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20 Years Ago on March 19…
…US President George W. Bush ordered air strikes on Baghdad, launching the war for “regime change” and the ousting of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The war was premised on the belief that Hussein was manufacturing and staging weapons of mass destruction to be used against his enemies. Such a belief is now deemed to have been false, although the length of time between Colin Powell’s February 5 address to the United Nations, in which he laid out the case, and the subsequent Allied invasion – exactly six weeks later – left plenty of time for such efforts to be covered up, dismantled, or moved.
And so, with apparent evidence on both sides to support their respective cases, the conspiracy theorists, and the conspiracy realists, continue to joust over the truth, which is likely never to be fully known.
Regardless, or irregardless as the case may be, I remember the television coverage of those aerial attacks on that day exactly two decades ago. It was awe-inspiring, and thrilling. The subsequent initial phase of the land war – which lasted just over a month and was spearheaded by the United States with support from the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland, and the following “quagmire” years resulted in the deaths and wounding, both physically and mentally, of tens of thousands of Allied troops, and in consequences that we, and they, still live with today.
As cowards do, Saddam Hussein ran away and hid from reprisals, remaining undiscovered until December 2003, when American soldiers found him, filthy and deranged, hiding in a hole in the ground near ad-Dawr. He was subsequently interrogated, tried, and executed (by the interim Iraqi government) on December 30, 2006. Sic semper tyrannis.
Today, I remember not the meretricious crapweasels of the various governments on all sides who have been – ever since – revising the rather clear history of the war, those who started it, and even, sometimes, those who fought in it. I choose rather to remember the valiant soldiers from all services and all nations who fought, and those who were wounded and who died in the cause of freedom and to keep us safe.
From February 7, 2001–just a month into the first Persian Gulf War:
And from the UK:
Australia:
And Poland:
Thank you.
Published in General
This is a huge digression from the OP and, consequently, pretty inconsiderate. I’ll just take a minute to correct your statement and that will be the end of my engagement on the topic.
VAERS reports can be filed by ANYONE. Follow this link to the reporting page. It’s a working link, incidentally, unlike the one you’re berating Steven about not watching. Check your work.
You don’t seem to understand. You keep talking about some video of a military talk about the insurgency in Iraq, but the actual link you gave us to see this talk in comment #71 turns out to be some postage stamp-sized stick figure with writing on it that says “I own a construction company.” The video plays for five seconds while absolutely nothing happens on the screen. Look for yourself- Instugator’s linked video here:
https://encrypted-vtbn0.gstatic.com/video?q=tbn:ANd9GcSvhWSIWauiP-PAxQMsoQokfVwdv0u8cWZeYg
Different from the praise America first mentality?
Americans are good people. The government…maybe not so much.
I dunno.
Turns out the Deep State is real, the Deep State is left, the left is bad and getting worse, corporate-government revolving doors are real, corporate interests both fund federal agencies and influence policies, Fauci funded dangerous research and lied about it, Time runs a story on shady networks of election-shifters, even the courts confirm enough votes illegally cast or counted to flip Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in 2020, a federal agency recommends we get rid of all voting machines with online capabilities because they really do exist and are not secure, the FBI has an established history of illegally spying on Americans and using their dirt to get what J. E. Hoover wanted, a prosecutor was informed that Epstein “belongs to intelligence,” he didn’t kill himself, few if any have gone to prison for visiting his Pedo Island, we still don’t know who all was there, the FBI had more informants in the Proud Boys than there were Proud Boys charged with sedition, no one was charged for violent insurrection on J6, amazingly few violent BLM insurrectionists were charged with anything, the Powers That Be lied about J6, the Great Reset is a real plan, the FBI used Twitter to censor the Hunter laptop story and more, Russia Collusion was an actual hoax, and MRNA vaxxes do cause myocarditis.
And those are just some of the publically available facts.
It’s almost enough to make one think a few of the corruptocrats running the world and screwing everything up and lying about it might also be conspiring with each other–just a bit, from time to time.
I am a proud praise America first person. I will not slander my country without evidence.
Thank you, now I understand.
Here is the briefing.
https://www.blackfive.net/main/files/how_to_win_in_anbar.pdf
But what about your government?
And what if there was plenty of evidence for its evil?
Thanks!
Alright. I read the PDF file that you linked to. After all this trouble, you’ve got to be kidding. Is this a joke? This is the military briefing? In the spirit of Mark Twain, I invite other commenters to click on the link.
The things you listed don’t sound like speculation, hearsay, or conspiracy theories to me. They all sound like basic facts, though I’m not familiar with the Epstein thing enough to comment. The stuff I see on Ricochet are things like “tens of thousands of people dying from the Covid vaccines (right in this very thread), or Bill Gates is planning on killing off so many people in the World (not that I am a fan of Gates). There’s been anti-law enforcement talk. There was a disturbing post not too long ago where several prominent members agreed that nobody should ever talk to police, under any circumstances, even if it was to help catch the burglars of your neighbor’s house. One member regularly posts that we should tear down all of society and many say we should never vote Republican.
I’m not sure I understand. Is your point that a little speculation, hearsay, and theorizing about conspiracies is fine, but some of us are overdoing it lately?
Not a joke.
Real briefing.
Taught for years at US Army war college.
Your search terms are “how to win in Anbar”, Capt Travis Patriquin.
That’s basically praising yourself.
To be real praise needs to be from someone else.
How did students in the war college respond to it?
I never surveyed them, so I don’t know.
I admire Manny’s patriotism and love of country.
He makes a fundamental error in not distinguishing between the country and the excrement that is running it into the ground.
Tell it to the French
Right. I love America and its people. I think our current government is a tool of Satan.
and is working unceasingly to removes the rights and freedoms that make America unique.
Case in point, the Department of (in)Justice along with the Federal Bureau of Instigation (no relation)
How much of this stuff continues under the umbrella of a 20 year old AUMF?
I guess you could put it that way. There is honest speculation and there is Twilight Zone conjecture.
I wonder how many people ever saw the movie “Poor Devil,” starring Sammy Davis Jr, Jack Klugman, and Christopher Lee?
You ought to consider moving if you feel that way.
Bull crap. Liberals do that ever national convention. The praise the people while slander the country. The govt is the people. What do you think they are, robots running the show?
I get disheartened with it too. I don’t know if it’s the nature of the internet that has created suspicion and conspiracy theories but things have changed.
You are talking about me. Yes, the Iraq war was sold based on the lie of nuclear weapons. As for who started the Ukraine/Russia war (that probably really started in 1920) you have to look at the Maidan coup, which ousted a Russia-friendly president. Is it a “conspiracy theory” that the president was ousted? The question is then did any outside country help foment the revolution. This article says CIA sponsored NED spent $20 million supporting protests. Is that a “conspiracy theory”? It might be your opinion that the coup was not the start of the current hostilities. Or, maybe it is your opinion that the NED efforts were not significant. But it is unfair to dismiss the opinions of others as “conspiracy theories”.
Do you believe that the govt acts in what it perceives to be ordinary people’s best interests? I really don’t – about most governments.
That is not the most far-flung thing I’ve seen on Ricochet, but it does reflect a trend of people attributing world events to unseen forces lurking in the American Government as opposed to more obvious factors. For instance – Ukraine and Russia have had an adversarial relationship for over a thousand years. Any meddling by the CIA is not going to fundamentally change the course of two major powers, Ukraine and Russia. If it were that easy to control events abroad, why can’t the CIA just magically get rid of the Iranian leadership, or keep China from threatening Taiwan? Or keep Russia from invading its neighbor in the first place? Hell, we can’t even get friendly countries to vote with us at the U.N!
It is very exciting to think that there are secret cabals that are influencing world events, but usually the answers come in more mundane circumstances. It is human nature to want to gravitate toward the former. Perhaps the populace of Ukraine didn’t like its own government when they overthrew it in 2014. I find it hard to believe that the CIA overthrew it against the people’s will. The CIA has been unable to overthrow Cuba despite 60 years of trying, and that is with the Cuban populace on our side!