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US Forces Exit Iraq

78 points · 153 comments · cod1r

  1. anovikov · · focus · HN ↗
    One thing that people for some reason don't like to voice out loud: America won this way. Maybe it has become politically incorrect to even voice anything positive at all, like doomerism grasped all sides of society?

    Baath party is destroyed and no longer exists, political and underlying ethnic groups that propped it up are deeply marginalised and sidelined, political regime in place in Iraq is exactly the one America wanted to have there, and it WORKS: they have regular competitive elections (in the strictest sense of it: before the elections, no one can predict results in advance) and a well-functioning civil society where people can advocate for, or protest against things without it devolving to tribalism (not "Shia vs Sunni" riots or similar). Iraq as it currently is, is created by America and stands firmly on its feet.

    1. w3ll_w3ll_w3ll · · focus · HN ↗
      Yeah sure, really stable, apart from Islamic State invasion of Iraq between 2014 and 2017.
      1. nixon_why69 · · focus · HN ↗
        To be fair, we can't blame that on the American intervention in Iraq, it's more properly blamed on American intervention in Syria.
        1. anovikov · · focus · HN ↗
          Was there any American intervention in Syria back in 2014?! Only Russian one.
          1. nixon_why69 · · focus · HN ↗
            We sent arms and aid to the rebel groups in Syria generally because we didn't like Assad, ISIS rose out of those groups.
            1. anovikov · · focus · HN ↗
              But in the end of the day, it was a victory too? Putin got his ass kicked, Assad reduced to playing xbox on Moscow dacha, pro-American and pro-Israeil forces are in charge in Syria.
              1. nixon_why69 · · focus · HN ↗
                I'm sure that's a great comfort to all the people ISIS killed.
                1. anovikov · · focus · HN ↗
                  But does it really matter? We are speaking about American and broader Western interests. If more Shia kill more Sunni and they in turn kill more Alawites or whoever, why do we need to be concerned?
                  1. nixon_why69 · · focus · HN ↗
                    Better question: If we don't need to be concerned, why were we involved in the first place?
                    1. anovikov · · focus · HN ↗
                      Syria: because of threat Assad presented to the free world in general but especially to Israel in particular, both directly, and by allowing Iran to transport weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Neither is the case anymore: Israel is safe from that direction.

                      Iraq: back back in the day, US really depended on oil coming from the Middle East. This problem was eventually resolved by fracking.

                      1. nixon_why69 · · focus · HN ↗
                        There it is. Some lives matter and some don't.

                        Tell me, if we don't care about Shia killing Sunnis, and we definitely don't care about Jews killing Muslims... why should we care about Muslims killing Jews? I'm Christian.

              2. za3faran · · focus · HN ↗
                pro american and pro israeli forces are not in charge in Syria
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