#IRAQ + 100

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

[deadpresidents]

Hi! I'm a longtime reader and am trying to find something you posted years ago about Saddam and Dubya and the real "cause" of the iraq war to show my friend. Are you able to help me find the link to it? THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

Thanks for sticking around for all these years!

I'm guessing this is the post you were talking about. It's one of those posts that gets requested every couple of years:

Anonymous asked: Why did Bush start the Iraq War?

It all started in the spring of 1986 when George W. Bush was sent to Iraq as a secret emissary on behalf of the Reagan Administration.  Despite his lack of experience in…well…anything, President Reagan sent Bush because Bush’s father, Vice President George H.W. Bush, said he could be trusted.

The Iran-Iraq War was at a stalemate and the younger Bush went to Iraq in order to offer assistance to the Iraqis in their cause.  The United States had a vested interest in the deposition of Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and senior aides in the Reagan Administration, as well as top American intelligence officials, believed that strengthening Iraq would lead to an Iranian defeat and that an Iranian defeat would result in the end of Iran’s Islamic Revolution.  That would bring about the fall of Ayatollah Khomeini.

George W. Bush, just 39 years old at the time, arrived in Baghdad in secret and was whisked away by helicopter to one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces, on the Euphrates River in Najaf.  It was there that the eventual adversaries would first meet, but at the time, they really enjoyed each other’s company.  For hours, they joked, watched local performers, spoke to one another about their hopes and dreams, and then gathered for dinner.

During that dinner, the seeds were planted for a conflict that later would cost thousands of American and Iraqi lives.  Saddam and Bush feasted on quail that Saddam claimed he had personally hunted earlier that day.  Bush, remembering his diplomatic initiative, asked Saddam what the United States and President Reagan could do to help Iraq defeat the Iranians and topple Ayatollah Khomeini.  Saddam laid out what he would need, and Bush assured the Iraqi leader that his requests would be no problem and that he was glad that they could come to an agreement.

Unfortunately, both men began drinking during the dinner, and both men became boisterous.  Good-natured joking was transforming into sharp jabs and then downright hostility.  Saddam and Bush were joined by a very small group of people, and the entire room went silent as the Iraqi dictator and the future American President started boasting about their manhood and making challenges to the other man.

Saddam found himself in an unusual position as Bush would not defer to him in these challenges.  When Saddam dropped and did 50 push-ups, Bush did the same.  When Saddam swam across the Euphrates and back, Bush did, as well.  They had a foot race around the palace with no clear winner.  Arm-wrestling settled nothing.  They competed to see who could kick a soccer ball the furthest and, again, there was no distinction between the two.  Saddam skipped a rock across the river six times, and so did Bush. 

Saddam was getting more-and-more frustrated by his inability to best George W. Bush in feats of strength, athletic contests, or the board game “Sorry!”.  If an Iraqi had met all of Saddam’s challenges as Bush had without deferring to the Iraqi dictator, Saddam would have had his son Uday torture the man.  Of course, he couldn’t do that with the son of the Vice President of the United States, especially since he had been sent as a special emissary by President Reagan.

Suddenly, an idea brightened Saddam’s countenance.  He summoned an aide and whispered something in the man’s ear.  Five minutes later, Saddam’s aide walked in with a large boombox and an Iraqi soldier brought in several pieces of cardboard.

Saddam stood up, loosened his tie, removed his military-style beret, and rolled up his sleeves.  Staring at George W. Bush with fire in his eyes, the Iraqi dictator growled, “Let’s see your B-boy stance, Texas.”

Bush quickly stood up, ready for the challenge, removed his jacket, and rolled up his shirtsleeves, as well.  Removing his shoes, Bush gestured to Saddam, “It’s your country…for now…so, why don’t you go first?”.

Although he was fuming and visibly shaken by Bush’s confidence, Saddam closed his eyes, took three deep breaths, and pointed at the Iraqi near the boombox.  Immediately, Run-D.M.C.’s self-titled album began playing and – there’s really no other way to put this: Saddam Hussein got the fuck down.  The Iraqi dictator was popping, locking, busting out power moves and pulling up with world-class freezes.

Bush was obviously overmatched.  The confidence was gone.  The liquid courage from the night’s alcohol was abandoning him.  As “Rock Box” played, Bush discovered that he couldn’t match Saddam Hussein in everything.  Had it ended there, with Saddam smiling and shaking hands with the future President after Bush graciously admitted defeat, perhaps the world would be different today.

Saddam, however, had been humiliated earlier in the night.  Instead of smiling and shaking Bush’s hand, he pointed once again to the boombox.  Saddam stared hard at Bush, did the Crip Walk and then transformed that into a Moonwalk.  Saddam Moonwalked right out of the room, continuing to stare Bush directly in the eyes, and saying, as he reached the doorway, “Show yourself out, motherfucker.”

When George W. Bush returned to the United States, he immediately gave up drinking alcohol and focused himself on his life and future.  He swore to himself that he would one day gain revenge against Saddam Hussein’s disrespectful showing during their b-boy battle in Iraq.  Everything Bush did from 1986 on was done with the single purpose of destroying Saddam Hussein.  Owner of a baseball team, Governor of Teas, President of the United States – none of these things meant much if Saddam Hussein was still gloating about his victory.

People talk about the oil or the revenge for slights against George W. Bush’s father or a search for weapons of mass destruction, but you now know the truth.  George W. Bush went to war in Iraq because Saddam Hussein ambushed and embarrassed him during their breakdancing battle in 1986.  There was never blood for oil; the blood was for breakdancing.

[caffeccino]

I got Armored Core brainworms, but I can't just be into the new one.... 🙄🙄

[dami-ee]

prayers up for that couple and those who perished in that chaos man smh

May they find peace fr

Allahu yarhammahummah 💔

[zingay]

Hey guys did you know Israel has enough nuclear weapons to lay waste to the entire world and literally has a strategy that they use to threaten world leaders

Israel is a genocidal death cult look up the Samson Option

[napoleondienamite]

much attention is given to lawrence for obvious reasons but, feisal deserves much more credit for the things he accomplished in such a short amount of time

[kavehater]

Oh uhm apparently I need to come out to yall that although I’m fully Arab and have Arab genes and have an arabic name or whatever the hell I’m actually a basic white girl cause I have a lighter complexion oops should’ve disclosed that earlier !

[ur-mag]

Chilling moment wedding fireworks set ceiling on fire sparking horror inferno that kills at least 100 in Iraq | In Trend Today

Chilling moment wedding fireworks set ceiling on fire sparking horror inferno that kills at least 100 in Iraq Read Full Text or Full Article on MAG NEWS

[repotednews]

Breaking News 100 killed in fire at wedding ceremony Repoted News

There was a terrible fire in the country of Iraq. An event hall in the northern Iraqi town of Al-Hamdania was killed in a fire during a wedding, killing 100 people. More than 150 people were injured, Iraqi health officials said. The injured were rescued by firefighters and police and taken to the hospital. Newlyweds are also reported to be among the injured. Burned bodies were found everywhere at the scene of the incident. Preliminary reports indicate that fireworks used during the ceremony were the cause of the accident, according to Iraq's Civil Defense Department.

[ssavaart]

What does the word Genocide mean to you?

For me... the word Sayfo comes to mind.

Sayfo is the word we use for the Assyrian genocide.

In 1915, my grandfather fled his village of Charbash near Urmia in Iran when he was just 11 years old.

The Ottoman Empire took the land from the Assyrians. The indigenous people native to Mesopotamia (where modern Iran, Iraq, and Turkey exist now).

Over 250,000 Assyrians were wiped out by the occupying Ottoman Empire.

Half of the entire population of the remaining indigenous people.

The rest fled for their lives.

My grandfather and grandmother, being two that, thankfully, made it to New York.

Now, Assyrians have no homeland. No country.

An entire ethnic group that  has been around for around 3,000 years almost completely wiped out of existence by an empire that no longer exists.

It's just so senseless. 

This painting I did of a woman in a Hijab. I have posters of them on my site. 

ssavaart.com

All of the proceeds from the sale of this poster is going to Doctors Without Borders.

I'll sign and ship each and every one of them. 

I know it's not much. It won't stop a genocide. 

But maybe... just maybe... 100 years from now someone's grandchild will be alive and they can tell the story of THEIR people... and what happened to them.

Sending Big Hugs from the Hobbit Hole. ♥♥♥

Scott

[chanaleah]

Today I got an ad on YouTube that said:

“I think it’s safe to say that no one has suffered more in the last hundred years than the Palestinian people.”

Read that again.

“I think it’s safe to say that no one has suffered more in the last hundred years than the Palestinian people.”

100 years ago was 1924. A whole lot of suffering has happened in the past hundred years and while of course Palestinians have suffered much since 1948 (which was 76 years ago) it is absolutely historically inaccurate to say that they have suffered the most.

For a brief recap, in the last 100 years (including ongoing events)…

WW2, (~60+ million civilian deaths) specifically the Holocaust (~12 million deaths) as well as the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (~200,000+ deaths total)

The Korean War (2.5 million deaths total)

The Vietnam War (1.3 million deaths total)

6-9 million people died due to Stalin's policies in the USSR

Yugoslav Wars (~150,000 deaths total)

Conflict in Sudan (2.5 million deaths total)

Russia's Invasion of Ukraine (~100,000 deaths in Ukraine)

Syrian Civil War (300,000+ civilian deaths)

Cambodian Genocide (~2 million deaths)

Conflict in DRC (~6 million deaths)

Rwandan Genocide (~800,000 deaths)

Iraq War (~150,000 deaths total)

Afghanistan War (~170,000+ deaths total)

To say that Palestinians have not suffered would be wrong. To say that Palestinians have suffered immensely this year would be correct. But your activism for Palestinians should not ignore history or erase the sufferings of many others that have occurred in the past 100 years.

If anyone would like the sources for any of these numbers I'm happy to provide, or if anyone would like to point out an event I missed.

note below the cut

*note - civilian refers to death counts that are only civilians, ~ refers to death counts that are in-exact, deaths total refers to death counts that include combatants

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

System of a Down - B.Y.O.B. 2005

Mezmerize is the fourth studio album by the Armenian-American heavy metal band System of a Down. The album sold over 450,000 copies in its first week, and immediately topped the Billboard 200.

The band went on hiatus in 2006 and reunited in 2010. Other than two new songs in 2020 in response to the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War ("Protect the Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz"), System of a Down has not released a full-length record since the Mezmerize and Hypnotize albums in 2005.

"B.Y.O.B." ("Bring Your Own Bombs") was released as the lead single from Mezmerize. It was written in protest against the Iraq War, and questions the integrity of military recruiting in America. The song reached number 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100, the band's highest peak to date on the chart.

"B.Y.O.B." won a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Hard Rock Performance.

"B.Y.O.B." received a total of 66,3% yes votes!

[margaretthatchersdead]

Reasons to end the monarchy: Charles Edition

Well it's the coronation so you know what it's time for.

The entire concept of a monarchy is actively undemocratic. The head of state should not be someone who is only in that position because they were born into a certain family.

Having a monarchy upholds classism as a specific family of great wealth and power are viewed as superior to others.

They stand for a history of racism and imperialism. This country has done some truly terrible things in its history and the monarchy are a symbol of that. In order to attempt to begin to undo the harm that we have done, we need to remove this symbol of oppression.

The royal family have previously lobbied the government to hide their own personal wealth. Despite this, we are obviously aware that they have a large amount of wealth.

Prince Charles has himself lobbied the government on a number of occasions. His 'black spider memos' show that he has repeatedly pressured ministers on a wide range of topics from the Iraq war to badger culling to alternative therapies. He has used his power to lobby the government on subjects that would affect him.

The monarch does not occupy a ceremonial role as is frequently claimed. Ministers and civil servants have to consult the monarch. Civil servants have to get the consent of the royals on pieces of legislation, which can cause delays on implementation.

Even if the monarch did occupy a purely ceremonial role, as a literal billionaire he wields a ridiculously high amount of power over people.

Windsor Castle brings in less money than Windsor Legoland does. The many castles that are owned by the royal family could be used to create spaces for the public to enjoy or to be used as a shelter for the homeless. The Louvre in Paris used to be house of the French monarchy and gets over twenty times the tourists. Edinburgh castle hasn't had the monarchy live in it for centuries and yet still brings in tourism.

Prince Andrew is widely known to be connected to Jeffrey Epstein; yet he has not had to face any repercussions for his actions despite blatantly lying when being asked about his actions. The royal family have defended him and prevented him from facing the consequences of his actions.

They cost around £334 million per year. This money could be used to help the poor, given to the NHS, to repair and build infrastructure, to support small businesses that are struggling, pretty much anything.

The royal household publishes a much lower figure about the cost of the royal family, so they are actively trying to cover up their cost.

Charles has had access to confidential Cabinet papers, undermining our democracy.

He has publicly championed alternative medicine and has repeatedly promoted it. He sent at least seven letters to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, that then shortly relaxed the rules governing the labeling of herbal products, ones he as part of Charles's Duchy Originals produces.

He lobbied the health secretary regarding greater provision of alternative treatments on the NHS.

In 2018, 46% of Britons wanted him to abdicate immediately after Elizabeth died. He’s barely wanted by the country even with the sheer amount of pro-monarchy propaganda going around. Charles specifically is very unpopular.

In order to speak to him, broadcasters had to sign a 15-page contract, which includes Clarence house attending the rough and fine cut edits of films and if unhappy can remove that contribution, as well as stipulating that all questions directed at him must be pre-approved and vetted by his representative.

His personal wealth is £1.8 billion. He inherited a large amount of this from Elizabeth, with it being exempt from inheritance tax. Having an immunity from this tax when others don’t is ridiculous.

The Duchy of Cornwall was named in the Paradise papers.

The coronation is going to cost £100 million during a cost of living crisis.

People have been banned from protesting Charles with official warning letters were sent to anti-monarchists.

Protestors who block roads, airports and railways could face an entire year behind bars. Locking yourself to others, objects or buildings could go to prison for six months and face an unlimited fine. Police are allowed to head off disruption by stopping and searching protestors that they suspect.

The public were encouraged to swear allegiance to the new King when he gets sworn in, this is a deeply disturbing suggestion.

He's a billionaire who's going to use the public's money to celebrate himself.

The monarch has sweeping immunity from many laws

He owns business parks and small rented cottages, six of the ten top residential homes, 285,000 acres of mineral rich land. He’s ridiculously rich in a country where so many people are facing extreme poverty.

[odinsblog]

So when Israel bombs yet another civilian hospital, they will have already manufactured consent by claiming—without evidence—that Al Shifa hospital is 100% Hamas and zero percent noncombatant innocent civilians. Israeli war crimes are so common they’re on the “wash, rinse repeat” cycle.

We are unfortunately, once again, at the point in the story where doctors are routinely begging, “Please don’t bomb all the sick patients in my hospital,” and warhawks like Hillary Clinton (the same people who were wrong about Afghanistan and Iraq!) are saying that not bombing civilians would be unfair to Israel.

[boreal-sea]

Who is Tim Walz?

Kamala Harris has apparently picked Tim Walz as her running mate. He seems good, based on his record. He's also responsible for the widely spreading "Republicans are weird" meme I've seen quite a lot of.

He has a good record. Just like I did for Kamala Harris in a post that has become quite popular, I will do a simple review of things I like from Tim Walz' political history. Again, as with Harris, this is just from his Wikipedia page. Let's go!

House of Representatives

Opposed increasing troop numbers in Iraq

Co-sponsored a bill to raise Minnesota's minimum wage

Voted for stem cell research

Voted to allow Medicare to negotiate pharmaceutical prices

Voted against the act to Prohibit Federally Funded Abortion Services

Voted to advance the ACA

Has received a 100% rating from many progressive organizations like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU

Was a member of several caucuses, including the LGBT Equality Caucus

Governor of Minnesota

Signed into law police reforms after the murder of George Floyd

Had Minnesota join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, meaning that all of the state's electors will vote for whichever candidate wins the popular vote nation-wide.

Under his governance, Minnesota passed laws for requiring paid leave, banning non-compete agreements, cannabis legalization, abortion rights, universal free school meals,

Political stances

Pro cannabis

Against bailout bills that loan taxpayer money to large banks and auto manufacturers

Was a former teacher for many years, and is very pro-education and supporting public schools. He is against merit pay for teachers (this is a good thing), and supports lowering tuition costs

Used to be pro-gun, but after Parkland he changed his mind, and as Governor he signed a bill mandating universal background checks

Pro-LGBT - has voted for LGBT rights many times, including as Governor, where he signed bills banning conversion therapy and protecting gender-affirming care

Supports veterans rights and support

Supports abortion rights and women's rights

I am going to copy-paste the entire section for his views on the Israel-Hamas war, because I don't want people claiming I am taking anything out of context. Overall, he has views that echo my own in many ways:

Walz condemned Hamas's October 7 attacks in Israel and ordered flags to be lowered to half mast in the following days. After the 2024 Minnesota Democratic presidential primary, in which 19% of voters cast "uncommitted" ballots, Walz took a sympathetic view toward those doing so to protest President Biden's handling of the war in Gaza, calling them "civically engaged". Of the protests against U.S. funding of the war in Gaza, Walz said: "This issue is a humanitarian crisis. They have every right to be heard... These folks are asking for a change in course, they're asking for more pressure to be put on… You can hold competing things: that Israel has the right to defend itself, and the atrocities of October 7 are unacceptable, but Palestinian civilians being caught in this… has got to end." Walz also said he supports a ceasefire in Gaza.[100]

[spacelazarwolf]

so this is a trashfire for many reasons.

lack of historical knowledge and complete lack of perspective

israel was not created by britain. israel declared independence from britain. israel was not "designed to funnel jewish people out of all other countries." israel is not "puppeted by america for the purposes of colonizing southwest asia" and the insinuation that israel's goal is to colonize the entirety of southwest asia is actually a documented antisemitic conspiracy theory.

"Even before the State of Israel came into existence, Arab leaders accused Zionists of seeking to rule most of the Middle East," a secret Jewish plot to establish a "Greater Israel" extending from the Nile to the Eurphrates and the Persian Gulf, and south deep into Saudi Arabia. Albeit "farfetched" and a "calumny," this notion has "become so routinized and accepted" that it "now serves as the conventional wisdom in all the Arabic-speaking countries and Iran." Pipes 1998, 49, 69. This is one of two maps in the collection alleged to provide evidence of the "Greater Israel" conspiracy. (The other is ID #2411, "Jewish Imperial Ambitions In Palestine and Neighbouring Countries," 1967.) This map, "Dream of Zionism," shows Zionism as a giant serpent, its back decorated with a pattern of triangles described as "Freemasons Eye, 'Symbol of Jewry.'" The snake's circular outline marks the "Proposed Boundary of 'Greater Israel,'" an area including all of Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Sinai Peninsula; the Nile delta region of Egypt along the Suez Canal and northwest of Cairo; and virtually all of Iraq, including access to the Persian Gulf. It also includes a large portion of northwestern Saudi Arabia, a corridor well over 100 miles wide along the Red Sea, stretching south more than 450 miles from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Holy City of Medina. "Curiously," the conspiracy theorists "see Greater Israel including Medina but not Mecca; the oil fields of Kuwait but not those of Saudi Arabia; and more of Turkey than Iran." The State of Israel is identified as "Occupied Palestine." Pipes 62. This map first appeared in an English-language edition of the fraudulent "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" - the infamous blood libel against the Jewish people - published in Iran in 1985. Ibid. This version appears in a new edition, "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion," attributed to "The Representatives of Zion, of the 33rd Degree" and published in Kuwait by the "Scientific Research House." The estimated publication date is 2018. The current version of the map varies only slightly from that of 1985 illustrated in Pipes: the words "Symbol of Jewry" have been added in script beneath the legend "Freemasons Eye," and a partially legible signature ("Mir"?) appears at the lower right.

also i'm not sure what the intention was with bringing up the rwandan genocide because rwanda was colonized by germany and belgium, not the british. unless you think literally everything bad that happens in the world is tied to britain... which just so happens to be another antisemitic conspiracy theory that originated in the ussr. all the while jews were being demonized in the uk for being "communist sympathizers." because jews are the symbol of everything you hate, all the problems in your life. that is how antisemitism functions.

2. tokenizing jews for your own benefit

"i had followed [jewish blogs] in an attempt to better understand jewish concerns ... and i've been unfollowing them one by one ... i was getting genuine perspectives on issues i knew very little about - and now, for those blogs in particular, it's impossible to separate what might be a genuine concern verses wht's being weaponised to justify a settler state"

this is an open admission that you are only able to take in jewish perspectives from jews you agree with. and considering the ignorance that's rampant in the rest of the post, my guess is that what you saw was jews who were scared and angry at the way people acted after october 7th and the way antisemitism is rising, but the non jews you follow were insistent that those sentiments could not coexist with palestinian liberation. additionally, the fact you are unable to separate genuine concern verses "what's being weaponised" is your own problem, not ours. the way jewish pain is being downplayed, mocked, ignored, and demonized, the way people have insisted that any mourning for the victims of october 7th or concern for the hostages must be propaganda is antisemitic. and you are actively contributing to that, particularly by saying that western powers arresting people during protests "has been a setup from the beginning" with the very clear insinuation that it is "zionists" who are to blame for the setup.

3. you are really fucking entitled

you are a british goy (not a "goyim" btw, goy is singular, goyim is plural). you literally admitted that you "don't know how to talk about this with the tat and care [you] should be as a [non jew]" and that "certainly there is a degree in arrogance for [you] to talk about judaism as an outsider." and yet you wrote this whole post full of antisemitic conspiracy theories and antisemitic biases while claiming you know how to protect jewish people and while claiming that zionism is "the biggest danger to jewish people right now."

let us be very fucking clear. the biggest danger to jewish people right now is antisemites and the actions they choose to take, and the consequences of those actions.

you say that "if you tell the general public, who are very susceptible to the broader news cycle, that judaism and zionism is the same thing, they very well will be motivated to do antisemitic things, because they believe they are fighting zionism."

this has already happened and has been happening for decades. framing jews as zionists and demonizing zionism as a jewish ideology is not new. it happened all across swana, even before israel declared independence, including during the farhud which was a pogrom that occurred as part of the holocaust in iraq where jews were executed, beaten, and tens of thousands had to flee from government-sponsored persecution specifically and explicitly targeted at jews under the guise of "antizionism." it also happened in the ussr.

the desire to completely separate judaism from zionism as a jewish ideology is not out of concern for jews. zionism is a jewish ideology founded on one possible solution to global antisemitism, as an attempt to keep jews safe from constant persecution, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. it's not a solution you have to agree with, but trying to completely divorce it from judaism only opens the door for the very people you claim to be concerned about who will use zionism as an excuse to attack jews, as they have been for decades.

i have said it before and i'll say it again. zionism is one of the jewish answers to the question "what do we do with the jews?" historically, the answers gentiles have come up with have been "subjugate them, ethnically cleanse them, slaughter them, genocide them." so when you respond to that question of "what do we do with the jews?" with "i don't really care, but not that! and actually your jewish answer is what's causing this in the first place so really it's your fault!" it's kind of fucking bonkers to expect most jews to respond in any positive way. if you expect to have a productive conversation with zionist jews or with jews as a whole, you must present your own answer to "what do we do with the jews?" and if you're thinking "well how the fuck am i supposed to figure out a plan to get antisemitism all over the world to go away? that’s going to take too long!" you almost understand the point. the eradication of antisemitism is a global effort, and one that won't be achieved in our lifetimes. so the least you can do in the meantime is educate yourself, interact with jews in good faith, listen to jewish perspectives even if you don't agree with them, and realize that you are still going to have only scratched the surface.

so yes, you're right. it was extremely arrogant of you to post this, and you are an example of how ignorance breeds antisemitism among the uneducated masses.