#American Invasion of Iraq

[deadpresidents]

I'm just taking a moment to let everyone know that Steve Coll's new book, THE ACHILLES TRAP: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO), is incredible and you should all read it. It's available now from Penguin Press.

#Books #Book Suggestions #Book Recommendations #Steve Coll #The Achilles Trap #Saddam Hussein #Iraq War #American Invasion of Iraq #Saddam #Iraq #Middle East #History #Penguin Press #Penguin Random House #CIA

[sandrabullockthehedgehog]

born too soon to be brainwashed into believing the war on terror, born too late to not be forced to "mourn," born just in time to shamelessly post 9/11 memes with zero guilt 💪💪💪

#and to remind people that over half a million iraqi citizens dies from the invasion and that iraq had literally nothing to do with 9/11 #and that even if they did placing the lives of 3000 americans over 500k iraqis is #well #blatant racism #9/11 #9/11 joke #me #mine

[fayrouz96]

-What America began by destroying the arab world, is now being completed by its dear child, "Israel".

#The two sides of the same coin #America #israel #extermination #The American invasion of Iraq

[hudbannonarchive]

they just don’t make movies about people being sent 20-30 years into the past anymore

#interesting you watch these 80s movies where they go to the 50s #or even something like hot tub time machine lol where they go back to the 80s #and it’s like another world #i think part of the reason we don’t get these is because there’s less visual distinction #also the 90s-00s were very fraught in a way that feels more defining than the 50s probably did in the 80s #it was a bad time yeah but that clearly wasn’t the larger cultural association #these movies are mostly purely interested in american culture and 00s america imo #is largely defined by 9/11 the invasion of iraq and the 2008 recession so like #not fun lol. and when i think about it there are no time travel movies about how fun #the 30s-40s were #*

[emptyanddark]

https://jacobin.com/2023/03/us-invasion-of-iraq-twentieth-anniversary-history-casualties-politics-protes

March 20 marks the unprovoked, catastrophic US invasion of Iraq - the 21st century 1st Illegal War.

#iraq #iraq war #march 20 #american imperialism #war crimes #occupation #invasion #crimes against humanity #iraq body count #blowback #george w bush #war criminals #illegal war #illegal invasion #western imperialism #oil wars #un charter #nato #isis #capitalism #today in history #links #p/ #forever wars #war on terror #iraq invasion #us military

[probablysomethingtm]

Listening to Blowback after having listened to If Books Could Kill is fucking wild. I listened to If Books Could Kill and was like “wow, these guys are massive pieces shit who wrote terrible books that either dealt huge blows to the American psyche or whose popularity is indicative of a deep and pervading sickness of the American body politic.” And now I’m listening to Blowback, I’m on the episode about how media’s role in wrenching the gates to hell permanently open, and I’m like “HOLY FUCK IT’S THE METAPHOR GUY, I RECOGNIZE THAT CLIP!”

#both of these podcasts are great btw highly recommend #if books could kill is about terrible airport books and why they’re wrong and bad #and S1 of blowback is about the American invasion of Iraq and all the lies and propaganda and opportunism and cruelty that went into it

[age-of-moonknight]

“Ultimate Knights: Part 3,” Ultimate Spider-Man (Vol. 1/2000), #108.

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis; Penciler: Mark Bagley; Inker: Drew Hennessy; Colorist: Justin Ponsor; Letterer: Cory Petit

#Marvel #Marvel comics #Marvel 1610 #Marvel Ultimates #Ultimate Spider-Man #Moon Knight comics #Moon Knight #Steven Grant #Marc Spector #Ronin #the worst possible travesty: they made my guy a SQUID #a heckin’ frogman #RIP Marc’s career with Marine Force Recon 😔 #In all seriousness this is just??? so much backstory to unpack just from one panel??? #like I get it this is couched in a Spider-Man comic but…there’s so much! #like first there’s the “Paladin” moniker and working for Roxxon (which I guess lines up with Marc’s mercenary past) #and then there’s the “Gulf War” comment #this issue came out in 2007 which comparatively seems pretty early into the GWOT (“Global War on Terror”) #but even four years after the initial 2003 invasion of Iraq most people were distinguishing between the “First” and the “Second” Gulf Wars #or most Americans I should clarify #or just using “Gulf War” to refer to the 1990-1 conflict and saving “Iraq War” for the GWOT conflict #which leads me to think…is Bendis portraying Marc here as a Gulf War veteran??? Making him like 37 at the youngest? #and also a veteran of a war that was…comparatively and notably less lethal than the war that was on-going at the time??? #unless of course this is all just a backstory /specific/ to Ronin in which case I’m reading far too much into this 🤣

[esyra]

Haven't heard from family in days. I feel like it's time to accept they're gone. I know in my heart Palestine will, one day, be free, but it wasn't supposed to be like this.

We feared another Nakba, and it happened. 700,000 pushed out of their homes in 1948 to 1 million being forced to leave their homes in 2023.

We thought it couldn't get worse or more deadly than the Israeli invasion in 2014, and it happened. We lost 2,251 people in 50 days then. Now we're past 2,300 in one week.

What I heard most from my grandmother the first days it's that "this time is different". And I feel like a rock is crushing my heart in pieces because i've been hoping that speaking out, teaching people about the historical oppresion of Palestine would help but it's not helping. Nothing is changing.

I feel like I'm screaming into a void. There's some sympathy from people online, until I see content documenting Palestinian oppresion being flagged as 'hate speech' or check the comments of any updates on Gaza and it's: "blame it on hamas", "tell them to give up hamas", "the hamas asked for it". They're not even among civilians!!!!!

My heart feels full seeing the manifestations in favor of Palestine, then I see police forces breaking protests apart and remember that the people that can actually save Gaza don't care.

If there's nothing left to do but to watch the extermination of my people, then I'm going to beg for anyone reading this to please don't forget. Please.

Israel is hiding behind Judaism to commit genocide against Gaza. Netanyahu supported the Hamas militant group to prevent the establishment of the Palestine State, and now he's using them to justify his agenda of ethnic cleansing. He abandoned Israelis and left them to die because he cares more about seeing Gazans dead!

Every single person and institution supporting and financing Israel is complicit. I hope the deaths of every Palestinian haunts you for the rest of your lives and that you never find an ounce of forgiveness, for you do not deserve it.

Just as in the Iraq War, the US government is financing and cheering for the slaughter of millions of innocent Arab lives. The media is complicit by engaging in biased propaganda and other nuclear powers, such as the UK and Germany, are complicit too. You are fascists and war criminals and every drop of Palestinian blood is in your hands. I hope every single day, for the rest of your lives, you look in the mirror and see nothing but the blood you've helped spill.

This serves as yet another proof that not a single Western in a position of power, be it in the media or in government, sees Arabs as humans beings.

For decades, the US has comitted terrorism and crimes against humanity in the Middle East and has NEVER been held accountable. Over one million in Iraq; over 150,000 in Afghanistan; and now they'll turn Gaza into a graveyard. Punishing selected soldiers over the years does not erase the fact that the American military and its government validates their crimes during execution and are never punished for it.

Please never forget: Joe Biden is a genocidal terrorist, Rishi Sunak is a genocidal terrorist, the American Democrat Party and UK's Labour Party are led by genocidal terrorists, the European Union is led by genocidal terrorists, fuckass Walt Disney Company is led by genocidal terrorists; every celebrity that called for Palestinian death or stood by silently while ignoring our suffering is a genocidal terrorist.

May Allah protect the people in Palestine and grant the martyrs the highest level of Jannah. Wallah what keeps me here is knowing that the Akhirah is theirs. May Almighty Allah grant us imaan and Taqwa as high as the people of Gaza. Ameen.

#palestine #free palestine #may Allah protect our brothers and sisters

[sayruq]

You can tell the ground invasion of Gaza isn't going well at all

They used to say they'd occupy Gaza forever, they'd kill every Hamas operative, they'd flood every tunnel in Gaza with soldiers and now it's we will leave as soon as possible ☠️

This is all the proof you need that they're struggling and incapable of making any progress to the point they have to lie about rescuing an IDF soldier just to look good in front of an increasingly disheartened and distrustful Israeli public

The American government has spent the past 3 weeks of war doubtful of Israel's ability to win a ground war in Gaza and now we have the Financial Times writing a fairly positive article about the Hamas, indicating that Wall Street at least is taking the Palestinian resistance and their chances of winning seriously

With Yemen declaring war, Hezbollah is expected to follow suit, and different militia groups in Iraq and Syria are escalating attacks on American bases. Bolivia will not be the last country to cut diplomatic ties with Israel. The future does not look good for Israel. In fact, the economy has already taken a big hit from the war. A recession is guaranteed.

#palestine #free palestine #gaza strip #free gaza #gaza

[natalieironside]

I like it when politicians who voted for the American invasion of Iraq kicks the bucket and ppl write glowing hagiographies about them and it becomes illegal to ever mention that time they enthusiastically helped get millions of people killed for DoD contracts

#the big machine

[loving-n0t-heyting]

I'm pretty pessimistic about attempts to dissuade the United States from bankrolling Israel's atrocities. I'm to young to remember much of Iraq but I know we did this whole song and dance then and nothing changed it still happened an a lot of people died. This is not really a pessimism I can voice to any of my friends as we are all struggling to figure out how to resist. I'm voicing this to you because I've long enjoyed your blog and consider your writing to be principled will still empathic and that is very important.

Behind the scenes, American officials also believe there is limited time for Israel to try to accomplish its stated objective of taking out Hamas in its current operation before uproar over the humanitarian suffering and civilian casualties – and calls for a ceasefire – reaches a tipping point.

In fact, there is recognition within the administration that that moment may arrive quickly: Some of the president’s close advisers believe that there are only weeks, not months, until rebuffing the pressure on the US government to publicly call for a ceasefire becomes untenable, sources told CNN.

Even aside from the above, I think Palestinian solidarity rn is in a pretty different position from the antiwar movement in the lead up to Iraq. Iraq was the culmination of decades of neoconservative organising with the invasion as its end goal; the current aid to Israel is a response to an increasingly inconvenient and unruly ally, with whom the current administration (odious as it is) is already expressing frustration. The support for the iraq war among mainstream pundits and officials was virtually unanimous; already we are witnessing dissent on the Gaza war reach high places. And most importantly, the protests against iraq were comparatively narrowly focused and time-bound, while the campaign for Palestinian liberation is a decades long international movement that has made real strides, especially in the U.S. The same kind of international movement that eventually helped the ANC to bring down apartheid in South Africa. There’s some room here for optimism of the intellect as well as of the will

#ask #anon

[probablyasocialecologist]

Gaza is home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, dating back to the first century, and the third oldest church in the world. Despite constant threats to survival, the community has persisted for two millennia. But now, extinction may be unavoidable this time due to Israel’s indiscriminate war and imposed famine, which has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza. There are only about 800 Christians left in Gaza. The Western world, which often champions the rights of the religious minorities in the region, is eerily silent. Since the beginning of the Israeli attack on Gaza, the small Christian minority has been impacted in the same way as their fellow Palestinians. Most Christians have historically lived in Gaza City, an area, like other parts of north Gaza, that was systematically targeted at the very beginning of the war and is currently suffering from a lack of access to food and aid. Although there is no reliable estimate on the number of Christian homes fully or partially destroyed, the Christians sheltering at the churches indicate to me that Israel has destroyed some 80% of their houses and killed more than 3% of the population.

[...]

In the West, people often ask me why the number of Christians in the Middle East is decreasing and why we are leaving. Usually, they were waiting for us to blame the Muslims for their “persecution of Christians.” But this explanation is not only an oversimplification but also incorrect. No one can deny the occurrence of sectarian discrimination, in some cases, by the Muslim majority against the Christians minorities, but it is often not the primary cause of the mass exodus of indigenous Christians from the land. Instead, the mass exodus of Christians is caused by scenarios similar to Gaza today: the brutality of wars that make it harder for Christians to survive. In 1948, Palestinian Christians, like Muslims, were ethnically cleansed from Mandatory Palestine and never allowed back; this was the biggest hit for the number of Christians in Palestine.

Other Western-backed wars and the “War on Terror” have also significantly contributed to the exodus of Christians in the Middle East. Take, for example, Iraq, which had over 1.5 million Christians before the American invasion in 2003. The invasion and years of war harmed the Christians like Muslims, and it also created the conditions for the emergence of radical groups like the Islamic State that see religious minorities as a prime target. Today, Iraq has just 150,000 Christians left.

#easter #palestine #israel #gaza #christians

[mnemosyne2110]

"The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia, and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq — I mean of Ukraine," Bush said.” "Iraq… anyway," he said with a shake of his head, as members of the audience chuckled. He then cited his age, 75, before returning to his speech.”

Nah, that wasn’t your age. That was all the blood in your hands speaking for itself.

#george bush #bush #george w bush #iraq #iraq war #ukraine #ukraine war #invasion of iraq #american imperialism #war criminal

[thenewgothictwice]

American peace activist Rachel Corrie burns a makeshift U.S. flag during an anti-war rally to protest the invasion of Iraq, arranged by Palestinians and foreign peace activists, February 15, 2003 in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza strip. Corrie was crushed to death and martyred by an Israeli bulldozer, March 16, 2003 when she tried to stop it from destroying a Palestinian house in Rafah. Corrie was a member of the International Solidarity Movement.

#palestine #gaza #free palestine #rachel corrie #glory to the martyrs #rafah #iraq #death to the us empire!

[homochadensistm]

So like, do you think the US invasion of Iraq was justified? I’m aware the situations aren’t the same but from what I’ve seen you seem to agree with the notion of “they hit us so we annihilate them with massive bombing

Please for once in ur lifetime detach yourself from this idiotic americacentric way of viewing the world. Iraq is not on the fucking border of America. Baghdad is not 2 fucking kilometers away from your cities. Iraqi death squads didnt infiltrate your towns and massacred ppl in their sleep or raped+tortured them at a party, 1km away from their border with you. It has absolutely nothing to do with "ummmm they hit us so well hit them back :)))" what are you, 5? Israelis have been living under constant, and I mean constant, nonstop threat of death ever since Hamas (and if were being fully honest, before too) took over Gaza in 2007, be it via daily rocketfire, mortar-fire, shootouts from across the border into border towns, suicide bombings and more. October 7th is a culmination of 17yrs of a literal death cult growing right in your backyard. Hamas didnt "hit us", it invaded us and brutalized thousands of civilians. It started a literal war, and literal wars have literal bombs that literally drop from the literal sky and literally kill people. 9/11 was a massive terror attack and Im not surprised the US responded the way that it did. I am not American and it is not my place to agree or disagree with what some other country is doing, thats for the Americans to decide because its their fucking country, their circus and their monkeys.

#israel #palestine

[qqueenofhades]

Man, the Russia/Ukraine war has led to a lot of terrible takes from far leftists. I have a mutual from Brazil, a self identified socialist, who is convinced that Ukraine is full of nazis. While they don't support Russia, they questioned why they have to be "pro-Ukraine" or "pro-Russia". They call Ukraine a "nazi hole" but call Russia merely "fascist". Am I wrong in thinking that they've been influenced by Russian propaganda? I know Ukraine does have a nazi/far right problem, but so does the US? And most European countries? idk they strongly hate the US/US government too, and it seems to create some kind of brainrot. at least they don't blindly support China or Russia like tankies do (nor identify with them), but it's still frustrating to take a neutral position on a pretty black and white situation.

I don't want to confront them 1) cause I'm not the type to argue over serious things like this and this may break our long friendship and 2) I'm not super educated on the nazi situation in Ukraine.

Anyway thank you for letting me rant in your inbox.

Yes, Russia has specifically focused its propaganda efforts on Latin America, Africa, and other regions that HAVE suffered from Western/European/American imperialism and are thus predisposed to take the worst view of them/believe that this situation is their fault somehow. This is similar to what the USSR did in newly postcolonial Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, positing themselves as offering the shared hand of communist brotherhood from Western oppressors. Because of more recent events like the invasion of Iraq, which was fully as unjustified as the invasion of Ukraine, Russian propagandists and their eager tankie/leftist foot soldiers have also got a lot of mileage out of "whataboutism." This is likewise an old Soviet propaganda technique designed to deflect any criticism of the actual situation by disingenuously asking "what about this other one!!!"

Likewise, the idea that Ukraine has a "Nazi problem" is itself propaganda. In the last election, far-right/Nazi-identified parties won barely 2% of the vote and AFAIK, no seats at all in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament). This is far lower than the nearly half of the USA voting for the far-right/Nazi-sympathetic Republican Party, and as noted, the far right elements in the UK and Europe. The idea that Ukraine is "full of Nazis" (with a Jewish president who just celebrated iftar with the Ukrainian Muslims/Crimean Tatars during Ramadan and instituted observance of Muslim holidays nationwide, very Nazi of him) is a line used by Russian propagandists to "justify" their attack and appeal to national memories of the Great Patriotic War (World War II) and the struggle against the Nazis, which is the central cultural grievance/memory in modern Russia. The Putin regime has referred to anyone they don't like, but especially the Ukrainians, as "Nazis" for a long time now, so it's supposedly their holy duty to kill them/commit ethnic cleansing/forcibly reunite the "fraternal" people of "Little Russia," as Ukraine has been called since the 17th century, with "Great Russia." And yeah, no.

Because the West and Europe has been pretty solidly on Ukraine's side, Russia has therefore cultivated countries like China, India, Brazil, etc, who have all suffered from Western interference and are looking to move into the first rank of global superpowers. This is, as noted, similar to the competing systems of influence built during the Cold War, but it also relies on much deeper Russian grievances that go back to the medieval era. Anybody who knows a thing about actual Russian history would therefore know that every single word it says about the Ukraine situation is a lie, but because that lie is useful for many other countries and fits into their own understanding of themselves, it is easy to repeat and act like it's a so-called superior moral position. This is also why US/American tankies so eagerly lap up Russian propaganda, because it plays into their moral sense of themselves as far better than the rest of the West and "righteously" discovering that the West is responsible for all the evil in the world etc etc. While non-Westerners are just helpless misunderstood puppets with no real agency or ability to make complex choices. This totally makes sense!!!

#anonymous #ask #russia ukraine war #russian history #as ever tankies are the fucking absolute worst and wrong about everything