Depressing shit ahead. very depressing. concerns Iraq war, 2003-2005 violence and death tw.
So, i’m 25, and due to a failing (read, successful ignorance campaign) of the American education system and my own blissful ignorance, i never really learned the facts about recent (2000-2015) history of the US. partially because half the information available in America is inaccurate/lies, the other half has a male white american bias and is garbage, and half because i didn’t care enough to know.
Then i found the dollop podcast. Its basically two dudes that talk about a topic for an hour or more. Sometimes they discuss people, sometimes events, both current and as far back as 1600. It is not a replacement for history class, but it can be entertaining at times and files in the gaps. And because they’re comedians, they explain the topic in such a way that even I, a person terrible with names and Geography and pure audio learning in general, can follow along.
Today i got to the one they did about the Iraq war; specifically the major decisions made from by the US concerning the post-invasion running of the country from 2003 to 2005. All of the links for their researched information is on the podcast’s website found at the link above.
The level of incompetency and lack of concern for human suffering displayed by the US is so staggering i’m emotionally numb, i literally can’t process it, so i’m writing it out. Everyone involved in the decision making process willingly divorced themselves from reality; the only considered the best case scenario for all their decisions even when advisers were begging them to not do what they decided to do. and every single person the podcasts names should be tried, if not for crimes against humanity, then for complete incompetence. Not just because they were bad at their jobs, but because they actively ignored all information available to them, public and private, and did what they wanted with total and absolute disregard for any potential consequences. had it been run by people with the knowledge and skills necessary,Iraq could have recovered and been one of our strongest allies in the middle east.
Instead the US destroyed Iraq; not by invading it, as overall very little damage was done during the actual invasion. We went in, fired 60% of the government, watched as the country tore itself to pieces and sent a urologist and a pharmaceutical executive to speak to the most powerful religious leader in the country because they were friends with the Bush Family. we created the conditions that lead to the rise of “insurgent” groups by firing the entire armed forces overnight and leading to a 50% unemployment rate. we destroyed the societal foundations of an entire country and doomed it to decades of unrest, at the cost of millions of lives, for nothing. and the people responsible for it faced no consequences.
to sum up my feelings, im not even mad, because im so past it i can’t feel it. But if i was given the opportunity, i would beat Paul Bremmer to death.
