Thread by @seshanm

#CloakingArmageddon
You have these long, rambling, seemingly objective articles that serve as cloak and camouflage to the most evil actions carried out by America.

That is soft power.

apnews.com/article/iraq-w…

A fraction of these actions would be enough to labour any other world leader a Hitler, Fascist, genocide enabler.

BUSH IS NOT A WAR CRIMINAL
"President George W. Bush called the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 2003, a mission to free the Iraqi people and root out weapons of mass

destruction. Saddam Hussein’s government was toppled in 26 days. Two years later, the CIA’s chief weapons inspector reported no stockpiles of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons were ever found."

ARMAGEDDON

"For Iraqis, the enduring trauma of the violence that followed is undeniable — an estimated 300,000 Iraqis were killed between 2003 and 2019, according to the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University,"

"The period was marred by unemployment, dislocation, sectarian violence and terrorism, and years without reliable electricity or other public services."

SECOND ORDER EFFECTS OF PLAYING GOD
"The war deposed a dictator whose imprisonment, torture and execution of

"dissenters kept 20 million people in fear for a quarter of a century.

But it also broke what had been a unified state at the heart of the Arab world, opening a power vacuum and leaving oil-rich Iraq a wounded nation in the Middle East, ripe for a power struggle

among Iran, Arab Gulf states, the United States, terrorist groups and Iraq’s own rival sects and parties."

BROOKLYN OR LONDON IS CIVILISATION

Safaa Rashid, 26, is a ponytailed writer who talks politics with friends at a cozy coffee shop in the Karada district of the capital.

With a well-stocked library nook, photos of Iraqi writers and travel posters, the café and its clientele could as easily be found in Brooklyn or London."

Oops! IT CAN NOW BE CONFESSED..

"What appeared to be a swift victory for the U.S.-led forces was illusory:

AND WE CAN USE WORDS WHICH DO NOT CONVEY THE GORY DETAILS AND THE COLOSSAL TRAGEDIES WHICH FOLLOWED
"The greatest loss of life came in the months and years that followed. The occupation stoked a stubborn guerrilla resistance, bitter fights for control of the

countryside and cities, a protracted civil war, and the rise of the Islamic State Group that spread
terror beyond Iraq and Syria, throughout the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe."

A VERY COSTLY LESSON FOR AMERICA WHICH IRAQ AND THE WORLD PAID FROM WHICH USA LEARNT NOTHING.

"His companion echoes him: “Saddam was a dictator, but the people were living better, peacefully.”

Dismissing current officials as pawns of outside powers, al-Mummadwi added, “We would like a strong leader, an independent leader.”

AND THE VICTIMS RATIONALISE
“I don’t think European countries were always as they are now. They went through a long process and lots of barriers, and then they slowly got better,” he said. “I believe that we need to go through these steps, too.”

* AND GEORGE BUSH, HIS SUCCESSORS

* AND THE "WAR CONTRACTORS"

* AND THOSE WHO MANUFACTURED THE PLANES, BOMBS TANKS, WEAPONS AND SHIPS

* AND AP, CNN, WASHINGTON POST, NEW YORK TIMES

* AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.