20 Years Ago on March 19…

 

Smoke covers the presidential palace compound during a massive US-led air raid in Baghdad, March 2003…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.

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  1. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    DonG (CAGW is a Scam) (View Comment):
    Yes, the Iraq war was sold based on the lie of nuclear weapons.

    A factor, but not the sole factor. There was more than one reason.

     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. 

    Coups don’t last months.

    They usually make do with fewer participants.

      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”? 

    From Global Research? These doinks?  Oh, no. No  conspiracies out of them.

    While some of GlobalResearch’s articles discuss legitimate humanitarian concerns, its view of scienceeconomics, and geopolitics is conspiracist — if something goes wrong, the Jews West didit! The site has long been a crank magnet: If you disagree with “Western” sources on 9/11, or HAARP, or vaccines, or H1N1, or climate change, or anything published by the “mainstream” media, then GlobalResearch is guaranteed to have a page you will love.

    They’ve got the skinny on HAARP, though.

    • #181
  2. Red Herring Coolidge
    Red Herring
    @EHerring

    Davos and the Great Reset aren’t fabrications. 

    • #182
  3. Manny Coolidge
    Manny
    @Manny

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Manny (View Comment):

    Hang On (View Comment):

    DaveSchmidt (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Manny (View Comment):

    [SNIP}

    I am a proud praise America first person. I will not slander my country without evidence.

    That’s basically praising yourself.

    To be real praise needs to be from someone else.

    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.

    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?

    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.

    Yes I do, within their ideological viewpoints.  Ideology shapes what they perceive to be in the people’s best interest.  Unfortunately we have a ideological chasm between many people.

    • #183
  4. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    I wish I lived in your world :-)

    • #184
  5. DaveSchmidt Coolidge
    DaveSchmidt
    @DaveSchmidt

    Zafar (View Comment):

    I wish I lived in your world :-)

    If I recall correctly, you once lived in Indiana.

    • #185
  6. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    DaveSchmidt (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    I wish I lived in your world :-)

    If I recall correctly, you once lived in Indiana.

    I shudda bought a cow and stayed….

    • #186
  7. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Zafar (View Comment):

    DaveSchmidt (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    I wish I lived in your world :-)

    If I recall correctly, you once lived in Indiana.

    I shudda bought a cow and stayed….

    What?  Don’t you still think Australia is better?

    • #187
  8. DonG (CAGW is a Scam) Coolidge
    DonG (CAGW is a Scam)
    @DonG

    Steven Seward (View Comment):
    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!

    This is a binary fallacy.  You claim that the CIA is has zero influence, because it does not total omnipotence.   The CIA and State Department are nudging things all over the world.  

    • #188
  9. Steven Seward Member
    Steven Seward
    @StevenSeward

    DonG (CAGW is a Scam) (View Comment):

    Steven Seward (View Comment):
    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!

    This is a binary fallacy. You claim that the CIA is has zero influence, because it does not total omnipotence. The CIA and State Department are nudging things all over the world.

    I never said the CIA had zero influence.  I just said that their meddling is not enough to control world events.  China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, and a host of other influential countries have also been meddling in foreign affairs for the last 65 years or more.  It is a very crowded field.

    • #189
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