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It's a testament to the power of US diplomacy. That said, a number of the architects - Wolfowitz for example - cannot enter ICC countries or they'll be obliged to arrest him.
@@user_____M Yet the Western media condemns Russia and wants him to be accountable. The West can call others warlords and hold them accountable but then Western leadership can't be held accountable?
As an Iraqi who lived through all these crazy events, I can confirm that this is the best historical and detailed video that is not biased towards any party to the Iraq war. Thank you
The mention of Paul Bremer is essential to understanding the failure of American policy in Iraq. He was given an impossible mandate, ridiculous amounts of power, and very little guidance. In both Iraq and Afghanistan, there appears to have been a bigotry of low expectations in the minds of the bureaucrats wherein they didn't believe the people could or should have the same rights and institutions that America has. Iraq can only survive as a federal state, but they based the federal divisions on sectarian concerns. This is more reminiscent of the British colonial policies of divide and conquer, than any sort of nation-building. Furthermore, it is my understanding that the US military requested that the Iraqi Army remain in place in order to keep order as looting had become common in the large cities. They were well aware that foreign troops should not be used as a police force. Bremer ignored this and disbanded that military without having any ability to account for the weapons which the men possessed. Frankly, the Cold War policy of giving power to a sympathetic dictator would have likely been more successful than this half-hearted attempt at democracy. The US military did not lose the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, or the Afghan War - the bureaucrats did.
We don’t lose wars, we lose interest and go home. We never intended to stay, the people of those nations have no real power to affect Americans at home. If by some lucky chance they did? Remember all those cities we burned to the ground in WW2.
I remember reading his book on his whole time in Iraq as a 15-16 year old in mid 2000s and thinking the whole time "what a stupid decision" at multiple points hahah. Even as a teenager. Biggest mistake being disbanding the Iraqi Army and his handling of Sunni vs Shia relations.
@@lproth The United states dropped ~7.6 million bombs in Vietnam, over TWICE the amount dropped by the USA and Britain in WW2, additionally the past 1000 YEARS of Vietnam history has been them fighting wars of liberation every other generation because they wanted to be free of and they were willing and DID pay the price to not have kowtow to either side during the cold war. The United states military lost in Vietnam. Over 50,000 US soldiers and an estimated 3.1 million vietnamese died
@@lproth Exactly. They're not.... true wars of conquer or for self defense. Just interest affairs. An extension of politics, which all war is, but if it's not life and death and only about influence or national interest, well, eventually those get out-weighed by other concerns. Unlike basic survival or wars to remain independent and defend yourself tend to.
Great summary! As other have mentioned, Bremer's decisions have been absolutely catastrophic. It's stunning that no one objected to this plan, or wondered what might happen if you fired 375,000 men with military training from the armed forces all at once. What could possibly go wrong?!
There were many in the US military who did challenge Paul Bremer on his decisions. Jay Garner was the first American in charge of the reconstruction of Iraq. He fought against the White House policy of getting rid of the Ba’ath party and expanding the Iraqi army. He wanted to hold elections within 90 days, and then pull all US forces out of the cities and let Baghdad determine the future. The White House was pushing to privatize the economy prior to any elections. General Garner did not have the same imperialistic tendencies as members of the bush administration did. He was removed rapidly and replaced with Paul Bremer.
@@specter7-1977 Thanks for the comment! Jay Garner is definitely worth mentioning on this topic, although his own decisions were also criticized at the time before he was replaced. An important one was his selection of five leaders to head a transitional government, which had only one fully Shi'a member and 3 Sunnis when the Shi'a made up 55-60% of the population vs 35-40% Sunni. This caused issues immediately, as you'd expect. At a higher level going into this war with such a complete lack of understanding of the ethnic makeup of Iraq and the relations between these groups was one of the most important mistakes of the Bush administration. *edit:* I found this amazing quote by Bremer given to PBS Frontline: "I think the decision not to recall Saddam's army, from a political point of view, is the single most important correct decision that we made in the 14 months we were there". Wow.
The US meticulously planned the military campaign in Iraq, while putting almost zero thought into what they would do after the military campaign was over. If I remember correctly, Bremmer was put in charge of the "transition" just weaks before the attack was launched. His strategy sounded like something sketched out on a cocktail napkin during a Republican campaign luncheon, and quickly descended into chaos. Bremmer's response to the chaos was to fly billions of dollars of American cash loaded on pallets around Iraq trying to buy everyone off. All he accomplished was to lose billions in cash. The Bush administration lied about the reasons for invasion, put zero effort into gaming out the consequences, and then patted themselves on the back and left behind a complete disaster that the region will probably never recover from.
Don’t act like the democrats were fully on board aswell, bush’s administration didn’t intervene with the invasion without the go ahead form the democrat, republican, and the intelligence establishments.
There's a very Eurocentric mindset that seems to not appreciate non-Western culture. The concept of "nation-building" is an arrogant assumption of superiority that just doesn't work.
Well there is some chance of recovery now that the middle east countries like iran and saudi have regained ties and they are getting closer to syria, iraq and egypt.
We often deride American foreign policy in Iraq as foolish or too aggressive, but something which is frequently overlooked was the role of foreign governments. Saudi Arabia and Iran in particular, but also Israel and Turkey, dumped enormous amounts of money, resources, and manpower into creating and funding various factions across Iraq. It is unlikely that the insurgency would have emerged at all were it not for such intensive intervention by nearby foreign states.
Alas, the sectarian divisions in the Middle East are such that everybody cares about what the other people are doing. Europe transitioned into the modern era and now cooperates without war. The Middle East just can't seem to pull off a similar arrangement.
As an Iraqi who witnessed most of the events mentioned here, I can tell you the information in this documentary is truthful unbiased and completely impartial. Well done!
Situations such as Iraq and now Ukraine are examples of the maxim "just because you can doesn't mean you should" The invaders of countries get caught up in the hubris and rarely (if ever) think of what comes after Thats where the law of unintended consequences plays its part
@@stacey_1111rh Yes two different conflicts but Russia will withdraw unless it be dragged into a neverending conflict just like Vietnam or Afghanistan (for US and Soviets)
@@philjameson292 You bring a valid point. Russia will not survive a true guerilla war style conflict in Ukraine. Like Afghanistan, the Ukrainians are willing to fight a guerilla war if necessary and clearly have more stomach for it. Hope it doesn't come to that.
@@philjameson292 You bring a valid point. Russia will not survive a true guerilla war style conflict in Ukraine. Like Afghanistan, the Ukrainians are willing to fight a guerilla war if necessary and clearly have more stomach for it. Hope it doesn't come to that.
A thing that is way too rarely talked about is the devastating effect of the invasion and of the subsequent persecution by ISIS in the following decade on the numbers of the Assyrian Christian population in Iraq. The last official Iraqi census in 1987 counted 1.4 Million Christian in the country (which would fit later reported pre-invasion estimates of more than 1.5 Million Christians in Iraq and thereof around 1.4 Million Assyrians before 2003). The most recent number I was able to find is from an organization (Shlama Foundation), which "has determined the Assyrian population of Iraq to be at a total of 142,105 in October 2022." The ongoing exodus of the last 20 years led to an unprecedented decline of the indigenous population of Mesopotamia, from which they might never recover again.
A lot of us have left abroad but interestingly enough there seems to be a new patriotism within young assyrians that desire to return back to their homeland
Kinda like the 4th Crusade which led to a decline in Christianity in Anatolia, ironic huh, this war accomplished what ISIS could not, make that region more Islamic
Yeah. it's a real shame which is further compounded by the fact that the Assyrian genocide (Seyfo) is relatively* unknown/unrecognised in the International Community at large.
@@mioszduby2842 They did not 'suffer' for hundreds of years. They were able to survive there for centuries since the middle ages because they did NOT suffer, there were policies that allowed their communities to exist. But when foreigners invade, radicalization happens.
yea that terrorist guy killing shia was backed by us becuz they didnt want shia become powerfull in iraq and take controll cuz shia will suport iran.this guy thinks ppl r dum and dont know how things works
A LOT LOT more easier said than done. Iraq Syria and Saudi, the three main powers of the Middle East were fundamentally opposed to each other and even just getting a dialogue started was difficult
All they needed to do was install a new leadership, make favorable trade agreements and loans to improve the economy. Once the country is reliant on US trade and is in high debt to the US, the government would have to go along with whatever the US demands or risk economic collapse.
I have to agree, it is very hard to use soft power when the bridge to it was burned in a single decision. What a way to make almost a million enemies overnight, simply one of the greatest single blunders in US foreign policy. More importantly what a waste of human life and effort.
That's not a war crime at all. People need to stop saying everything is a war crime or genocide without knowing the actual legal definitions of those words. In hind-sight we can say it was a bad move but at the time it would have been like removing Hitler from power in Germany and leaving all of his Generals in charge of the military to continue to enforce rules within the country. The leadership of the Iraqi military was far from innocent and deserved to be removed. The military had to be fully reconstructed from the ground up like Germany's military was. Which is what happened in Iraq and in the long term has paid off with Iraq being 1 of 2 nations in the Middle-East which are actual working democracies.
@@PhillyPhanVinny It was a bad move not just in hindsight. "Let's fire every soldier and military leader in this country, leave them to their own devices and leave a wide open power vacuum, what could possibly go wrong" That's not some unprecedented concept that only could've appeared in 2003, bud.
Just a correction, the tishreen movement is named after the month it started in not any square, plus the square it did start it is called tahreer square not tishreen. I'd like to add a few things. Thank you so much for putting in the effort into making a video about my beloved country, and showing all the terrible things that have befallen it. I'd also like to ask of you, to please, not call Iraq a thoroughly failed state. This country has seen many horrible things in it's seven thousand year history, from mongols, to ISIS and more. Yet here we are, and as I speak to you from iraq i can assure you that things are different and many things have genuinely improved. Also many of the things you spoke of at the end happened almost only within the boundaries of the green zone, a then closed off section of Baghdad reserved for the government and it's officials. God willing Iraq will become even stronger than before and Mesopotamia's honour will be restored and to tell you the truth, the future now seems brighter than it did yesterday.
Yeah as an American I do not think of Iraq of a failed state at all. You guys have really big urban cities, and actually make a lot of money compared to a truly "failed state". And from what I've seen, most of Iraq is generally quite orderly. Like with all countries, there is only some small certain areas with hotspots of crime and violence, and the rest of the country is quite nice. I think people often confuse Iraq and Afghanistan and do not know geography at all. Americans for some reason picture Iraq as Afghanistan with only farmers and village people living like it is the year 100ad.(and even that is not entirely true in Afghanistan). The reality is Iraq is pretty advanced and very urban compared to Afghanistan and many other countries. Sure it is not at the top of the list, but I wouldn't say it is at the bottom of the list either.
@@nicklibby3784"failed state" isn't about urbanisation or making money. For example Russia since 91' was failed state, yet had huge incomes, enormous cities with most populations in urbanised area etc. Its about ability to govern itself. But it is true that the worst times for Iraq are in the past, and today it does not meet enough of the criteria to be defined as a "failed state"
@@imcbocian That is a good and fair point. I agree with you. I was just trying to say that Iraq is not entirely this "empty desert wasteland where people live in tents or huts" that so many people think it is. It seems like most people have a far worse idea of Iraq than it actually is. - yes Iraq is still doing pretty bad BUT, it is not some empty wasteland where people live in tents or huts, they have cities, technology, phones, etc. People can get by just enough so far, and it looks like Iraq will be improving in future and like you said "Iraq's worst times are behind them" hopefully.
Allowing Nazi officials and Japans emperor to remain in power at the end of WW2, is why those Countries didn't fail. Completely removing all Bathe's from power was definitely a mistake.
It is a tough one though, sensible, but.... Re. Japan it is particularly concerning that so many Japanese have no knowledge of their horrendous acts in China and Burma. The use of Nazi and Japanese research from camps etc...... Von Braun... Ah well.
@@Yew2023 I have family member that was a secretary for Ruth Grafin von Saurmin, who was brought over by von Braun in Huntsville Alabama where Von Bruan did most of his work. But my Point is in Germany, Since most of the people involved in Government had to be part of the nazi party, many of them remained in their position to help keep the order. Because they knew their Jobs. Had all Nazi's be whole sale removed from power, it would have been complete Chaos.
had more of Saddams Government be allowed to stay in power in the transitional phase I don't think we would have seen the break down in their society we did. Personally, as an American Iraq 2003-2011 was a massive mistake.
@@Yew2023 Modern medicine has "benefited" from the horrendous experiments done by the Nazi and Japanese "doctors" in WW2. It's absolutely terrible what happened and we should remember that so it never happens again. But do we just ignore or "forget" the knowledge that was gained when it can help people now? Ethical questions like these are very tricky.
What the Americans failed to realize was that Saddam was the only thing holding Iraq together. Iraq was created by the British as a prize for their Hashemite collaborators in WW1. They set up a Hashemite kingdom, which was supposed to to give the UK (aka BP) free access to the wealth of oil in the the artificially created country. As a result, there never was really an "Iraqi" national identity and after Saddam left the scene, it all fell apart.
@@ThisNinjaSays_ iraq is not a 12000 year old civilization the people are descended from the many tribes of peoples that inhabited what we understand in ancient history as Mesopotamia & sumeria
@@ThisNinjaSays_ Babylon was a civilization. The lines drawn by the British to create the a new Nation-State of Iraq were drawn deliberately to create a weak vassal entity with no real national identity, that would agree to the Brits plundering the oil resources without interference.
@@ThisNinjaSays_ Are you really acting like if Babylon, Akkad, Sumer and Assyria got along when they were always fighting each other. The most ignorant people are always the ones who speak the loudest
Very interesting, albeit tragic. Thank you for this recap, I recall the start of the invasion in 2003 as I was a kid, but after some two years I lost track. Keep up the good work, GTBT!
I was following the weapons inspections in the international media for nearly the entire 10 interwar years, so when the invasion was announced, I was like "wait, what? WTF are they talking about??"
36.84% youth unemployment halfway through 2020 in a country the size of Iraq… that is absolutely horrendous. That’s a lot of unhappy young minds with idle hands. Just another example of how going to war in Iraq created a complete disaster. Many of those unemployed youths had yet to have even been born yet when the U.S. invaded, and yet there they are, still suffering the consequences for decisions made that were not their own.
yeah. they're suffering from their parents decision to create them. having a birthrate above 4 children per woman and becoming a successful country is simply not possible. Thats why East Asia developed quickly and Africa and the Middle East have not. Thats not to deny the problems with extremely low birthrates either, but far less people get hurt.
American here. Seems to me the original sin, so to speak, of the Iraqi misadventure was the US thinking that all it had to do was knock Saddam off his perch and - presto change-o! - Iraq would emerge a full-fledged liberal democracy right out of the pan. In other words, projecting your own society's culture and style of governance onto another's whose history is entirely different. This would account for the unbelievable lack of foresight on the part of US occupation officials from start to finish. They had no plan, because they didn't think they needed one.
This goes to show that America going around trying to force traditional cultures to be liberal is not only not working, but it's evil and that's their plan. They think liberty and democracy is the best way of life for everyone, instead of really letting people keep their ways.
So we should have left Saddam in place? Even considering the recent number of deaths and misery that Iraqis are going through, let's not kid ourselves; Iraq was in a terrible situation years before US intervention - the Iraq/Iran war from '80-'88 cost tens of thousands of lives from both nations and resulted in UN sanctions that stunted Iraqs economy. Yet it did not slow Saddam, who next invaded Kuwait in '90, again bringing unbelievable misery upon his citizens, while costing them tens of thousands of citizens. The follow on UN sanctions stifled the Iraqi economy even more, while all the worlds' intelligence agencies - to include the Russian FSB - were convinced Iraq still had WMDs; obviously at some point they still did, since Nerve gas was used on the citizens of Halabja, killing 4.000 and injuring another 10,000. Yes, I fully agree the U.S. was naive to try and build Iraq unto its own image; you blithely ignore the fact that from day one we were in a losing battle against Iran who was heavily invested in their own efforts to influence Iraq into the Shiite camp, disaffecting both the Kurds and Sunni. We know what Iran wanted; another religious dictatorship in the region, supplicant to Tehran. Yet despite your disingenuous attempts to flail the U.S. & Iraqi efforts to build a stable democracy, do you actually know what kind of government Iraq has right now? An unstable Democracy. That's up to the Iraqi people, now, to run with that ball and build their country into what they want; so while hindsight is always 20/20 and we certainly could have done a better job, I disagree fully that we should have left Saddam in power and I also disagree that it's the U.S. fault Iraq is a basket-case; it was already like that before the U.S. invasion. In other words, you're making a false linkage; there was no expectation that removing Saddam would result in a democracy; the expectation was remove Saddam, scourge of the world, and then deal with the fallout.
@@RangerB66 You're absolutely right, Iran was indeed trying to export its revolution to Iraq in the Saddam era, and guess what? After the 2003 invasion, it largely succeeded - due to the removal of its Sunni enemy courtesy of the United States. As far as the Kurds are concerned, the US and its allies had already imposed a no-fly zone in the Kurdish region so they were protected from aerial attack and indeed were largely autonomous pre-invasion. The over 1 *trillion* dollars spent on the invasion and occupation of Iraq could've been put to much better use elsewhere, not to mention the thousands of American lives lost in the process. Yep, I knew the invasion of Iraq was a bad move from the word "go," which is why I took to the streets in protest in 2003.
@@guydreamr I can't argue with anything you've said - I too was against the '03 invasion, even though I participated in the '91 liberation of Kuwait. There is so much we got wrong, and I cursed GW for squandering all the goodwill and sympathy we had from the world after 9/11. We should never have stuck around in Afghanistan once we'd wiped out Al Qaeda. The Taliban aren't great but then getting rid of them was simply a side effect of going after bin Laden. We don't seem to learn.
The US needed to invest more into state building. I understant it was hard, because these people activelly hated each other, more or less like yugoslavia, you can keep them opressed under a dictatorship, but as soon as they get out, the country breaks appart
@@gdlghdghslghsdghksdghk A new dictator just takes over and continue maintaining the brutally enforced peace, which is still better than the shitshow going on there for two decades now.
This was so indepth and thorough, I loved it. I didn't know much about the new movement you discussed at the endI would love to hear your analysis on the kurds! Whether it be about on only Iraqi Kurdistan or also including the other neighboring countries' Kurdish regions.
The Tishrin movement is named after the month of Tishrin, which is October; it is also known as the October movement. The square in question is called Tahrir (liberation) square. The name is unrelated
Thanks for the efforts to create this video, I'd like to add some name & info corrections though: @16:59 Correct name: Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis المهندس @22:00 "Tishreen" aka "Tishreen al-awual" means month October, which is the time these events took place. تشرين الاول The square name is called: Tahreer square. "Tahreer" means liberation ساحة التحرير
As someone who was in favour of the invasion at the time (I was a teenager and very idealistic), I would like to apologize to everyone who suffered because of it. It was by the stupidest position I have ever taken on any political issue.
great video, i really like it. but there should also be more focus about the northern kurdish region in iraq which is autonomous and is doing better economically than the rest of the country. maybe you could do an own video to that issue
Iraq, libya, Afghanistan etc weird how everywhere freedom fighters went to spread democracy and liberate ended up worse than it was . It's almost as if the end goal isn't democracy and freedom...
They're one of many but the lesson learned here is that when you tear down an existing structure, don't be surprised when you just reset the clock to anarchy
Something will always take over in a power vacuum. If you destroy the existing power then something has to replace it. The American leadership at the time did not care enough to put in the work (or put competent people in charge) to repeat the success of what they did for Japan and Germany after WW2.
@@aruak321 Japan and Germany aren't comparable. The US only spent in nation-building for security in the region. Germany was needed to spite the Soviet Union and Japan/South Korea was needed to keep China at bay. They have a far stabler and long-term presence for the sake of upending communism. There wasn't much of a goal in the Middle East. They could've built up Iraq to deter Iran, but the problem is that Iraqis share the same sect, and they would have to eradicate Shia Islam in order to turn Iraqi Shias against Iran. Makes sense why they started to fund Sunni insurgency groups who ended up digging Shia mass graves... So now the policy is to keep Iraq an embattled warzone of extremism to keep Iran busy.
Democracy is more than just elections. It needs to be something taught in all facets of the society. Japan, Germany, Philippines, Dominican Republic. Has turned out just fine.
@@sizzurpgaming8928 Absolutely. Without an educated populace, democracy can easily fail since the people become far too easy for authoritarians and others just trying to grab power to manipulate.
The example of denazificaton though: the German military was not disarmed. Within few years it was turned into a trusted ally military. And most Nazis were left in administrative positions (the leaders obviously not). And then rebuilding took many years. Within 20y there was an economic golden age in Germany, not in Iraq.
From the perspective of Poland, it is very disturbing. Many of the German officers who were responsible for the massacres of Poles worked in the administration of post-war Germany. Germany did not account for the looting of works of art that had been looted in Poland. In addition, the Germans have been trying for years to whitewash their zrbornie on Poles. The crime itself during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 is terrifying. Where the Germans murdered tens of thousands of civilians to build communication routes in the city. People were gathered in the yards: the elderly, women and children, and they threw grenades into the crowd from the floors. The heaps of corpses were 3 meters high. They were able to tie captured Polish soldiers with barbed wire and burn them in the barns. We remember it all and we will remind you.
Germany was disarmed. It was rearmed in 1956, which was a political debate in Germany and Europe as a whole. The soviet isolation and occupation of eastern Europe was a main driving force.
The Whermact was disbanded. And many nazis did not get the right to vote and could only work with manual labour. Many of whom got prison time. where did you get your facts from?
At the same time though, im pretty sure Japan wasn't allowed a military after WW2 and was under a us occupation (kind of) and only a small defensive force was later allowed. But still, Japan also had a economic golden age. And Japan was a good success story. Same thing with South Korea(except the military part), the US intervention lead that country into a golden age.
@@bratbrata4974 Germans are trying to this day to make it seems they were victims or circumstances during WW1 and that really the war they initiated was a defensive one 😅
The fate of Iraq is often portrayed as a failure of US policy, but I wonder if this was not the ideal outcome from the US perspective. Suppressing the Sunni Baathists was necessary to prevent a resurgence of Hussein's Iraq; this would leave the Shi'ites to consolidate power over Iraq, and their religious similarity could have led to a competent Shi'ite Iraq allied to Iran. Instead, we now have a divided Iraq with little ability to project force or influence over the Middle East. This is no good fate for the people of Iraq, but it seems to benefit the USA, Israel, and the Sauds all the same.
I heard people call iraq a "failed state" from us intervention,though if iran were succesful in their 90s invasion it would have eneded the same, probably would have taken out saddam too considering he was a sunni i believe.
I really do think you're overthinking it. The truth is, the US merely saw everyone else in its own image and thought once it deposed Saddam, everything would magically fall into place because, after all, liberal democracy is a law of nature, right?
Correction. America: Blasts in, removes dictator, replaces government with democracy, starts to rebuild nation, insurgency starts, America surges troops into Iraq, insurgency is reduced, America pulls out most combat troops but keeps some to guard the embassy and to train the Iraqi Army/Police, Insurgency ends, Rise of ISIS from Syrian Civil War, America returns to remove ISIS, America still has troops in Iraq, Iraq's current PM is Pro-American. There, fixed it for you. Sure there's certainly more Iranian influence than America would like, but its a misnomer that America has "left" Iraq, they are still there.
@@icedogg111 Afghanistan was different as it's never had a strong central government that could consolidate it's power over the entire country. This was evidenced by the total collapse of it after US forces left, similar to what happened to the Soviets.
@@icedogg111 after what they did to Iraq what did you expect the afghan people to do? To surrender and let americans do what they want + rape kids and kill the family of that kid,then givind officially 20 years in prison but in fact let them out in less than 5 for "good behavious"? I mean if the americans are about to bomb a country back to the medieval ages (best case scenario) at least you could make them suffer while they bomb you.
@Squirrels in Jacket They didn't want a strong, central government because it was a threat to each warlord's personal power. They just wanted to "milk" America for all they could get. They're so poor, that they'd do anything for our money and hogged it all for themselves. 🤷
One thing to note about the Ba’ath party in Iraq, and the subsequent policy of “DeBa’athification”, is that most Iraqi citizens that worked in the government “had” to be a party member. It wasn’t enforced 100% of the time; however, job opportunities and promotions obviously increased with party membership. So basically everyone in the public sector, from the local garbage man to the chief of police, was a member of the Ba’ath party. Bremer’s policy literally fired everyone that knew how to maintain the infrastructure and governing institutions. ~so apart from firing everyone in the military (the well trained fighting force), everyone in the govt. was sacked as well, thus creating a large population of pissed of people~ to topi it off, the US did not have a developed plan for dealing with an insurgency, with the US State Department declaring the occurrence of one to be unlikely. Edit: Essentially it was a giant cluster f*ck
No one talks about how Iraq was a perfect lesson in perverse incentives. Every dead Iraqi civilian was blamed on America, whether we pulled the trigger or our mortal enemies did. This gave insurgents factions reason to sow as much carnage as possible: bombing power stations, blowing up bridges, carbombing public markets, etc. Then Iraqis would get angry, blame America, join the insurgency, and kill the people who were trying to hunt the terrorists down, which of course made it even easier for the terrorists to operate and kill more Iraqis. It created a giant snowball effect. I'm convinced The Dark Knight was actually an Iraq War parallel, since it was all about how the Joker could turn Gotham against Batman with his own atrocities.
The Iraq invasion was an embarrassing ordeal for the US and hurt whatever image of goodwill my country of birth had for a very long time. And yet, Putin looks at what we did in Iraq, and thinks to himself, "You know what? That sounds like a great idea, but the war crimes were weak. Hold my vodka!" and just does far more to Ukraine. Then whenever anyone tries to call for accountability, he points at the US and Iraq as if to say, "If they can do it, I should also be allowed to do it without your intervention." In a way, he isn't completely wrong. We didn't cover ourselves in glory invading Iraq, and the fact that we did this also allows every tinpot dictator to just use this excuse to justify their own invasions.
Unfortunately, Vladimir Vladimirovich did not consider he has a skill issue, since he never got out of the "defeat the army of the country you're invading" phase of the war.
@@George_Wong Makes me wonder, that say if Russia does get what it wants (keeping the five new oblasts), then what makes Putin think that Russia won’t face a rebellion within those oblasts? At the very least it would be like The Troubles: Slavic edition, but the IRA (Ukrainian resistance) is wholeheartedly supported by Ireland (Ukraine).
I was there in 2010 to 2011. I was only an E-4 and I vividly remember having conversations with my other enlisted guys about how when we left, there would be an even larger threat emerging from some group that would sweep the country and overthrow the government. We didn't know who it would be, but it turned out to be ISIS. I wish we had handled Iraq better. Bremer should have been fired the instant he decided to dissolve the Iraqi Army.
There's no hope in that part of the world. Saddam kept things together, but that meant being the devil himself. Imagine a situation so bad that if you kill the devil you end up with an even greater Hell. You boys fought your hearts out. Should be proud of yourselves. Even if you left that place in defeat, you killed a few Islamic fanatics along the way.
@@DestinyAwaits19 You say all of that like everything that happened was totally fine. The original commenter himself stated that their fighting wouldn't prevent the rise of ISIS. But, you're more concerned about killing Muslims than about the outcome of the war started by the US. You're sick in the head.
@@DestinyAwaits19 Was Saddam really worse than any of the other dictators and authoritarian states we have supported? No he should not be proud of what he did there all we did was cause untold amounts of human suffering.
@@lif3andthings763 The Americans didn't cause all that suffering. That part of the world has no social trust and has weak institituons. The countries fell apart from within. Islamic radicals caused all the suffering by targetting other muslims.
Here's something. I was in Iraq in 2006. And we had went to Samarra that January. I took a picture of that golden some 30 days before it was destroyed. Still have those pics in the archives.
From an economic and industrial perspective, Iraq could have leveraged its crude oil resources to power industries and put at least enough of those 750,000 displaced workers to work to keep just a low enough unemployment figure, particularly among the youth. A textile industry comes to mind. Building train lines that would establish or improve connections to Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait would help trade in both directions. This would make it easier for Iraq to import cotton. Oil refineries could provide the diesel needed to fuel the trains that would carry cotton going into Iraq and then textiles coming out of Iraq. Some of Iraq's oil could also be leveraged to make synthetic fibres and dyes for the textile industry. Furthermore, one could open cement factories in Iraq that use limestone imported from, say, Turkey, to feed the construction needed to set up these industries.
Bro as an iraqi I should tell u that politician doesn't care about people in 2006 iraq become the world second most corrupt government and between 2005 and 2009 150 billion dollars were messing 10 billing were under US approve So now the protest made the country the world 24th most corrupt government it is better And the US is out so there is hope
How are you going to do that when the fixed-term president the US installs just lines his pocket and spends mostly on upgrading security to counter the insurgents American policy unleashed nextdoor in Syria???
I have a friend from Iraq who gave me Persian, Hindi, and Arabian song tips. In no way do I claim to understand the country from just that friendship, but as an outsider, I would never discount them as a failed state. I'm ignorant, but I see strong foundations. There is likely a future with conflict, as well as negotiation, compromise, and hopefully more harmony and independence.
Back in 2001, Iraqis came out to the streets to celebrate the downfall of Saddam. God knows that was only the beginning of the troubles in Iraq. Saddam had to go, but the lack of a cohesive follow up plan is just inexcusable.
2001 ? you seem like an educated individual what iraqis came out to celebrate the fall of their country under occupation ? a few hundreds ? you think that represents the whole country ? why are you trying so hard to justify the invasion ?
@@jacer5677 Where did he justify the invasion? I don't see anything he wrote that implies he thinks the invasion was justified. Just because he thinks a leader had to go or it was inevitable does not mean he thinks a invasion was the correct way or that the invasion of the US was justified in the way it was handled. 2 things can be true at the same time you know.
@@nicklibby3784 "in cities that fell to Russia, Ukranians took to the streets in celebration... the ukranian government has to give up these territories, but it would be inexcusable if Russia doesn't have a cohesive follow up plan... at the same time I don't think the invasion is justified"
@@jacer5677 tell me. Did the Yanks tried to annex Iraq, or in any way forcibly erase Iraqi identity, culture, and language? I'll tell you who did. Daesh. Daesh did to Iraq what Putin and his league attempts upon Ukraine. And they will meet the same befitting end. Saddam's days were numbered when he invaded Kuwait - in a spectacular fashion no different than Putin annexing Crimea. Too bad it was more convenient for the establishment to give Saddam 10 more years to kill the native uprisings that came from within, in the light of Saddam's thrashing in Desert Storm. I can confidently say Iraqi rebuilding would've gone much smoother had it been pulled off in the 90s. 2000s Iraq faced a power vacuum because the Coalition gave Saddam the past decade to systematically wipe out organized and enlightened opposition, and all that was left were religious extremists funded by Al-Saud and the IRGC. Take a look at political opposition in Russia and contrast it with Ukraine for another parallel. We gave Putin 2 and a half decades to wipe out the opposition. It died with Nemtsov. Now all that's left in terms of the viable opposition in Russia are the far right ethnonationalists (RVC) and anarcho-communists (BOAC), and it's going to get fucking ugly once Putin and his clique of Siloviki is disposed of. Ukraine, on the other hand, has sizable oppositions, despite what Russian media masquerading as independent media would like to tell you. Even excluding the obvious Moscovite fifth column, Ukraine's politics is kind of a blob of controlled chaos. The ruling SN party may have a 1 party majority in the Rada from the freak 2019 landslide, but once you start talking to locals, or look at regional representation, you find out just how fragmented "peacetime" politics were. Given that it's war, there is basically no opposition today - everyone's in it for the fight. But when it's done with, it's on. There's plenty of unanswered questions, and people will bicker and shout. That's kind of the point of a healthy democratic society. The bickering and shouting at family dinners and public events are the replacement for partisan violence and state terror. People definitely look forward to EU and NATO membership now, but the nitty gritty of how to qualify (especially) for EU membership will be a bitch of a friction point. Everyone knows rebuilding is faster with vertical integration, but everyone also knows exactly how that went for South Korea - it makes way for a cyberpunk hypercapitalist dystopia. Ukraine's going to need a free market, and also a mechanism to recapitalize massive private gains for public good. People remember the 90s rise of oligarchs and they will fight tooth and nail to stop the second coming of those assholes. Point is, Ukraine's come a long way from "Russian fifth column vs Ethnonationalist Fascists" of the early 2000s, and that's because the people didn't tolerate Kuchma and Yanukovich's systemic eradication of moderated opposition to government policy. Say what you want about Zelenskyy, Klitshchko, Tymoshenko, or Poroshenko - they all look sane compared to any of the freaks that come out of United Russia or the LDPR. they may all got problems, but they're at least bounded by constitutional rules and obligations to not tear apart Ukraine at the seams, and those that do get the boot. Despite the ethnonationalist loudmouths hogging social media attention, they got no regions nor did they broke 2% threshold for parliamentary seats.
Americans are poor colonists. They took over Cuba and the Philippines and botched both. The rest of the coalition advised not to disband the Iraqi army. but they are always know best.
The Philippines was the least botched of all. They have to do a lot of propaganda for that to have that moderate degree of success. Also, Filipinos tend not to linger on old wounds as long a sincere form of "apology" was given. (due reparations being one form it)
@hard yakka I know of that event too. The Americans were essentially spitting on the face of the revolutionaries and is the first indicator that they were never there to aid on the nation's independence.
@sdkfs200 doesn't make it any less wrong. Considering their veiled promise of "aiding" of their independence. It is not like the case of Germany, which tends to clearly declare annexation when it involves itself in the conflict.
May Allah swt guide the Iraqis into their struggle for justice and righteousness between its people. May Allah swt shower them with good fortune for their lands so that they may have bountiful harvest so that no one starves anymore. May Allah swt help the Iraqis have clean drinking water. May Allah swt help recover all Iraqis their sanity and health. Amin.
I served in the US Marine Corps during the invasion of Iraq. I can tell you that overall the US Government failed the Iraqi people on many fronts. Greed and tyranny abound in their decision to overthrow the Iraqi government without a true plan of restoration. Yes, Saddam was a tyrannical dictator and deserved his execution. He was a murderous killer. However, there are many ways to skin a cat. Unfortunately, I highly doubt we will see any coordination of peace amongst the religious and sectarian factions in Iraq. My heart goes out to the Kurds in their struggle.
The mistake wasn't removing Saddam, he was a brutal fascist dictator and needed to be removed. It was not rebuilding the country properly, the way we did for Europe after WW2.
@@paladin50554 that one too, but the iraqi invasion ruined american reputation and influence around the middle east kraut made a great video on it. ruclips.net/video/uhXFgKEkwbU/видео.html&pp=ygUKa3JhdXQgaXJhcQ%3D%3D
getting rid of a dictator with a history of pursuing nuclear weapons was not a mistake for America. You might not like it, but that doesn't make it a mistake.
I said it in 2003; Disbanding the Iraqi military was a huge mistake. We had a perfect example of what to do in the Marshall Plan. Use the vanquished enemy military to keep the country together, that will buy time to rebuild infrastructure and make the country able to stand on it's own as an ally.
Yep former members of the army just ended up joining isis and actually making it a formidable force both strategically and in urban warfare which made it extremely difficult for the already incompetent and rookie Iraqi army and the wartorn syria.
@@Juan-qu4oj Iraq has multiple ethnic groups living there... Can't just blame crime on something as simple as diversity when there are other major factors that perpetuate crime such as poverty, lack of education, and lack of strong community.
The most infuriating thing is that a lot of people who are condemning Russia for its operation in Ukraine either SUPPORTED this war crime against Iraq, or has conveniently forgotten about it.
As an American who grew up in the shadow of this war, all I can say this was one of the most disastrous mistakes in world history. Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, but to an extent he kept law and order. After his disposition, the US made catastrophic mistakes that ruined the country and caused a major security quagmire that allowed ISIS to gain traction about a decade later. Many Christians were forced to flee the country because of intensifying persecution in the aftermath. The only good things to come out of it was that the Kurds gained a degree of independence and the Christian minority were able to form a militia force in wake of ISIS's offensive.
Mistakes? You did this on purpose. You are criminals. There was no mistake here. Your intentions were criminal from the start and you set our region on flames. You will never be forgiven. You have earned our enmity.
I appreciate the video a lot. It’s very informative but please don’t call Iraq a failed or fallen state. We’re resilient and we will rise again. Just look at our incredible history and you’ll realize we’ve went through these issues since the earliest civilization the Sumerians. We will rebuild and restore the glory of Mesopotamia ❤ 🇮🇶
The fact that people think the US is "good" is laughable. I grew up in a conservative family in rural Pennsylvania and was taught that the US is a beacon of freedom to the world and can do no wrong. But now that I'm my mid 20s I can say that what i grew up being taught was sooo delusional and wrong.
A true conservative sees that the US isn't a beacon at all. You're conservative, you just see the truth and woke up from the delusion. That's a good thing.
this is the kind of documentary I like, I get here actually looking a documentary of this quality about Syria and it's conflict but as soon I make the search the only thing I saw is legacy media spilling and puking lies and biased data base on who owns them and if I do a search on recent Iraqs history gonna find more or less the same. This is what I like independent honest researchers who give their views doing their best. Here u have another subscriber pal hope u have another video in the Syrian conflict with this level of profesionality.
Anyone who wants to learn more from the point of view of Iraqi’s who lived thru the last 20yrs should also watch “Once Upon A Time in Iraq” by PBS Frontline.
its mind blowing that a video on the Iraq war fails to mention the war being an illegal invasion that caused massive human casualties among civilians and that the US committed countless war crimes during this war and used depleted uranium munition to bomb the country. This is obviously done on purpose since this channel made plenty of videos about the russo ukrainian war in which it had no problem condemning the invasion and the russian war crimes.
@@chaosXP3RT what response are you expecting from asking for american and russian war crimes? The list is obviously stupidly long, especially the longer you go back in time. Do you want to argue the legal definition of war crimes or is there some other point you're trying to make? Because I'm pretty sure nobody sane is going to argue that america and russia have never commited war crimes.
I was there 18 years old with a bunch of ice cold C2 Cokes to see Shock and Awe start. I kept VHS tapes recording the news networks all through my school day to catch up later. So much unexpected history since.
Iraqis today need to look beyond their differences and unite for a single mutual interest and that should only be prosperity. I don't know a single state that has prospered on religious or ethnic grounds of division.
As Iraq survived the Mongols, He will survive the US Iranian coalition. As the Mongols converted to Islam the US and Iran will convert too. This is Iraq
Politicians have ruined this world and it’s all our fault we let them do this. Prove me wrong, because we fight their wars we lose our loved ones we destroy each other while they live a long life healthy and wealthy and their kids pick up right where they left off. It’s sad
You can't blame the Americans for those sectarianism conflicts cuz they have been killing each other since the death of their Prophet. The major mistake the Americans made is trying to establish some sort of democracy among people who doesn't deserve it. They should have removed the Saddam regime and withdrawn immediately.
There was no infighting during the 60 and 70. When iraq started o modernise. Saddam destroyed our country but the American destroyed any hope for a better future
It's the fault of the other sects from starting their divide in the first place instead of being united under one Islam. Also, what do you mean, "don't deserve it"? Like they're lesser than or something? The truth is that nobody wanted democracy there. It doesn't work for everyone and not everyone agrees with it. The problem is many westerners have this arrogant belief that democracy is the best way and is superior and everyone must adopt it or they're subhuman if they don't. What's worse is nation that has tried to force its way of thinking upon others rather than allowing different people to actually choose their own governments that allign with their culture and traditions.
@@blackagent4754 Ha, was there anything wrong? One of the painful facts we learned over the past 30 years is DEMOCRACY REQUIRES QUALIFICATIONS. Those who are still living in the mid ages have no such qualifications. They rejected efforts to make improvements and basically love those 7th-century-style craps in their aboriginal communities. That's why they don't deserve it.
the ba'ath regime kept religious tensions and terrorists in check knowing it was secular, and it was demolished thanks to the US And no one deserves your democracy anyways, because its garbage
@@nonamex3052 saddam destroyed nothing, you may only be critical of him over his war on kuwait but otherwise, you can't deny the good things he did before that unless your the average iranian shill
2003 was the beginning of the End for the American world hegemony...what a catastrophe for US was the war on terror...I hope Iraqi people recover and build a new and prosperous Iraq! ❤
Pro tip: when someone talks about civilian casualties in the Iraq War have them look up who caused the vast majority of civilian casualties (spoiler: it wasn't from coalition forces).
US forces have destroyed everything in the country, what are you waiting for yet! Look at the American protests. When power was gone, the Americans robbed and burned shops and killed many people! Imagine putting a country made up of millions of people of different religions located next to Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Syria, without an army or police! Al Qaeda comes from abroad to blow up the Shiites whom the United States could not protect! Then they blow up a very sacred mosque like the Vatican for Shiites! Then a civil war breaks out, and what did the United States do? It gave the verdict to a racist Iranian Shiite man who killed the Sunnis!
There is no chance of Iraq being a unified State without removing the Milita groupings of various forms as these will pose a threat to the actual State forces or a new leader with a powerful Milita force is able to emerge as the key power supplanting the other Militas and able to command respect from State forces but that is a formidable undertaking..
If you understand that the strategy in Iraq was always destabilization, then you will see that all is going according to plan. Iraq is like the hub on a wheel. If Iraq is unstable achieving peace/cooperation will be rather difficult.
Kata’ib Hezbollah missed taking out my battle buddy and me with a well-placed 82mm in 2010. I mean it was REALLY close. I ended up with some shrapnel and lost hearing but I lucky. I’m telling you, the training and ability of the Iran-backed groups was no joke. TLDR: Operation Iraqi Freedom was a massive blunder for the US and realigned the power centers of the region towards Tehran and cost thousands of non-combatant lives. Just terrible. I say that as someone who served two tours in Iraq and was well-positioned and clearanced to know whereof I speak.
Let's be very honest even if the Americans were to make the best decision possible in not invading, Iraq would have colapsed either way and most likely turn into another Syria during the Arab Spring.
Ok now we are talking , just accept that was evil and teach it to your next generatiin like germany does so they don't commit the same crimes that their ancestor have done
Very interesting analysis. As i see it, a rather promising country got off the rails by unnecessary and resource-draining invasions in Iran and Kuwait, which eventually led to the disintegration of the state. This makes me worry about Russia, which also looked rather promising until it did an unnecessary and resource-draining invasion in Ukraine ...
Americans entered Iraq under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction, not just Saddam Hussein. While they never found anything like that. In this video, the main reason for America's presence is not mentioned. It was more like that the Americans came for democracy, but nothing was mentioned about the presence and extensive influence of the Americans on Iraq's oil resources and American military bases in Iraq and political issues. Not Iran, not Saudi Arabia and not other neighboring countries, but America doesn't want a united Iraq. . .
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Fun Fact - The U.S. and 68 other countries lost to Afghanstan after instigating the confIict back in 2001.
OMG CHINESE SUBS!!!!
Thx for everything
Why did you not call the war an illegal invasion?
@@NestNext what would you call the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq?
Wild how nobody is in jail for this war.
Why would they be? They're not accountable to anyone.
The Americans are worse than the Russians
It's a testament to the power of US diplomacy. That said, a number of the architects - Wolfowitz for example - cannot enter ICC countries or they'll be obliged to arrest him.
@@user_____M Yet the Western media condemns Russia and wants him to be accountable. The West can call others warlords and hold them accountable but then Western leadership can't be held accountable?
Who would put them there?
As an Iraqi who lived through all these crazy events, I can confirm that this is the best historical and detailed video that is not biased towards any party to the Iraq war. Thank you
Incorrect and exaggerated video
Were you living in Iraq, for the period, when the USA Invaded & Occupied it? Where are you living now?
@@dinonazamodeen5694 Yes, I've lived through all of this and seen very bad things Yes, I live in Iraq now
@@iraq.1958 من اي ناحيه مبالغ فيه ؟
@@MrCrow-xg8el cute Iraqi🥺🥺🥺😊
The mention of Paul Bremer is essential to understanding the failure of American policy in Iraq. He was given an impossible mandate, ridiculous amounts of power, and very little guidance. In both Iraq and Afghanistan, there appears to have been a bigotry of low expectations in the minds of the bureaucrats wherein they didn't believe the people could or should have the same rights and institutions that America has. Iraq can only survive as a federal state, but they based the federal divisions on sectarian concerns. This is more reminiscent of the British colonial policies of divide and conquer, than any sort of nation-building.
Furthermore, it is my understanding that the US military requested that the Iraqi Army remain in place in order to keep order as looting had become common in the large cities. They were well aware that foreign troops should not be used as a police force. Bremer ignored this and disbanded that military without having any ability to account for the weapons which the men possessed. Frankly, the Cold War policy of giving power to a sympathetic dictator would have likely been more successful than this half-hearted attempt at democracy.
The US military did not lose the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, or the Afghan War - the bureaucrats did.
The us military lost the fucking Vietnam war, agree with you on the other two though
We don’t lose wars, we lose interest and go home. We never intended to stay, the people of those nations have no real power to affect Americans at home. If by some lucky chance they did? Remember all those cities we burned to the ground in WW2.
I remember reading his book on his whole time in Iraq as a 15-16 year old in mid 2000s and thinking the whole time "what a stupid decision" at multiple points hahah. Even as a teenager. Biggest mistake being disbanding the Iraqi Army and his handling of Sunni vs Shia relations.
@@lproth The United states dropped ~7.6 million bombs in Vietnam, over TWICE the amount dropped by the USA and Britain in WW2, additionally the past 1000 YEARS of Vietnam history has been them fighting wars of liberation every other generation because they wanted to be free of and they were willing and DID pay the price to not have kowtow to either side during the cold war. The United states military lost in Vietnam. Over 50,000 US soldiers and an estimated 3.1 million vietnamese died
@@lproth Exactly. They're not.... true wars of conquer or for self defense. Just interest affairs. An extension of politics, which all war is, but if it's not life and death and only about influence or national interest, well, eventually those get out-weighed by other concerns. Unlike basic survival or wars to remain independent and defend yourself tend to.
I love that you’re tackling these complex Middle East geopolitics. Please keep them coming
You don’t really need to watch any of them. All of them sums up to “it’s americas fault”.
Even when it has nothing to do with the US.
You don't need to know how complex it is. America makes it very simple by bombing them way through.
Great summary! As other have mentioned, Bremer's decisions have been absolutely catastrophic. It's stunning that no one objected to this plan, or wondered what might happen if you fired 375,000 men with military training from the armed forces all at once. What could possibly go wrong?!
Why Iraqis didnt stand by their army?
@@meatrealwishes what does it mean to "stand by their army" ?
There were many in the US military who did challenge Paul Bremer on his decisions. Jay Garner was the first American in charge of the reconstruction of Iraq. He fought against the White House policy of getting rid of the Ba’ath party and expanding the Iraqi army. He wanted to hold elections within 90 days, and then pull all US forces out of the cities and let Baghdad determine the future. The White House was pushing to privatize the economy prior to any elections. General Garner did not have the same imperialistic tendencies as members of the bush administration did. He was removed rapidly and replaced with Paul Bremer.
@@specter7-1977 Thanks for the comment! Jay Garner is definitely worth mentioning on this topic, although his own decisions were also criticized at the time before he was replaced. An important one was his selection of five leaders to head a transitional government, which had only one fully Shi'a member and 3 Sunnis when the Shi'a made up 55-60% of the population vs 35-40% Sunni. This caused issues immediately, as you'd expect. At a higher level going into this war with such a complete lack of understanding of the ethnic makeup of Iraq and the relations between these groups was one of the most important mistakes of the Bush administration.
*edit:* I found this amazing quote by Bremer given to PBS Frontline: "I think the decision not to recall Saddam's army, from a political point of view, is the single most important correct decision that we made in the 14 months we were there". Wow.
@@desmond-hawkins when was that quote said?
The US meticulously planned the military campaign in Iraq, while putting almost zero thought into what they would do after the military campaign was over. If I remember correctly, Bremmer was put in charge of the "transition" just weaks before the attack was launched. His strategy sounded like something sketched out on a cocktail napkin during a Republican campaign luncheon, and quickly descended into chaos. Bremmer's response to the chaos was to fly billions of dollars of American cash loaded on pallets around Iraq trying to buy everyone off. All he accomplished was to lose billions in cash. The Bush administration lied about the reasons for invasion, put zero effort into gaming out the consequences, and then patted themselves on the back and left behind a complete disaster that the region will probably never recover from.
Don’t act like the democrats were fully on board aswell, bush’s administration didn’t intervene with the invasion without the go ahead form the democrat, republican, and the intelligence establishments.
yep. Well said.
There's a very Eurocentric mindset that seems to not appreciate non-Western culture.
The concept of "nation-building" is an arrogant assumption of superiority that just doesn't work.
Well there is some chance of recovery now that the middle east countries like iran and saudi have regained ties and they are getting closer to syria, iraq and egypt.
Omg, that is one of the best synopsis of the Iraq fiasco I've ever read.
We often deride American foreign policy in Iraq as foolish or too aggressive, but something which is frequently overlooked was the role of foreign governments. Saudi Arabia and Iran in particular, but also Israel and Turkey, dumped enormous amounts of money, resources, and manpower into creating and funding various factions across Iraq. It is unlikely that the insurgency would have emerged at all were it not for such intensive intervention by nearby foreign states.
You see that fact would threaten the anti-American Yudeo-Bolshevik left's narrative, so of course it'll be ignored
👃🏼
The invasion made those interventions possible.
Those were consequences, not the main cause.
Alas, the sectarian divisions in the Middle East are such that everybody cares about what the other people are doing. Europe transitioned into the modern era and now cooperates without war. The Middle East just can't seem to pull off a similar arrangement.
As an Iraqi who witnessed most of the events mentioned here, I can tell you the information in this documentary is truthful unbiased and completely impartial. Well done!
Situations such as Iraq and now Ukraine are examples of the maxim "just because you can doesn't mean you should"
The invaders of countries get caught up in the hubris and rarely (if ever) think of what comes after
Thats where the law of unintended consequences plays its part
Well Russia clearly can’t
2 totally different conflicts
@@stacey_1111rh Yes two different conflicts but Russia will withdraw unless it be dragged into a neverending conflict just like Vietnam or Afghanistan (for US and Soviets)
@@philjameson292 You bring a valid point.
Russia will not survive a true guerilla war style conflict in Ukraine.
Like Afghanistan, the Ukrainians are willing to fight a guerilla war if necessary and clearly have more stomach for it.
Hope it doesn't come to that.
@@philjameson292 You bring a valid point.
Russia will not survive a true guerilla war style conflict in Ukraine.
Like Afghanistan, the Ukrainians are willing to fight a guerilla war if necessary and clearly have more stomach for it.
Hope it doesn't come to that.
A thing that is way too rarely talked about is the devastating effect of the invasion and of the subsequent persecution by ISIS in the following decade on the numbers of the Assyrian Christian population in Iraq. The last official Iraqi census in 1987 counted 1.4 Million Christian in the country (which would fit later reported pre-invasion estimates of more than 1.5 Million Christians in Iraq and thereof around 1.4 Million Assyrians before 2003). The most recent number I was able to find is from an organization (Shlama Foundation), which "has determined the Assyrian population of Iraq to be at a total of 142,105 in October 2022." The ongoing exodus of the last 20 years led to an unprecedented decline of the indigenous population of Mesopotamia, from which they might never recover again.
A lot of us have left abroad but interestingly enough there seems to be a new patriotism within young assyrians that desire to return back to their homeland
Kinda like the 4th Crusade which led to a decline in Christianity in Anatolia, ironic huh, this war accomplished what ISIS could not, make that region more Islamic
Yes, it's a great tragedy. These people have suffered for hundreds of years - a veritable nation of martyrs. May God protect them.
Yeah. it's a real shame which is further compounded by the fact that the Assyrian genocide (Seyfo) is relatively* unknown/unrecognised in the International Community at large.
@@mioszduby2842 They did not 'suffer' for hundreds of years. They were able to survive there for centuries since the middle ages because they did NOT suffer, there were policies that allowed their communities to exist. But when foreigners invade, radicalization happens.
This is the most accurate explanation of the current situation in Iraq, great job
"How to resist Americans?"
"Let's unit and fight them together"
"No, let's divide and fight each other"
"Makes sense"
it worked for quite a while
yea that terrorist guy killing shia was backed by us becuz they didnt want shia become powerfull in iraq and take controll cuz shia will suport iran.this guy thinks ppl r dum and dont know how things works
How to fight the Americans: Make this place such a crazy shithole that its not worth being here anymore.
Like you knew better.
A LOT LOT more easier said than done. Iraq Syria and Saudi, the three main powers of the Middle East were fundamentally opposed to each other and even just getting a dialogue started was difficult
Bremer is the biggest war criminal of the entire story.
The decision to disband the Iraqi government and Army was the single worst decision possible.
All they needed to do was install a new leadership, make favorable trade agreements and loans to improve the economy. Once the country is reliant on US trade and is in high debt to the US, the government would have to go along with whatever the US demands or risk economic collapse.
I have to agree, it is very hard to use soft power when the bridge to it was burned in a single decision. What a way to make almost a million enemies overnight, simply one of the greatest single blunders in US foreign policy. More importantly what a waste of human life and effort.
That's not a war crime at all. People need to stop saying everything is a war crime or genocide without knowing the actual legal definitions of those words.
In hind-sight we can say it was a bad move but at the time it would have been like removing Hitler from power in Germany and leaving all of his Generals in charge of the military to continue to enforce rules within the country. The leadership of the Iraqi military was far from innocent and deserved to be removed. The military had to be fully reconstructed from the ground up like Germany's military was. Which is what happened in Iraq and in the long term has paid off with Iraq being 1 of 2 nations in the Middle-East which are actual working democracies.
stop using words as synonyms for "people i dont like"
@@PhillyPhanVinny It was a bad move not just in hindsight. "Let's fire every soldier and military leader in this country, leave them to their own devices and leave a wide open power vacuum, what could possibly go wrong"
That's not some unprecedented concept that only could've appeared in 2003, bud.
Just a correction, the tishreen movement is named after the month it started in not any square, plus the square it did start it is called tahreer square not tishreen.
I'd like to add a few things. Thank you so much for putting in the effort into making a video about my beloved country, and showing all the terrible things that have befallen it. I'd also like to ask of you, to please, not call Iraq a thoroughly failed state. This country has seen many horrible things in it's seven thousand year history, from mongols, to ISIS and more. Yet here we are, and as I speak to you from iraq i can assure you that things are different and many things have genuinely improved. Also many of the things you spoke of at the end happened almost only within the boundaries of the green zone, a then closed off section of Baghdad reserved for the government and it's officials. God willing Iraq will become even stronger than before and Mesopotamia's honour will be restored and to tell you the truth, the future now seems brighter than it did yesterday.
Yeah as an American I do not think of Iraq of a failed state at all. You guys have really big urban cities, and actually make a lot of money compared to a truly "failed state". And from what I've seen, most of Iraq is generally quite orderly. Like with all countries, there is only some small certain areas with hotspots of crime and violence, and the rest of the country is quite nice.
I think people often confuse Iraq and Afghanistan and do not know geography at all. Americans for some reason picture Iraq as Afghanistan with only farmers and village people living like it is the year 100ad.(and even that is not entirely true in Afghanistan). The reality is Iraq is pretty advanced and very urban compared to Afghanistan and many other countries. Sure it is not at the top of the list, but I wouldn't say it is at the bottom of the list either.
Best wishes.
@@nicklibby3784"failed state" isn't about urbanisation or making money. For example Russia since 91' was failed state, yet had huge incomes, enormous cities with most populations in urbanised area etc.
Its about ability to govern itself.
But it is true that the worst times for Iraq are in the past, and today it does not meet enough of the criteria to be defined as a "failed state"
@@imcbocian That is a good and fair point. I agree with you. I was just trying to say that Iraq is not entirely this "empty desert wasteland where people live in tents or huts" that so many people think it is. It seems like most people have a far worse idea of Iraq than it actually is. - yes Iraq is still doing pretty bad BUT, it is not some empty wasteland where people live in tents or huts, they have cities, technology, phones, etc. People can get by just enough so far, and it looks like Iraq will be improving in future and like you said "Iraq's worst times are behind them" hopefully.
Such a stain In American history.
One of the greatest victories in American history.
@@dddz961 so you think americans have right to fake and say that country has WMD and invade it without real evidence or proof of it
Ehh don't be so dramatic
you forgot about vietnam/cambodia or korea?
@@dddz961 It has caused the rest of the world to line up together against the USD.
Very well made video!!!
Allowing Nazi officials and Japans emperor to remain in power at the end of WW2, is why those Countries didn't fail. Completely removing all Bathe's from power was definitely a mistake.
Also putting in a competent leader to oversee the rebuilding of those countries.
It is a tough one though, sensible, but....
Re. Japan it is particularly concerning that so many Japanese have no knowledge of their horrendous acts in China and Burma.
The use of Nazi and Japanese research from camps etc......
Von Braun...
Ah well.
@@Yew2023 I have family member that was a secretary for Ruth Grafin von Saurmin, who was brought over by von Braun in Huntsville Alabama where Von Bruan did most of his work. But my Point is in Germany, Since most of the people involved in Government had to be part of the nazi party, many of them remained in their position to help keep the order. Because they knew their Jobs. Had all Nazi's be whole sale removed from power, it would have been complete Chaos.
had more of Saddams Government be allowed to stay in power in the transitional phase I don't think we would have seen the break down in their society we did. Personally, as an American Iraq 2003-2011 was a massive mistake.
@@Yew2023 Modern medicine has "benefited" from the horrendous experiments done by the Nazi and Japanese "doctors" in WW2. It's absolutely terrible what happened and we should remember that so it never happens again. But do we just ignore or "forget" the knowledge that was gained when it can help people now? Ethical questions like these are very tricky.
What the Americans failed to realize was that Saddam was the only thing holding Iraq together. Iraq was created by the British as a prize for their Hashemite collaborators in WW1. They set up a Hashemite kingdom, which was supposed to to give the UK (aka BP) free access to the wealth of oil in the the artificially created country. As a result, there never was really an "Iraqi" national identity and after Saddam left the scene, it all fell apart.
same thing in afghanistan. there is no such thing as an afghan man. just pasthuns and other tribes.
A 12000 year old civilization is a British product? 🤣
@@ThisNinjaSays_ iraq is not a 12000 year old civilization the people are descended from the many tribes of peoples that inhabited what we understand in ancient history as Mesopotamia & sumeria
@@ThisNinjaSays_ Babylon was a civilization. The lines drawn by the British to create the a new Nation-State of Iraq were drawn deliberately to create a weak vassal entity with no real national identity, that would agree to the Brits plundering the oil resources without interference.
@@ThisNinjaSays_ Are you really acting like if Babylon, Akkad, Sumer and Assyria got along when they were always fighting each other. The most ignorant people are always the ones who speak the loudest
Very interesting, albeit tragic. Thank you for this recap, I recall the start of the invasion in 2003 as I was a kid, but after some two years I lost track. Keep up the good work, GTBT!
Video starts at 24:55
This isn’t really a video about Iraq 20 years after the invasion but a video about the last 20 years.
LOL i too thought that he would talk about the current situation and how to tackle it if possible
I was following the weapons inspections in the international media for nearly the entire 10 interwar years, so when the invasion was announced, I was like "wait, what? WTF are they talking about??"
36.84% youth unemployment halfway through 2020 in a country the size of Iraq… that is absolutely horrendous. That’s a lot of unhappy young minds with idle hands. Just another example of how going to war in Iraq created a complete disaster. Many of those unemployed youths had yet to have even been born yet when the U.S. invaded, and yet there they are, still suffering the consequences for decisions made that were not their own.
yeah. they're suffering from their parents decision to create them. having a birthrate above 4 children per woman and becoming a successful country is simply not possible. Thats why East Asia developed quickly and Africa and the Middle East have not. Thats not to deny the problems with extremely low birthrates either, but far less people get hurt.
American here. Seems to me the original sin, so to speak, of the Iraqi misadventure was the US thinking that all it had to do was knock Saddam off his perch and - presto change-o! - Iraq would emerge a full-fledged liberal democracy right out of the pan. In other words, projecting your own society's culture and style of governance onto another's whose history is entirely different. This would account for the unbelievable lack of foresight on the part of US occupation officials from start to finish. They had no plan, because they didn't think they needed one.
This goes to show that America going around trying to force traditional cultures to be liberal is not only not working, but it's evil and that's their plan. They think liberty and democracy is the best way of life for everyone, instead of really letting people keep their ways.
So we should have left Saddam in place?
Even considering the recent number of deaths and misery that Iraqis are going through, let's not kid ourselves; Iraq was in a terrible situation years before US intervention - the Iraq/Iran war from '80-'88 cost tens of thousands of lives from both nations and resulted in UN sanctions that stunted Iraqs economy.
Yet it did not slow Saddam, who next invaded Kuwait in '90, again bringing unbelievable misery upon his citizens, while costing them tens of thousands of citizens.
The follow on UN sanctions stifled the Iraqi economy even more, while all the worlds' intelligence agencies - to include the Russian FSB - were convinced Iraq still had WMDs; obviously at some point they still did, since Nerve gas was used on the citizens of Halabja, killing 4.000 and injuring another 10,000.
Yes, I fully agree the U.S. was naive to try and build Iraq unto its own image; you blithely ignore the fact that from day one we were in a losing battle against Iran who was heavily invested in their own efforts to influence Iraq into the Shiite camp, disaffecting both the Kurds and Sunni.
We know what Iran wanted; another religious dictatorship in the region, supplicant to Tehran.
Yet despite your disingenuous attempts to flail the U.S. & Iraqi efforts to build a stable democracy, do you actually know what kind of government Iraq has right now? An unstable Democracy.
That's up to the Iraqi people, now, to run with that ball and build their country into what they want; so while hindsight is always 20/20 and we certainly could have done a better job, I disagree fully that we should have left Saddam in power and I also disagree that it's the U.S. fault Iraq is a basket-case; it was already like that before the U.S. invasion.
In other words, you're making a false linkage; there was no expectation that removing Saddam would result in a democracy; the expectation was remove Saddam, scourge of the world, and then deal with the fallout.
@@RangerB66 You're absolutely right, Iran was indeed trying to export its revolution to Iraq in the Saddam era, and guess what? After the 2003 invasion, it largely succeeded - due to the removal of its Sunni enemy courtesy of the United States. As far as the Kurds are concerned, the US and its allies had already imposed a no-fly zone in the Kurdish region so they were protected from aerial attack and indeed were largely autonomous pre-invasion.
The over 1 *trillion* dollars spent on the invasion and occupation of Iraq could've been put to much better use elsewhere, not to mention the thousands of American lives lost in the process. Yep, I knew the invasion of Iraq was a bad move from the word "go," which is why I took to the streets in protest in 2003.
@@guydreamr I can't argue with anything you've said - I too was against the '03 invasion, even though I participated in the '91 liberation of Kuwait.
There is so much we got wrong, and I cursed GW for squandering all the goodwill and sympathy we had from the world after 9/11.
We should never have stuck around in Afghanistan once we'd wiped out Al Qaeda. The Taliban aren't great but then getting rid of them was simply a side effect of going after bin Laden.
We don't seem to learn.
The US needed to invest more into state building. I understant it was hard, because these people activelly hated each other, more or less like yugoslavia, you can keep them opressed under a dictatorship, but as soon as they get out, the country breaks appart
but at some point he would have died and power vaccume would hjave been created which would have caused even more destruction and civilwar
@@gdlghdghslghsdghksdghk A new dictator just takes over and continue maintaining the brutally enforced peace, which is still better than the shitshow going on there for two decades now.
@@gdlghdghslghsdghksdghk he had sons
@@greathexpectations1216 This 🏆🏆🏆
Ummm the US is not good at state building. Clearly.
Great, nice work, thank you so much, keep going!
The 2003 invasion was not only a complete disaster. But a complete waste of time.
This was so indepth and thorough, I loved it. I didn't know much about the new movement you discussed at the endI would love to hear your analysis on the kurds! Whether it be about on only Iraqi Kurdistan or also including the other neighboring countries' Kurdish regions.
The Tishrin movement is named after the month of Tishrin, which is October; it is also known as the October movement. The square in question is called Tahrir (liberation) square. The name is unrelated
Thanks for the efforts to create this video, I'd like to add some name & info corrections though:
@16:59 Correct name: Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis المهندس
@22:00 "Tishreen" aka "Tishreen al-awual" means month October, which is the time these events took place.
تشرين الاول
The square name is called: Tahreer square. "Tahreer" means liberation
ساحة التحرير
As someone who was in favour of the invasion at the time (I was a teenager and very idealistic), I would like to apologize to everyone who suffered because of it. It was by the stupidest position I have ever taken on any political issue.
I appreciate you linking the music in the description 👍
great video, i really like it. but there should also be more focus about the northern kurdish region in iraq which is autonomous and is doing better economically than the rest of the country. maybe you could do an own video to that issue
5 min and i didn't hear the word "INVASION" you people are so smart and know how youtube works xD
Gay political correctness
As always great video, please do a Libya one
Iraq, libya, Afghanistan etc weird how everywhere freedom fighters went to spread democracy and liberate ended up worse than it was . It's almost as if the end goal isn't democracy and freedom...
They're one of many but the lesson learned here is that when you tear down an existing structure, don't be surprised when you just reset the clock to anarchy
Something will always take over in a power vacuum. If you destroy the existing power then something has to replace it. The American leadership at the time did not care enough to put in the work (or put competent people in charge) to repeat the success of what they did for Japan and Germany after WW2.
@@aruak321 Japan and Germany aren't comparable. The US only spent in nation-building for security in the region. Germany was needed to spite the Soviet Union and Japan/South Korea was needed to keep China at bay. They have a far stabler and long-term presence for the sake of upending communism. There wasn't much of a goal in the Middle East. They could've built up Iraq to deter Iran, but the problem is that Iraqis share the same sect, and they would have to eradicate Shia Islam in order to turn Iraqi Shias against Iran. Makes sense why they started to fund Sunni insurgency groups who ended up digging Shia mass graves... So now the policy is to keep Iraq an embattled warzone of extremism to keep Iran busy.
Democracy is more than just elections. It needs to be something taught in all facets of the society. Japan, Germany, Philippines, Dominican Republic. Has turned out just fine.
@@sizzurpgaming8928 Absolutely. Without an educated populace, democracy can easily fail since the people become far too easy for authoritarians and others just trying to grab power to manipulate.
"It was worse than a crime, it was a mistake"
Best and most concise telling of this story I’ve heard.
The example of denazificaton though: the German military was not disarmed. Within few years it was turned into a trusted ally military. And most Nazis were left in administrative positions (the leaders obviously not). And then rebuilding took many years. Within 20y there was an economic golden age in Germany, not in Iraq.
From the perspective of Poland, it is very disturbing. Many of the German officers who were responsible for the massacres of Poles worked in the administration of post-war Germany. Germany did not account for the looting of works of art that had been looted in Poland. In addition, the Germans have been trying for years to whitewash their zrbornie on Poles. The crime itself during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 is terrifying. Where the Germans murdered tens of thousands of civilians to build communication routes in the city. People were gathered in the yards: the elderly, women and children, and they threw grenades into the crowd from the floors. The heaps of corpses were 3 meters high.
They were able to tie captured Polish soldiers with barbed wire and burn them in the barns.
We remember it all and we will remind you.
Germany was disarmed. It was rearmed in 1956, which was a political debate in Germany and Europe as a whole. The soviet isolation and occupation of eastern Europe was a main driving force.
The Whermact was disbanded. And many nazis did not get the right to vote and could only work with manual labour. Many of whom got prison time. where did you get your facts from?
At the same time though, im pretty sure Japan wasn't allowed a military after WW2 and was under a us occupation (kind of) and only a small defensive force was later allowed.
But still, Japan also had a economic golden age. And Japan was a good success story. Same thing with South Korea(except the military part), the US intervention lead that country into a golden age.
@@bratbrata4974 Germans are trying to this day to make it seems they were victims or circumstances during WW1 and that really the war they initiated was a defensive one 😅
Love this video. This war is something I’ve been thinking alot about lately
The fate of Iraq is often portrayed as a failure of US policy, but I wonder if this was not the ideal outcome from the US perspective. Suppressing the Sunni Baathists was necessary to prevent a resurgence of Hussein's Iraq; this would leave the Shi'ites to consolidate power over Iraq, and their religious similarity could have led to a competent Shi'ite Iraq allied to Iran.
Instead, we now have a divided Iraq with little ability to project force or influence over the Middle East. This is no good fate for the people of Iraq, but it seems to benefit the USA, Israel, and the Sauds all the same.
I heard people call iraq a "failed state" from us intervention,though if iran were succesful in their 90s invasion it would have eneded the same, probably would have taken out saddam too considering he was a sunni i believe.
I really do think you're overthinking it. The truth is, the US merely saw everyone else in its own image and thought once it deposed Saddam, everything would magically fall into place because, after all, liberal democracy is a law of nature, right?
It does not benefit the US as it risks a stronger Iran.
Having such an vast iranian influence over Iraq is definitely not what the US wanted.
Jesus the way people talk about this shit is psychotic
Good job. Very informative.
America: *arrives, blasts in, refuses to rebuild the nation, leaves, gets surprised when an anti-american government arrives*
To be honest, in Afghanistan they tried to rebuild the place, but the result was the same as Iraq
Correction. America: Blasts in, removes dictator, replaces government with democracy, starts to rebuild nation, insurgency starts, America surges troops into Iraq, insurgency is reduced, America pulls out most combat troops but keeps some to guard the embassy and to train the Iraqi Army/Police, Insurgency ends, Rise of ISIS from Syrian Civil War, America returns to remove ISIS, America still has troops in Iraq, Iraq's current PM is Pro-American. There, fixed it for you. Sure there's certainly more Iranian influence than America would like, but its a misnomer that America has "left" Iraq, they are still there.
@@icedogg111 Afghanistan was different as it's never had a strong central government that could consolidate it's power over the entire country. This was evidenced by the total collapse of it after US forces left, similar to what happened to the Soviets.
@@icedogg111 after what they did to Iraq what did you expect the afghan people to do? To surrender and let americans do what they want + rape kids and kill the family of that kid,then givind officially 20 years in prison but in fact let them out in less than 5 for "good behavious"?
I mean if the americans are about to bomb a country back to the medieval ages (best case scenario) at least you could make them suffer while they bomb you.
@Squirrels in Jacket They didn't want a strong, central government because it was a threat to each warlord's personal power. They just wanted to "milk" America for all they could get. They're so poor, that they'd do anything for our money and hogged it all for themselves.
🤷
Wow what a great video!! 🇮🇶
One thing to note about the Ba’ath party in Iraq, and the subsequent policy of “DeBa’athification”, is that most Iraqi citizens that worked in the government “had” to be a party member. It wasn’t enforced 100% of the time; however, job opportunities and promotions obviously increased with party membership. So basically everyone in the public sector, from the local garbage man to the chief of police, was a member of the Ba’ath party. Bremer’s policy literally fired everyone that knew how to maintain the infrastructure and governing institutions. ~so apart from firing everyone in the military (the well trained fighting force), everyone in the govt. was sacked as well, thus creating a large population of pissed of people~ to topi it off, the US did not have a developed plan for dealing with an insurgency, with the US State Department declaring the occurrence of one to be unlikely.
Edit: Essentially it was a giant cluster f*ck
I read around 40k teachers were removed too, since they have the memberships, just imagine 40k teacher suddenly away from schools.
No one talks about how Iraq was a perfect lesson in perverse incentives. Every dead Iraqi civilian was blamed on America, whether we pulled the trigger or our mortal enemies did. This gave insurgents factions reason to sow as much carnage as possible: bombing power stations, blowing up bridges, carbombing public markets, etc. Then Iraqis would get angry, blame America, join the insurgency, and kill the people who were trying to hunt the terrorists down, which of course made it even easier for the terrorists to operate and kill more Iraqis. It created a giant snowball effect.
I'm convinced The Dark Knight was actually an Iraq War parallel, since it was all about how the Joker could turn Gotham against Batman with his own atrocities.
The Iraq invasion was an embarrassing ordeal for the US and hurt whatever image of goodwill my country of birth had for a very long time. And yet, Putin looks at what we did in Iraq, and thinks to himself, "You know what? That sounds like a great idea, but the war crimes were weak. Hold my vodka!" and just does far more to Ukraine. Then whenever anyone tries to call for accountability, he points at the US and Iraq as if to say, "If they can do it, I should also be allowed to do it without your intervention."
In a way, he isn't completely wrong. We didn't cover ourselves in glory invading Iraq, and the fact that we did this also allows every tinpot dictator to just use this excuse to justify their own invasions.
Big countries with megalomaniacal ambitions will always launch hare brained schemes
Unfortunately, Vladimir Vladimirovich did not consider he has a skill issue, since he never got out of the "defeat the army of the country you're invading" phase of the war.
@@George_Wong Makes me wonder, that say if Russia does get what it wants (keeping the five new oblasts), then what makes Putin think that Russia won’t face a rebellion within those oblasts? At the very least it would be like The Troubles: Slavic edition, but the IRA (Ukrainian resistance) is wholeheartedly supported by Ireland (Ukraine).
the iraq war killed more people than ukraine war.
And they too will suffer the consequences. Or as the ancient Greeks taught us, hubris is always - but always - followed by nemesis.
Thanks for the report. Great work.
I was there in 2010 to 2011. I was only an E-4 and I vividly remember having conversations with my other enlisted guys about how when we left, there would be an even larger threat emerging from some group that would sweep the country and overthrow the government. We didn't know who it would be, but it turned out to be ISIS.
I wish we had handled Iraq better. Bremer should have been fired the instant he decided to dissolve the Iraqi Army.
There's no hope in that part of the world. Saddam kept things together, but that meant being the devil himself. Imagine a situation so bad that if you kill the devil you end up with an even greater Hell. You boys fought your hearts out. Should be proud of yourselves. Even if you left that place in defeat, you killed a few Islamic fanatics along the way.
@@DestinyAwaits19 You say all of that like everything that happened was totally fine. The original commenter himself stated that their fighting wouldn't prevent the rise of ISIS. But, you're more concerned about killing Muslims than about the outcome of the war started by the US. You're sick in the head.
We should have never even been there.
@@DestinyAwaits19 Was Saddam really worse than any of the other dictators and authoritarian states we have supported? No he should not be proud of what he did there all we did was cause untold amounts of human suffering.
@@lif3andthings763 The Americans didn't cause all that suffering. That part of the world has no social trust and has weak institituons. The countries fell apart from within. Islamic radicals caused all the suffering by targetting other muslims.
Here's something. I was in Iraq in 2006. And we had went to Samarra that January. I took a picture of that golden some 30 days before it was destroyed. Still have those pics in the archives.
From an economic and industrial perspective, Iraq could have leveraged its crude oil resources to power industries and put at least enough of those 750,000 displaced workers to work to keep just a low enough unemployment figure, particularly among the youth. A textile industry comes to mind. Building train lines that would establish or improve connections to Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait would help trade in both directions. This would make it easier for Iraq to import cotton. Oil refineries could provide the diesel needed to fuel the trains that would carry cotton going into Iraq and then textiles coming out of Iraq. Some of Iraq's oil could also be leveraged to make synthetic fibres and dyes for the textile industry.
Furthermore, one could open cement factories in Iraq that use limestone imported from, say, Turkey, to feed the construction needed to set up these industries.
Bro as an iraqi I should tell u that politician doesn't care about people in 2006 iraq become the world second most corrupt government and between 2005 and 2009 150 billion dollars were messing 10 billing were under US approve
So now the protest made the country the world 24th most corrupt government it is better
And the US is out so there is hope
How are you going to do that when the fixed-term president the US installs just lines his pocket and spends mostly on upgrading security to counter the insurgents American policy unleashed nextdoor in Syria???
Sweet report
I have a friend from Iraq who gave me Persian, Hindi, and Arabian song tips. In no way do I claim to understand the country from just that friendship, but as an outsider, I would never discount them as a failed state. I'm ignorant, but I see strong foundations. There is likely a future with conflict, as well as negotiation, compromise, and hopefully more harmony and independence.
Yhank you, my 23 year old girlfriend is from Iraq and this helped me a lot to understand. I'll comment it with her
Back in 2001, Iraqis came out to the streets to celebrate the downfall of Saddam.
God knows that was only the beginning of the troubles in Iraq. Saddam had to go, but the lack of a cohesive follow up plan is just inexcusable.
2001 ? you seem like an educated individual
what iraqis came out to celebrate the fall of their country under occupation ? a few hundreds ? you think that represents the whole country ? why are you trying so hard to justify the invasion ?
@@jacer5677 Where did he justify the invasion? I don't see anything he wrote that implies he thinks the invasion was justified.
Just because he thinks a leader had to go or it was inevitable does not mean he thinks a invasion was the correct way or that the invasion of the US was justified in the way it was handled.
2 things can be true at the same time you know.
@@nicklibby3784
"in cities that fell to Russia, Ukranians took to the streets in celebration... the ukranian government has to give up these territories, but it would be inexcusable if Russia doesn't have a cohesive follow up plan...
at the same time I don't think the invasion is justified"
@@jacer5677 tell me. Did the Yanks tried to annex Iraq, or in any way forcibly erase Iraqi identity, culture, and language?
I'll tell you who did. Daesh. Daesh did to Iraq what Putin and his league attempts upon Ukraine. And they will meet the same befitting end.
Saddam's days were numbered when he invaded Kuwait - in a spectacular fashion no different than Putin annexing Crimea. Too bad it was more convenient for the establishment to give Saddam 10 more years to kill the native uprisings that came from within, in the light of Saddam's thrashing in Desert Storm. I can confidently say Iraqi rebuilding would've gone much smoother had it been pulled off in the 90s. 2000s Iraq faced a power vacuum because the Coalition gave Saddam the past decade to systematically wipe out organized and enlightened opposition, and all that was left were religious extremists funded by Al-Saud and the IRGC.
Take a look at political opposition in Russia and contrast it with Ukraine for another parallel. We gave Putin 2 and a half decades to wipe out the opposition. It died with Nemtsov. Now all that's left in terms of the viable opposition in Russia are the far right ethnonationalists (RVC) and anarcho-communists (BOAC), and it's going to get fucking ugly once Putin and his clique of Siloviki is disposed of.
Ukraine, on the other hand, has sizable oppositions, despite what Russian media masquerading as independent media would like to tell you. Even excluding the obvious Moscovite fifth column, Ukraine's politics is kind of a blob of controlled chaos. The ruling SN party may have a 1 party majority in the Rada from the freak 2019 landslide, but once you start talking to locals, or look at regional representation, you find out just how fragmented "peacetime" politics were. Given that it's war, there is basically no opposition today - everyone's in it for the fight. But when it's done with, it's on. There's plenty of unanswered questions, and people will bicker and shout. That's kind of the point of a healthy democratic society. The bickering and shouting at family dinners and public events are the replacement for partisan violence and state terror. People definitely look forward to EU and NATO membership now, but the nitty gritty of how to qualify (especially) for EU membership will be a bitch of a friction point. Everyone knows rebuilding is faster with vertical integration, but everyone also knows exactly how that went for South Korea - it makes way for a cyberpunk hypercapitalist dystopia. Ukraine's going to need a free market, and also a mechanism to recapitalize massive private gains for public good. People remember the 90s rise of oligarchs and they will fight tooth and nail to stop the second coming of those assholes. Point is, Ukraine's come a long way from "Russian fifth column vs Ethnonationalist Fascists" of the early 2000s, and that's because the people didn't tolerate Kuchma and Yanukovich's systemic eradication of moderated opposition to government policy. Say what you want about Zelenskyy, Klitshchko, Tymoshenko, or Poroshenko - they all look sane compared to any of the freaks that come out of United Russia or the LDPR. they may all got problems, but they're at least bounded by constitutional rules and obligations to not tear apart Ukraine at the seams, and those that do get the boot. Despite the ethnonationalist loudmouths hogging social media attention, they got no regions nor did they broke 2% threshold for parliamentary seats.
2003
EXCELLENT AS ALWAYS
Americans are poor colonists. They took over Cuba and the Philippines and botched both. The rest of the coalition advised not to disband the Iraqi army. but they are always know best.
The Philippines was the least botched of all. They have to do a lot of propaganda for that to have that moderate degree of success. Also, Filipinos tend not to linger on old wounds as long a sincere form of "apology" was given. (due reparations being one form it)
@@EarthForces still it wasn;t nice to be forbidden to enter your own capital.
@hard yakka I know of that event too. The Americans were essentially spitting on the face of the revolutionaries and is the first indicator that they were never there to aid on the nation's independence.
It was the 1800s
@sdkfs200 doesn't make it any less wrong. Considering their veiled promise of "aiding" of their independence. It is not like the case of Germany, which tends to clearly declare annexation when it involves itself in the conflict.
First vid of yours I’ve seen very well made
The most accurate report by far 👍 great work
He was known more as Saddam not Hussein :D
Probably only Saddam. Only in obscure pbs type debates & even then rarely did I ever hear Hussein.
@@vdotme or in association with Barack's middle name
In most of the Slavic countries he is simply refered as Sadam
In most of the Slavic countries he is simply refered as Sadam
Not a big deal lol
A great rewatch
May Allah swt guide the Iraqis into their struggle for justice and righteousness between its people. May Allah swt shower them with good fortune for their lands so that they may have bountiful harvest so that no one starves anymore. May Allah swt help the Iraqis have clean drinking water. May Allah swt help recover all Iraqis their sanity and health. Amin.
This channel deserves more subs. Give it a thumbs up....
I served in the US Marine Corps during the invasion of Iraq. I can tell you that overall the US Government failed the Iraqi people on many fronts. Greed and tyranny abound in their decision to overthrow the Iraqi government without a true plan of restoration. Yes, Saddam was a tyrannical dictator and deserved his execution. He was a murderous killer. However, there are many ways to skin a cat. Unfortunately, I highly doubt we will see any coordination of peace amongst the religious and sectarian factions in Iraq. My heart goes out to the Kurds in their struggle.
Great work
The biggest geopolitical mistake of the century.
Biggest geopolitical mistake of this century prior to Feburary, 24 2022 when Putin said, "Hold my vodka."
The mistake wasn't removing Saddam, he was a brutal fascist dictator and needed to be removed. It was not rebuilding the country properly, the way we did for Europe after WW2.
Did u forget about Covid? 😂 and the Ukraine war?
@@paladin50554 that one too, but the iraqi invasion ruined american reputation and influence around the middle east
kraut made a great video on it.
ruclips.net/video/uhXFgKEkwbU/видео.html&pp=ygUKa3JhdXQgaXJhcQ%3D%3D
getting rid of a dictator with a history of pursuing nuclear weapons was not a mistake for America. You might not like it, but that doesn't make it a mistake.
هل تضن امريكا نفاسها انها شرطة هذا العالم وهي تقرر من يجب ان يكون حراً ومن يجب ان يكون عبداً ،،،،،،، هل تضن نفسها مرسولة الاله
i want to believe that there is an alternate reality where that sandal hit the president directly in the face.
You have to give props to Bush for his dodging ability though.
@@dontcomply3976 he dodged it as if he had it coming
I said it in 2003; Disbanding the Iraqi military was a huge mistake. We had a perfect example of what to do in the Marshall Plan. Use the vanquished enemy military to keep the country together, that will buy time to rebuild infrastructure and make the country able to stand on it's own as an ally.
Yep former members of the army just ended up joining isis and actually making it a formidable force both strategically and in urban warfare which made it extremely difficult for the already incompetent and rookie Iraqi army and the wartorn syria.
Fun fact, Iraq has less crime then america
Less diversity
@@Juan-qu4oj Iraq has multiple ethnic groups living there... Can't just blame crime on something as simple as diversity when there are other major factors that perpetuate crime such as poverty, lack of education, and lack of strong community.
@@blackagent4754 Iraq is certainly way more homogenous and doesn’t have migrants everywhere
@@Juan-qu4oj No it's not lol. Iraq practically fought the most deadly race war in 1980s and then another with Sunni arabs vs Shia Iranians
@@conductingintomfoolery9163 race war? what are you on
Thankyou , that was very interesting
The most infuriating thing is that a lot of people who are condemning Russia for its operation in Ukraine either SUPPORTED this war crime against Iraq, or has conveniently forgotten about it.
awesome vid
As an American who grew up in the shadow of this war, all I can say this was one of the most disastrous mistakes in world history. Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, but to an extent he kept law and order. After his disposition, the US made catastrophic mistakes that ruined the country and caused a major security quagmire that allowed ISIS to gain traction about a decade later. Many Christians were forced to flee the country because of intensifying persecution in the aftermath. The only good things to come out of it was that the Kurds gained a degree of independence and the Christian minority were able to form a militia force in wake of ISIS's offensive.
In world history? Wow, you must not know much world history then.
@@cefb8923 he is saying the truth!
Mistakes?
You did this on purpose. You are criminals. There was no mistake here. Your intentions were criminal from the start and you set our region on flames.
You will never be forgiven. You have earned our enmity.
kurds never indipence ISIS AND TURKEY İRAN DESTORY THİS KURD AND AMERİCANS HUMALATİON OF TALİBAN.
@@mohammedkh4321 kurds never indipence ISIS AND TURKEY İRAN DESTORY THİS KURD AND AMERİCANS HUMALATİON OF TALİBAN.
I appreciate the video a lot. It’s very informative but please don’t call Iraq a failed or fallen state. We’re resilient and we will rise again. Just look at our incredible history and you’ll realize we’ve went through these issues since the earliest civilization the Sumerians. We will rebuild and restore the glory of Mesopotamia ❤ 🇮🇶
The fact that people think the US is "good" is laughable. I grew up in a conservative family in rural Pennsylvania and was taught that the US is a beacon of freedom to the world and can do no wrong. But now that I'm my mid 20s I can say that what i grew up being taught was sooo delusional and wrong.
A true conservative sees that the US isn't a beacon at all. You're conservative, you just see the truth and woke up from the delusion. That's a good thing.
In your opinion of course
@@supermanfan3113this is reality
A corporation with a country
this is the kind of documentary I like, I get here actually looking a documentary of this quality about Syria and it's conflict but as soon I make the search the only thing I saw is legacy media spilling and puking lies and biased data base on who owns them and if I do a search on recent Iraqs history gonna find more or less the same. This is what I like independent honest researchers who give their views doing their best. Here u have another subscriber pal hope u have another video in the Syrian conflict with this level of profesionality.
I remember the game throwing shoe at bush 😂😂😂
Anyone who wants to learn more from the point of view of Iraqi’s who lived thru the last 20yrs should also watch “Once Upon A Time in Iraq” by PBS Frontline.
Bush and Cheney should be in jail
Excellent documentary 👏
its mind blowing that a video on the Iraq war fails to mention the war being an illegal invasion that caused massive human casualties among civilians and that the US committed countless war crimes during this war and used depleted uranium munition to bomb the country. This is obviously done on purpose since this channel made plenty of videos about the russo ukrainian war in which it had no problem condemning the invasion and the russian war crimes.
Depleted Uranium is not radioactive so it's not a crime. How is an invasion ever legal?
List some American and Russian war crimes please.
@@chaosXP3RT yes it is. Were there no war crimes? Are you joking or are you that ignorant?
@@chaosXP3RT what response are you expecting from asking for american and russian war crimes? The list is obviously stupidly long, especially the longer you go back in time. Do you want to argue the legal definition of war crimes or is there some other point you're trying to make?
Because I'm pretty sure nobody sane is going to argue that america and russia have never commited war crimes.
I was there 18 years old with a bunch of ice cold C2 Cokes to see Shock and Awe start. I kept VHS tapes recording the news networks all through my school day to catch up later. So much unexpected history since.
🇺🇸 USA should give freedom to 🇻🇪🇮🇷🇸🇦🇶🇦🇦🇪💰💰💰🛢️🛢️🛢️
We already have but we’re leaving them behind 😂 we already started drilling for oil in Venezuela again which has more oil than the Saudis 🦅🇺🇸
Trade oil for cobalt and you’ll predict the future…
The biggest amount of freedom can be obtained by dropping Islam
Iraqis today need to look beyond their differences and unite for a single mutual interest and that should only be prosperity. I don't know a single state that has prospered on religious or ethnic grounds of division.
As Iraq survived the Mongols, He will survive the US Iranian coalition. As the Mongols converted to Islam the US and Iran will convert too.
This is Iraq
"Mesopotamia never dies"
😂😂😂😂 best regards Iran
@@Jolandeh iraqis go to iran to sleep with iranian women for cheap thanks to your crumbling currency
Politicians have ruined this world and it’s all our fault we let them do this. Prove me wrong, because we fight their wars we lose our loved ones we destroy each other while they live a long life healthy and wealthy and their kids pick up right where they left off. It’s sad
You can't blame the Americans for those sectarianism conflicts cuz they have been killing each other since the death of their Prophet. The major mistake the Americans made is trying to establish some sort of democracy among people who doesn't deserve it. They should have removed the Saddam regime and withdrawn immediately.
There was no infighting during the 60 and 70. When iraq started o modernise. Saddam destroyed our country but the American destroyed any hope for a better future
It's the fault of the other sects from starting their divide in the first place instead of being united under one Islam. Also, what do you mean, "don't deserve it"? Like they're lesser than or something? The truth is that nobody wanted democracy there. It doesn't work for everyone and not everyone agrees with it. The problem is many westerners have this arrogant belief that democracy is the best way and is superior and everyone must adopt it or they're subhuman if they don't. What's worse is nation that has tried to force its way of thinking upon others rather than allowing different people to actually choose their own governments that allign with their culture and traditions.
@@blackagent4754 Ha, was there anything wrong? One of the painful facts we learned over the past 30 years is DEMOCRACY REQUIRES QUALIFICATIONS. Those who are still living in the mid ages have no such qualifications. They rejected efforts to make improvements and basically love those 7th-century-style craps in their aboriginal communities. That's why they don't deserve it.
the ba'ath regime kept religious tensions and terrorists in check knowing it was secular, and it was demolished thanks to the US
And no one deserves your democracy anyways, because its garbage
@@nonamex3052 saddam destroyed nothing, you may only be critical of him over his war on kuwait but otherwise, you can't deny the good things he did before that unless your the average iranian shill
2003 was the beginning of the End for the American world hegemony...what a catastrophe for US was the war on terror...I hope Iraqi people recover and build a new and prosperous Iraq! ❤
Pro tip: when someone talks about civilian casualties in the Iraq War have them look up who caused the vast majority of civilian casualties (spoiler: it wasn't from coalition forces).
Ah yes because that must mean America did nothing wrong and Abu Ghirab, Mahmudiyah, Haditha, etc never happened right?
US forces have destroyed everything in the country, what are you waiting for yet! Look at the American protests. When power was gone, the Americans robbed and burned shops and killed many people! Imagine putting a country made up of millions of people of different religions located next to Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Syria, without an army or police! Al Qaeda comes from abroad to blow up the Shiites whom the United States could not protect! Then they blow up a very sacred mosque like the Vatican for Shiites! Then a civil war breaks out, and what did the United States do? It gave the verdict to a racist Iranian Shiite man who killed the Sunnis!
wow you must a CIA Bot or something trying to cover war crimes by United States so casually like it was no big deal.
What america is evil from any pov, end of disscusion , just accept that the west can be evil if they get away with it.
There is no chance of Iraq being a unified State without removing the Milita groupings of various forms as these will pose a threat to the actual State forces or a new leader with a powerful Milita force is able to emerge as the key power supplanting the other Militas and able to command respect from State forces but that is a formidable undertaking..
If you understand that the strategy in Iraq was always destabilization, then you will see that all is going according to plan. Iraq is like the hub on a wheel. If Iraq is unstable achieving peace/cooperation will be rather difficult.
Kata’ib Hezbollah missed taking out my battle buddy and me with a well-placed 82mm in 2010. I mean it was REALLY close. I ended up with some shrapnel and lost hearing but I lucky. I’m telling you, the training and ability of the Iran-backed groups was no joke. TLDR: Operation Iraqi Freedom was a massive blunder for the US and realigned the power centers of the region towards Tehran and cost thousands of non-combatant lives. Just terrible. I say that as someone who served two tours in Iraq and was well-positioned and clearanced to know whereof I speak.
Let's be very honest even if the Americans were to make the best decision possible in not invading, Iraq would have colapsed either way and most likely turn into another Syria during the Arab Spring.
Ok now we are talking , just accept that was evil and teach it to your next generatiin like germany does so they don't commit the same crimes that their ancestor have done
special military operation in Urak
As an Iraqi, i approve of this.
Very interesting analysis. As i see it, a rather promising country got off the rails by unnecessary and resource-draining invasions in Iran and Kuwait, which eventually led to the disintegration of the state. This makes me worry about Russia, which also looked rather promising until it did an unnecessary and resource-draining invasion in Ukraine ...
Americans entered Iraq under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction, not just Saddam Hussein. While they never found anything like that. In this video, the main reason for America's presence is not mentioned. It was more like that the Americans came for democracy, but nothing was mentioned about the presence and extensive influence of the Americans on Iraq's oil resources and American military bases in Iraq and political issues. Not Iran, not Saudi Arabia and not other neighboring countries, but America doesn't want a united Iraq. . .
Babylon might probably be conquered by Persia again.
lol
😂😂😂
nice bro