Three Things You Didn't Know About the Iraq War - Thomas Ricks

[moonsugar1]

Protect the people? You've got to be joking. Iraq was left in total lawlessness whilst the coalition set up check points. We built a base bigger than the Vatican city and let all of Iraqs heritage go to the dogs, including their Natural History Museum, which had some of the earliest scriptures and finds of HUMANITY, not just Iraq.

Their probably lost forever or destroyed now.

I refuse to praise our soldiers on a shitty job they shouldnt have been sent to do in the first place.

[gobuddyboy]

America committed war crimes in Iraq. Usa Hung sadam but let's remember Usa supported him when he wad killing people

[dogzer]

Usa is the new Nazi

[profnasty]

The Bushy Neocons put america in disgrace worldwide. Cry me a river. The troops have no problems they didn't bring upon themselves by brutal violence, Fallujah,AbuGhraib, etc. We are the Bad Guys. If you pull a tiger's tail, don't complain when you are bitten. And never forget: 2million war related dead in Iraq after 1991. Hundreds of thousands of little children starved to death under Clinton (for Israhell under Albright). Cry me a river WaPo. The Jewish Press in america is guilty in this.

[Sandman8838]

all Hippie bullshit

[MsMihailescu]

We have exterminated the property owners in Russia. We are going to do the same thing in Europe and America.

(The Jew, December 1925, Zinobit) The world revolution which we will experience will be exclusively our affair and will rest in our hands. This revolution will tighten the Jewish domination over all other people."

- Le Peuple Juif, February 8, 1919.

Read Revelation 2:9,,3:9

Read this book;;;Who Is Esau-Edom.

[TheAzov]

@MsMihailescu About time! :)

[Riddlerx333x]

Watch "petro dollar" on youtube and the explanation for war on Iraq makes sense

[smujismuj]

The Pentagon is a terrorist institution.

[lonenut740]

this guy is on the war moguls payroll.

[mikej5337]

the things you SHOULD know. there's no such thing as war on terror, there is no terrorists except the american government, stop being the sheep and do some thinking. iraq never had anything to do with 9/11, netierh did muslim terorrists, it makes no sense that muslims attacked america because they "are jelous of our freedom"

[reksub10]

@mikej5337 its a war of terror,that one is very real ,and they have been doing to the people for 100's of years ,the same fear/warmongering and policy to get the people to support them ,but they do it anyway cos the people in the states and u.k. made it very clear they did not want to go to war on the evidence/inteligence they had,but did it anyway ,so that proves the people serve them not the way they tell it isas if muslims would be lealous of freedom to then bring in sharia law,who buys that?

[SwineNahNah]

@HoekieBets

It is about the oil, but it is the other way around - cheap Iraqi oil was kicked out of the market and prices skyrocketed, add to that another increase in price caused by huge fuel consumtion of the US military machinery, so the big winners who profited from this war are Arabs, Russians and comendante Chavez.

[KingR3aper]

lol any president who inherits whatever bush did is soooooo fucked.

Good luck pres, good luck.

[patman173]

i love how none of these comments speak of sadam Hussein

[Darusdei]

@patman173 Why should they? because Sadam was a bad man?

it's irrelevant

[seemoretube]

Wow this guy turned out to be a genius. Fora are such hacks, they post anything right wing.

[shoomiz723x]

What do you say about the 95% of Iraqi Oil Money that disappeared in the hands of the Republicans?

[brainplay]

@shoomiz723x You mean the 95% of the Iraq Oil Money that disappeared into the hands of the Russians and Chinese? US didn't get any major oil contracts out of Iraq. The majority went to other parties not involved with the actual war while the US picked up some maintenance, construction, and a number of small oil contracts. Over all, the latest dealings kind of kill any talk about being in Iraq for taking their oil.

[llokkee]

@brainplay

Im afriad u may be wrong there mate.

Saddam began selling oil to Belarus & Russia in Reubels instead of the international currency - the US Dollar,in mid 2002 - several months later the US invaded.

This was merely the straw that broke the camels back.

Saddam stopped playing ball with the pentagon directly after the Iran-Iraq war by increasing the price of oil and becoming a real headache for the Barons in the whitehouse.

This war was & is 100% about oil.

Look into it urself mate.

[index1001]

@llokkee Absolutely correct mate, and what was the first decision that the newly installed government made? started selling oil in US $ again. I am a commodity futures trader, we couldn't get enough ratio call spreads on when Saddam did that. Sad really as most people (especially Americans ) have no clue what their government get up to.

[NearAbbeyRoad]

@llokkee

The war Iraq war was about taking loans for the IMF and World Bank (basically US banks). Saddam said NO, so the troops went in.

[TheManWithTVEyes]

U.S. soldiers are occupying & waging war in the nations of Iraq, Afghanistan, Qatar, Pakistan & God knows where else. No declarations of war have been made as prescribed by the United States Constitution. ALL participants are guilty of treason. The "I-was-just-following-orders" defense didn't work at the Nuremberg show-trials of 1946-7 and it won't work now. U.S. commanders have routinely violated the Yamashita/Medina Standard in regards to hierarchical accountability in cases of war crimes.

[centurion180ad]

The commitment to Iraq setting aside we should have never invaded in the first place, REQUIRED an initial outlay of 380 to 480 thousand troops. General Shinseki in spite of that truth, was fired for his temerity of expressing that truth in testimony before Congress //prior// to invasion.

[trakkaton]

Fascist war criminals praising themselves - DISGUSTING!

[Jordan22473]

this guy is a dum ass

[flyhead2]

@Jordan22473

I'm sure that Mr. Ricks will curl up and die from your attack, especially given that Jordan22473 can't even spell dumb correctly.

[songman123]

the point is that there was hardly any need for army in iran in the ifrst play

[zoticus1]

Hard fighting! Yeah ok rag tag insurgents w/o uav, tanks, armor, or anything!

Protecting the civilians is preposterous because they are the object bringing conflict to the region.

And the government in Iraq are puppets and will bend to US interests.

[punkenduro]

"he doesnt have a clue just how screwed his is." i love it.

[Chiparoo22]

Thank god for the intelligent mind of the honorable Mr. Ricks !

[djboony]

boo hoo, poor american invaders

[Dan8191]

America rules the world bitch, get used to us always being better than you.

[dartplayer170]

Dude, you'd better get used to the idea that China will be the next super power. It is innevitable.

[5iF3R]

@dartplayer170 Why wont you yanks rise up angainst the plutokratic aristocracy that whips your bones white ......

[dartplayer170]

@5iF3R I don't know ey. I'm not a yank.

[alirazahps]

@dartplayer170 i dont see china as the super power.. there economy will come down with the paper money.. super power will be the one who helds the new form of money.. that is electronic money.. and china doesnt control it, china doesnt control any form of money, and money is the basic factor of an economy!

bankers control it, and the bankers belong to israel.. so we have a hidden super power in bulding, just wait and see!

[darrellmellissa]

@alirazahps You might have a point if the dollor falls there holding in dollors is also worth nothing,, comes down to who manufacture more.

[notdumdum1]

@dartplayer170 America is the last super power.

[sataricon111]

Lol...

The USA with all it's might after 7 years in Iraq and 9 years in Afghanistan "both very very poor countries" can't win tell now.

Man the US spends on it's military more than all the world and can't win against bullshit countries that has no armies to begin with.

[willwkrueger]

because its not trying to win its trying to colonize. For bush, the outcome of the war was beside the point, let alone development of iraq, the primary purpose was to establish a regional presence that would secure oil resources and to further privatize the military industry complex.

[cjfilmproductions]

they have no intention of wining if they wanted to everyone in the middle east would be dead tomorrow all 1.9million or what ever the population is dead but that is not the objective .they never intended to win

[porkypine8974]

They're not fighting a nation, they're trying to build nations and that's pretty hard to do especially when the population is scared of you and even more scared of the psychos.

[jaffijaffer]

better than everyone, like vietnam, lets see how better you are when you all get marched into those fema camps.

[4aaaaa4]

FACE OF GENOCIDE

` ` 2Million human victims of the USAggression ~would have produced an average of 3 children each, if they werent slaughtered.

2Million ppl slaughtered (x 3 kids) would have had 6 Million kids (1st gen)

6,000,000 kids x their 3 kids each, becomes 18Million kids (2nd gen)

18,000,000 kids x their 3 kids each, becomes 54Million kids (3rd gen)

54,000,000 kids x their 3 kids each =170Million kids (4th gen)

A lot of children were meant to be, but were robbed of their life

[treestump401]

Yeah well the Middle Eastern natives have definitely killed plenty of innocence too. Look at the other side of the story before you start blaming America, the ones that you waggle your finger at and then when your country gets fucked you cry and plead for American aid. Fucking retard

[4aaaaa4]

shove it up your ass.

What you are spewing is called "BLAME THE VICTIM". Its the oldest trick in the book ..and stupid ..and obvious.

[girlphriend]

yeah. lets drop food on them and "lend" them money they can never pay back to fix the mess we created (iran contra, the cia funded AlQeada). make sure the food is in yellow packets so when they realize we're trying to fool them into our way of life we can drop bombs in yellow packets too. That'll keep em in line. McDonalds anyone?

[dartplayer170]

Let's give them free drugs/medication that they can't afford but that they cannot stop taking once started. And if their president is too smart to accept this offer we'll have him persecuted as an irresponsible leader and then replace him with a dumber one that will listen to us.

[girlphriend]

i think someone beat us to it

[finerbiner]

The war in afghanistan could be justified after 9/11. We even had the support of most of the world. It is a breeding ground for hate groups with nothing to lose. Unfortunately, the USA and the former USSR are the two groups most responsible for this situation. If all of the gold and goodwill spent on Iraq had been directed towards Afghan. in the first place we may now be looking at a very different situation. Is it salvageable? We'll have to wait for this answer.

[migo53333]

Hmmmmmmmm. and the majority of the hijackers came from saudi arabia......hmmm Bushs buddies homeland.....

[neonlitz]

Obamas mission Afghanistan to get to Pakistan

[n8iveidiot13]

why? just tell me why? than after you answer that question. how? with insufficient funds i doubt they would want to go to another war which everyone knows would just be a mistake and would be a move made out of stupidity of a nation and would bruise the knowledge of what USA already has in the world

[mdelcamp1]

News I just heard this morning in America, the proposed integration of "The Awakening" Sunnis who partnered with our American Military to get rid of Al Queda in Iraq is going badly. Iraq's Shia led central government is not "playing ball" to politically integrate Iraq's Sunni Minority. Their council Leader was just arrested; their Community is now under a military siege. These Sunni partners feel betrayed now by America and by Prime Minister Al Malaki's Iraqi Central Government. Our Allies. WTF?

[MohammedALR]

1283 views in 2 days wow!

[1LTPETE]

Yes, yes. Characterize the current situation as such a horrible, insurmountable, fuck-up. Give President Obama all the cover he needs, should he fail. That way, he'll never have to accept ownership of the situation. It can ALWAYS be blamed on Bush. Mr. Ricks' characterization is off the mark. The surge has not failed, we're witnessing a complete, sustained turnaround of the situation in Iraq. The litany of things he rattles off @ 2:10 were never supposed to be solved by the surge itself.

[InGoodTerms]

change, change. Obama is now realizing that he is fucked. I love how people hate the war and they are all against it but after 911 and Bush's decision, his approval rating sky rocketed and everyone was for. America is so caught up in the fucking brain washing media they can only see the negatives. My uncle is over there now and there were loads of good things that the marines did. Yes Bush did not manage the war good. But I believe he a made a desicion any good president would make.

[n8iveidiot13]

ya but he did overspend to such an extent and let everyone run wild on their side... the way he attacked was very impatient and not a very strategic way to go into a war where your technology is years ahead of the opposition. i believe their would have been a way to fight the war with less lives at stake and more money to work with

if 1 marine/solider dies that is 1 million $ that america loses... that adds up

[aerodynamics24]

surge, no surge.....it didn't do anything......except completely whip out what we once knew as iraq. way to go bums.

[emosms]

Dont criticize IRAN that they work on nuclear programmes - who is going to protect them from USA? There is nothing in Afganistan, but there is PETROL in IRAN, that could be stolen, as they did in IRAQ.

[artformeandyou]

Maybe he should do a case study on Germany and Japan.

[artformeandyou]

Who is this guy? The surge allowed freedom to be tasted in Iraq, it's a working success. Americans having been dieing for other peoples freedoms since the Revolution, it's not a new thought to America. Where is this guy from?

[alltherestaretaken]

Freedom. Hah. Keep drinking the retard punch. It's working.

[artformeandyou]

I'm sure you know a lot about history, and how America was formed.

[alltherestaretaken]

Yes, because I remember the French attacking the N. American British colony because it suspected it of having WMD's only

to change their minds later and decide to 'free' the poor Americans who so desperately needed them to be free!!

Most awake folks, and people not brain washed by American propaganda realize America bombs brown people for their natural resources. The only freedom A. offers anyone is the freedom to get into credit card serfdebt.

[wjb67ii]

wake yourself up...there were 26 whereas clauses in the authorization of force in Iraq (try reading it it's a page turner) and only 3 mention WMD. Know the facts before you criticize.

[starmanskye]

WHAT? US went to war on Iraq because 'whereas clauses' were such an immanent National Security threat? Nonsense. YOU Wake-uP! The US installed the despot Saddam & supported him, following a long tradition of secret, criminal interventions that completely contradict America's basic principles in blatat violation of the Constitution. The US over 60 years has waged many dozens of wars for corporate greed & power -- NOT 4 liberty, democracy or human & civil rights. Fascists have hijacked US Gov.

[realisticgoals]

Seriously? that's how you answer this? Seriously? You really need to crack open a book or two and learn some history...something more than half understanding socialist agit-prop coming from Zinn and Chomsky. The US did not "install" Saddam. The Ba'ath Party is a leftist construct...Soviet in design! You wouldn't know a fascist if it goosestepped it's way up your mom and dad's driveway and shoved a jackboot up your butt.

[migo53333]

Hmmmmmm, haliburton nailing contracts left and right since this invasion....I mean war started.....smells like a big pile of dog shit......

[fubar28]

so even though we greatly reduced violence in iraq, in the midst of that country going to hell in a handbag, the surge failed because oh wait, yes, political objectives were not met.

iraq is transforming friends. like this war or not, that country is well on its way to a secure future. The surge worked, we could have left and left the country to rot. But we didnt. We stayed and fought. Like Americans. We won.

[felixq78]

Why did they SACK the Iraqi army at the very beginning? They created the Iraqi military dissidents by dumping a huge army which instantly created bad blood amongst thousands of well meaning Iraqi soldiers who were told they'd have a job in the new Iraq.

And they did it while these guys still had access to military weapons.

This was intentional, the administration wanted this war to drag out and evolve into a civil war thereby giving them the excuse to stay in Iraq a lot longer. ASSHOLES!

[blackiron60]

It's going to be giving Obama a headache throughout his term.

[MementoExpose]

i have a 4th thing you probably didnt know about iraq: iraqis want americans like you to mind their own business and discuss their own failing economy instead of worrying about how iraq is going to be run because thats non of your business

Love

[bryandenehy76]

I think the real question is can America install a puppet government that will sell it's oil for the Dollar or will they go the way of Saddam and sell it for other currencies. If they don't play ball I'm sure we will be there until they do.

[merdufer]

true enough. at this point though, i think any america-friendly government will do. it's not like the states are in the position to make demands.

imho it's already too late for them to save their ass. either they move out now and face a heavy consequence or they move out later and face a heavier consequence.

there is one way out: keep sending troops until people in both countries are used to it.

[FkyGGGG]

idiot.....FORA shows all idiots.....he is right though....Obama is WAY out of his leauge.....Cant just Vote Present at this Job...Dumd-ASS..

[WhyNotTruth]

wow, you must be joking. leauge? Dumd-ass? XD

[WhoRonPaul]

theres money to be made in any war for any reason, legal or illegal.

[garvess]

Let the damn Iraqi's fix Iraq, they have the best motivation to do it. Hasn't the united states spread enough peace? And that being said, I think that man is a gay bear.

[fruitsofescapism]

DUUH: "Americans dont understand how hard it actually was in irak" DUDE... "americans" don't understand how they ought to get out a foreign country that they messed up totally just to protect WHAT? --> the [international DOLLAR-strengthening "oil" REVENUE system]. Yawning already!

[kongfumonkey]

what you mean i dont know i do know now lol

[Sardonac]

Yay I came first! The Chicken wins it!

[indigointercept]

FORA TV FTW!

[winstonsmith00]

LOL