, however, many theorize that the motive was to rid South Africa of its developed nuclear arsenal.

The United States expected support to rally from the African homelands (called Bantustans) against the Apartheid government of Pretoria, however, all the homelands gave financial and military aid to the South African government in repelling the attack, which proved disastrous for the US-UK force. The banned African National Congress and several other liberation movements, however, did support the United States. The Federal Party, the only legal liberal party at national level in South Africa, came out and publicly supported the invasion, expecting the United States to be successful. However, the War proved too costly after the first two years when neither side made any advances and only amassed casualties. An unconditional peace was agreed upon in November 2004, and by November 2005, all US-UK troops had left South Africa.