Would they be able to pull an Iraq sized blunder today? How?
Did you support or oppose the Iraq war?
Did you believe that saddam had wmds?
I remember I supported it since my parents were shia Muslim and saddam hated shias. But I was quite young then so I had no real opinions
Bump
yes, just have a democrat do it. Democrats don't give a rats ass about war, killing, illegal prisons, drone strikes etc. They blindly support the party no matter what.
oppose, it was an extension of Bush's oil war and an attempt to create constant conflict for profit.
No.
Saddam was a bastard the United States, itself a bastard created. Bastards back stabbing bastards for that weapon development money and that oil money comes as no surprise. It's a large chunk of market, without it, what would all that defense budget do?
There's a reason why we have such a bloated defense budget.
Global Politics is Prison Politics if you could make a market for shanking.
Iran was next on the list but then the Iran deal happened when the US stared the Asian pivot. I don't think it's above either Hillary or Trump to start a war there due to Israeli and Pentagon pressure.
The Iraq war was one of the most pointless and disastrous wars ever fought by America and resulted with deaths of millions of innocent civilians. At least the Kurds got their freedom and Shia stopped being repressed but at the cost of ISIS happening.
Saddam never had functioning WMD's , just some outdated and non-operational chemical weapons hidden somewhere.
Do you really think they'd be able to repeat that shit? Even with all the internet and whatnot
Really?
There was a lot of funding going on throughout the Cold War, the more obvious and recorded being that of the 70's and that especially of the 80's and Reagan era.
We gave Saddam and his sadistic sons a nice helpful amount of millions of US Dollars if you can keep nationalism on the forefront of Iraqi politics. We'll look the other way if one or two chemical attacks happen, a few unmarked mass burials are dug, and if a hundred thousand pesky civilians die.
Just get the job done, son.
My God, how did I not know this
You're being sarcastic aren't ya
Saddam and his Ba'athist party were put in power by the CIA and supported throughout the cold war as an anti-communist force of stability in the middle east than later against Iran after the 1979 revolution.
How is that not common knowledge by now
No, I'm serious. But I do have a normie tier knowledge of geopolitics
Truman Doctrine is clear. Do not let communism survives as it threatens the global market, and a nice polish of "American values" and "Family values" and "Morality"
The truth is we funded every single concievable dictator, bastard, and heartless power hungry monster as long as they said they would kill communists, the economic stability and the lives of the people in the countries themselves be damnded.
Pinochet could laugh at political prisoners and feminists getting raped by guard dogs, and the purge of political enemies. We would look the other way. We would fund Central and South American nationalist radicals who we will knew would murder civilians in droves. We would look the other way.
Africa, The Middle East,Iran Contra, political assassination. And giving a lot of people money with the promise they would violate human rights so long as Communism would never exist on the face of the Earth again.
Saddam was our man until we stabbed him in the back.
People know this and they're still saying "kill all brown ppl lmoa?"
specifically when he tried to takeover kuwait, which scared America because policy leaders thought Saddam would keep the oil resources for himself
Exactly. It's all good until you start violating peoples rights that threatens our money. Plus, I would argue after the Cold War, the porks in power quickly realized if they associated with Saddam still there could be problems.
Saddam was a leader , and a man of great honor he was the only middle-eastern leader who decided to take actions against America and other big capitalists nations , he was a dictator yeah , but he achieved more than any arab leader would dream, my mom is a gypsy sunni muslim and she was rooting for him , every single sunni not only shi'a can say that he this guy had his moments
That's why he took their money, and used it to commit genocide. That's why he used it to give his sons sadistic fucking orgies, or put meat hooks in their political enemies, torture athletes.
Yeah
If you mean, kill over a hundred thousand people in chemical attacks that melted them alive using US dollars while we looked the other way, sure.
Not everyone is in the right for falling for rhetoric. Saddam cared for no one but Iraq, and Iraqis. There are unmarked mass graves throughout Iraq, we still haven't found.
Which is not to say I justify the war in Iraq. I'm implying both parties are bastards.
I never defended Sadam , but the man still has some great moment
Him and gaddafi mostly gaddafi were the only two who actually cared about their country in the middle east ,, he's not a nice guy but he did what he had to to make his country better
Killing over a hundred thousand people is not making anything possibly better in a region as politically divisive at the time as the Middle East.
You can't champion him as a hero for us, he took money to kill communists.
Of course worker, after all, we all have to do sacrifices, don't we? Sometimes we just have to.
But at the same time, his heavy hand was able to keep the country under control. He kept peace between the Sunnis and Shias, all while providing a counterbalance to Iran. He also served as a consistent leader in a region of the world where stability is rare. Under his rule, Iraq was relatively peaceful and safe.What is iraq now ? nothing , you can easily throw it off the map , iraq is not a country anymore, him being able to keep one of the worst religious tensions under control is something i would totally praise , let's say in saddam's regime 10 people were killed now the numbers are 1000 and up, and people who are not fighting are struggling to have any kind of actual life
I believe sacrifices had to be made ,10 people killed are better than having your country destroyed
The nominees are fucking hillary and trump.
No. But at least kurds are better off now.
No.
You guys seriously think they'll be able to to it again? Even know with the internet, and hackers an shit?
In my mind, the Iraq war kind of destroyed everyone's trust in the govt
Millions of people went on the streets opposing Iraq, it didn't achieve anything. Obama's voters have done nothing about his drone strikes and so on. If the government really wanted to create another phony war in Iran or something they'll just do it.
You don't think the internet and all this has fundamentally changed politics to the extent that they won't be able to get away with Iraq war tier fuckery anymore? Am I being too naive here?
...
It's a little more complex than that. Ba'ath controlled Iraq from 58 (?) onwards, long before Saddam really made his debut. But the CIA were really clever in how they dealt with it. They didn't overthrow the party - they just elevated the conservative nationalist wing, exemplified by Saddam, and took the "Socialist" out of the Arab Socialist Party. They kept the party institutions, set up a split within a highly promising political movement, and put their man in charge in one go.
i'm not shilling , i'm stating facts , hating something doesn't mean i can't praise what it did right or at least that what it did was better than what's being done
yes but the 1963 coup by the party against Qasim was undoubtedly CIA funded
"we rode into power on a CIA train"
Yeah, they would. When Hillary wins she'll probably invade Crimea or some stupid shit and start WW3.
wew
You really are. Plenty of people were calling out the case for Iraq even before the invasion happened, nothing came of it.
For example look at TPP and similar treaties, the whole internet has been up in arms about it but it's going through anyway. What the people think has almost no relevance on government actions
Well at the time of the Iraq war when one of the largest ever protests happened to stop it and nobody cared , you think that people one the internet will be more effective than millions gathering in the streets ?
More like "when will they?" My guess is the war with the Islamic State will be just that. Because they're claiming attacks all over the world the media will lie to Americans again and tell us the durty mudslums could be hiding under any rock in the middle East. It'll probs be perpetual warfare in every part of the region except our allies like Saudi Arabia. The next step would be to tell people the turrists are hiding everywhere on American soil and having the military and police coordinate to purge political enemies. Of course, this is in the unlikely scenario that the economy doesn't completely collapse along the way.
The Iraq war had an overwhelmingly positive impact on Iraqi Shiites. It ended their 1000 year period of subjugation and handed them the country on a silver platter. The Iraq war was also mildly positive for the Kurds, Iranians and Israelis. The war was harmful to almost every other population involved, including average Americans.