What caused the Iraq War?

[@CynicalHistorian]

*KZbin has demonetized this,* so please consider buying some merch: teespring.com/stores/the-cynical-historian Or donating to my Patreon: www.patreon.com/CynicalHistorian Here is the Project Middle East playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLiPhmAD3I2JzuTchEMe18x8s09K-vwyt4 *[reserved for errata]* *Bibliography* Andrew J. Bacevich, _America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History_ (New York: Random House, 2017), audible. amzn.to/3raLJnY Robert Draper, _To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq_ (New York: Penguin Books, 2020), audible. amzn.to/3rX95wI Dexter Filkins, _The Forever War_ (New York: Vintage Books, 2008). amzn.to/3ihA1Rm Michael Isikoff, _Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War_ (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2006), audible. amzn.to/3KV4u6E

[@bradleyrutledge]

Hail Lord Cypher

[@Kev701]

Fantastic video Cypher! well researched and a great perspective on the conflict. Although I know the subject may be a little to close to home (giving your time in Afghanistan), have your considered doing a video in the future about your take on the fall of Afghanistan and why the US lost? It would be interesting to hear your perspective especially with your experience and giving since at least a bit of time has past. Great video Man, Keep up the good work!

[@CynicalHistorian]

@@Kev701 thanks. I did a livestream during the fall about it. Don't really want to go further than that

[@Swordmaster-em3zg]

RIP Cyphers political career now, we shall never get president cypher and only lord cypher of Scotland.

[@beanz6228]

I'm probably a bit late to the party but established titles is a completely scam

[@iammrbeat]

Lord Cypher, Great video. Sincerely, Lord Beat

[@PakBallandSami]

lord beat is my favorite lord

[@nathanjasper512]

Nah you should call yourself Beat Lord. DJ Beat Lord.

[@Necrapocalypse]

As a leftist, my idea of "supporting the troops" is making sure veterans are cared for mentally, physically, and economically. So any major injuries are treated to the best of our ability, veterans never end up homeless, and former soldiers are given support to re-enter normal society. It is not uncritically supporting a war and the actions taken during it.

[@78910idontknow]

I agree. Which is why it's so frustrating when some people on the right use veterans as a crutch for not funding other social programs. "Oh you want funding for rent controlled housing? Well what about homeless veterans? They're not even taken care of because we already cut those programs! Checkmate leftists."

[@pennyforyourthots]

The best way to support veterans is to make sure that we make less new veterans imo. Not just help those who have already been sent into the meat grinder, but stop sending new people into it.

[@Necrapocalypse]

@@pennyforyourthots Very true

[@CraftsmanOfAwsomenes]

For my part, my support for Veterans would extend to anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation by any means. It’s not because they used to be troops that they deserve respect, care, and attention to their needs.

[@Necrapocalypse]

Yes, certainly moreover I want the military to stop preying on the poor and I want everyone to have their needs provided for. But the fact that a single veteran is homeless in this country is an abhorrent disgrace of the highest order. The fact that anyone is homeless when we have enough empty homes to house them is also a disgrace.

[@JJMcCullough]

I remember the debate about the war very vividly, I was in college at the time, and a big supporter of the war. Obviously I can look back now and say it was a disaster and should have never happened, but it's also important to not overstate the retrospective wisdom of the critics. A lot of anti-war sentiment did not involve suspicion of the existence of WMDs. A lot of anti-war people, and certainly most anti-war foreign governments, made a more technical "process" argument, which was basically that more investigations were needed. A lot of the debate thus came down to whether you believed Iraq deserved to be *punished* for its apparent duplicitous behaviour in regards to its weapons program, or whether it was possible to peacefully disarm Iraq under some manner of UN supervision. A lot of pro-war people were basically impatient, and would often say things like "Iraq has been given enough chances!" The argument that Iraq was basically innocent, and the world should do nothing about the country, was a pretty fringe position. I remember the Canadian government, when stating its official position of opposition, began its comments by making a big show about how Saddam Hussein bore a ton of moral responsibility for being "the one who had brought us to this moment," or words to that effect.

[@robertjarman3703]

Imagine there was a big effort by the US to invade North Korea and depose it´s government, arrest or kill Kim Jong UN, and make it a democracy. How many people would be rallying to defend Kim´s regime, even if they opposed a war?

[@ChaplainDMK]

Was this in Canada or in the world in general? I was very young then, but I remember that in Slovenia the war was seen as having at a best flimsy basis, if not outright illegal quite quickly. Even the major political parties at the time stated that the attack was in essence illegal. Yes it was a more procedural argument, but in the end it really ends up being the only reasonable way of legalistically arguing against it - you can't prove that there are no WMDs, but you can argue that procedures were not followed in trying to confirm the existence of the WMDs.

[@sisyphusvasilias3943]

BS. The Majority of Adults (pro and anti war) could see the US case for war what it was; total BS. And that Bush/Cheney were waging war for a premeditated Global Political Objective. Everyone knew it was a trumped up case and Saddam was just the easiest target for US to lash out at after 911.... There were just enough A-holes on the Nth American content who wanted to see tens of 000s of innocent people get killed by Tomahawk missiles and Abrahams, for them to get away with it. Outside of Nth America, the worlds PEOPLE were against it.

[@Klopp2543]

under UN supervision? lol 😆 the UN atomic blabla were there and insisted Iraq had no WMD's. heck they did with Iran and how it abides to the nuclear program! i bet you knew that yet still supported the invasion?

[@Coffeeisnecessarynowpepper]

JJ!!!

[@toontrooper4103]

Honestly this makes my perception of the war even worse. America wanted to play superhero because of hate and already practically being in a forever war with whoever angers her.

[@markcampbell8158]

I am a avid reader, please read the Afghanistan papers for a real downer. It was a failure from the start. Lie upon lie from our pentagon and Presidents.

[@BrorealeK]

"The US invaded because of oil" is a lame anime plot with little basis in reality. "The US invaded because of racism and a desperate need to be seen doing something scary" is downright horrifying. The idea that insisting oil wasn't the root cause of all the US' crimes is somehow letting it off the hook is absurd.

[@KarlMarcus8468]

@@BrorealeK Yes, I'm not sure if you're reiterating but the 'because of oil narrative' not being the full picture is the whole point of this video. I'm sure there is some intersectionality there but I also think that 'because of racism and need to be seen as doing something scary' motivation really doesn't give the Iraq war fair criticism. I'm sure you know dude but like in the US playbook basically after WW1 the standard operating procedure was maintaining US hegemony and economic interests' and obviously that's going right down the tube when, from the US's perspective, the middle east was almost always in turmoil making it very difficult to keep the finger in the pie. Almost, if not all of the relationships' with middle eastern allies and enemies where strictly from the perspective of "who's gonna be economically friendly to us, and who isn't". Of course that part of the world has been exploited because white folks are damn good at fucking over brown folks but if there wasn't also an economic reason then we would never have given sadam the time of day, and old bushy boy would have been preaching some bullshit like "well, we do see the plight of those poor, disgus....i mean exploited people, but it's just not worth....I MEAN, our place to intervein." Like I said, lots of intersectionality there but I'm betting on our old nemesis capitalism that's the real foe behind the mask.

[@Tony__Tone]

I spent 2 years of my life in Iraq in 2003 and again in 2005, finally I am about to retire from the Army. Needless to say, this video stirs up a range of different emotions in me. It's so interesting to look back now at a different age and maturity in life, thank you Cynical Historian, I was recommended to your channel a few days ago and I've been binge watching since.

[@yrobtsvt]

I guess i'm in a weird minority here but in 2002, my entire family in the US knew the intelligence was total crap and the war an unjust invasion, and I couldn't understand why the newspapers and the politicians were all for it. This video actually does a great job presenting that propaganda neutrally.

[@markcarey67]

I remember being part of one of the largest demographically diverse protest marches ever in Australia which took place across the country to demand the government not get involved in Iraq (the war)....and then the Howard government did it anyway. So much for protest marches.

[@jameshagan2832]

everyone knew that, except for morons. ppl either were ignored it for political/"patriotic" reasons or didn't care

[@careyfreeman5056]

Anyone with a brain could see it would be a failure. Vietnam in the desert.

[@dinotsar6396]

@@Sam_on_KZbin I know I'm late, but would you be willing to elaborate on the intelligence being crap and what it was like to see the whole thing live on C-Span? I would be interested in hearing (or reading?) what it was like to see a lot of it was like first-hand.

[@swirvinbirds1971]

Well Sadam also kicked himself in the foot when he kicked out the agreed upon weapons inspectors. If he didn't kick them out there would have been no excuse.

[@posthumousc4913]

Before I deployed in 2003 my dad got me a couple of blank journals to record my thoughts about what was happening concerning the war. I didn't write many entries but going back and reading what I did write, it was pretty clear to anyone that was really paying attention that the war was a bad idea (I started paying attention to the news after I enlisted [in 1999] because world events were about to have a direct impact on the course of my life). Besides pushing the ideas of WMDs we were told we were liberating the people of Iraq from their oppressive dictator. If that was a justification, we should have invaded a ton of other countries.

[@ruedelta]

It's the support of other dictators that has me thinking we knew what we were doing was going to destabilize the region.

[@Larez121]

@@ruedelta Yup.

[@mikeoyler2983]

I remember all of the older people in my family supporting the Bush administration. At Thanksgiving in 2003 we had this exact conversation that the USA is "liberating" those "poor" people. I was so disgusted with this rational that I sardonically said, if that is the case why didn't we just invade Cuba. It would have been much cheaper and closer. Of course I did not really mean it. But the notion that the this was a war of liberation was always laughable.

[@posthumousc4913]

@@mikeoyler2983 I was only there for a short time, from the start of the invasion to shortly before the insurgency started, and the people did cheer us as liberators, especially in southern Iraq. But that wore off pretty quickly. That's when everyone began to see what the war was really about.

[@AliReza-su2uv]

Thanks for these videos. I’m often shocked that many political/history/policy channels don’t have actual scholars behind them despite having massive followings and reach. Shoutout

[@GargamelGold]

Ali Reza, Most political / history / policy channels on KZbin are usually some random guy's opinion. They usually have an agenda and are not the most scholarly, especially when it comes to the political and policy parts.

[@johnallenbailey1103]

Iraq was devastated by this war. All these wars do is hurt the common citizen. The refugees and survivors remember what happened and will always blame the US ans may crystallize the hate towards the US and I've many praise Saddam as a hero of the Iraqi people, not the ruthless dictator they knew he was during his time.

[@Thedimensionalwarrior]

To be honest Most of the admiration i have seen iraqis give for saddam was after the war as the US government successfully turned him into a martyr in the eyes of his people, and he managed the country way better than it's managed now, since authoritarianism is still way better than total chaos, iranian hegemony, or ISIS Although there is one group that's thankful for the US the most, kurds They aren't entirely thankful, since they helped the US in the war on ISIS a lot, and yet still didn't get their full promise (an independent kurdistan) but they still went from a genocided minority to a region with self rule and a separate government and capital within iraq, so there's that

[@clockwerk35]

@@Thedimensionalwarrior yeah I completely agree, the Kurds are very thankful after what Saddam did to them in the late 80s-ealry 90s. And it's a complete shame that fucking Trump dragged a lot of our troops out from the region because of a deal he made with the Turks

[@suedoe4316]

Very sad that YT discourages this sort of content. Just want to say thank you both to Cypher and to all the Patrons for not letting that prevent this great content.

[@xp8969]

Yeah, I'm subscribed with notifications on and YT never told me this video was released, I just found it scrolling thru Cypher's vid list

[@FINNSTIGAT0R]

It's not KZbin, it's big business. Big businesses don't like to pay for their advertising to be associated with "controversial" material, so they pull it from these topics. It's shitty, but it's also capitalism. I'm not defending it, just stating why it is this way.

[@FINNSTIGAT0R]

@@xp8969 You shouldn't be satisfied with what youtube recommends. I find most of my videos by doing a search. It's shitty if youtube doesn't give a notification, but one should always search whatever the case may be.

[@amk4956]

I’m 28 so this is filling in a lot of gaps in my mind from the early 2000‘s… part of me wonders if we had mandatory conscription if these low intensity wars would be less likely to occur as families all over the nation would be furious of unwilling children being sent off to a war against the people who really haven’t wronged us.

[@scottspencer9043]

@Prairie Fire Did German- and Italian-American families protest their sons and daughters being sent to Europe to fight Germans and Italians during WWII, after Japan attacked our Navy? Nope!

[@amk4956]

@@scottspencer9043 I am not sure of what relevance your comment is

[@scottspencer9043]

@@amk4956 My answer to your 7-months-old question. Basically "No, most protests can be ignored without political consequences."

[@johnnicholas7420]

I was in Iraq in 2003-2004, and I remember this was debated at the time. I served in the Persian Gulf War 10 years earlier and always knew we would be back. It would not have mattered at the time whether there was a draft or not because a majority of Americans believed the threat was real. Most of the evidence (not all) presented at the time showed there was still a threat. (It didn't help that Saddam's government wanted the Iranians to believe that Iraq still had WMDs.) Those who were in-country early believed there was threat, and took it seriously. Six months later it was different story, but by then the U.S. goals in Iraq had changed (and would keep changing).

[@communistdoge413]

Good video. I just wanted to add something though. Though you touched on it briefly, it can’t be overstated how much damage this war did to the US’s reputation abroad, especially amongst countries that are not traditional within the US’s focus (South America, Africa and the Middle East etc) Part of the reason why the US has struggled to get anyone who is not an ally of the US (Most of Europe along with Japan and South Korea being those allies) on their side in sanctioning Russia for Ukraine is because of this war (Though not the only reason obviously) and thus Russia is not as under much pressure as it could be (Although it is under a lot of pressure as it is) and a lot of countries are more than willing to trade with Russia because they see the Ukraine war as just a European version of Iraq and they don’t believe any of the claims the US makes against Russia and view the US’s support of Ukraine with extreme cynicism. Iraq will be up their with Vietnam as one of the biggest foreign policy disasters in US history. The US and it’s allies gained little to nothing from the conflict, had their reputation’s trashed and made countries that could have been our friends and maybe even allies into our enemies and pushed them into the hands of Russia and China and in the eyes of much of the world and made the US and it’s allies lose any moral credibility due to their horrendous actions in Iraq and all the other violations of international law that took place throughout the Bush administration if we are to be honest.

[@BrorealeK]

Definitely. The world would be an immeasurably better place if the US hadn't invaded in 2003, and not just for Iraqis.

[@TK-tv5un]

@@BrorealeK Not likely, neighbouring Syria was consumed in civil war as a result of the Arab Spring and just as many if not more ppl died. Likely Iraq would have met the same fate with Saddam likely retaining power in the end.

[@TK-tv5un]

The developing world is using cynical arguments about Iraq to avoid taking a harder stance against Russia due to economic and security reasons. They are dependent on the Russians for their military systems. They want to continue buying Russian natural resources commodities. In reality, everyone knows Russia's invasion of Ukraine is nothing like Iraq. The Russians aren't attacking a rogue state assumed to be making WMDs and with a history of using them, who attacked their neighbours, who commit genocide against ethnic minorities. They're not looking to give democracy to Ukraine, rather take it away. They intend to annex Ukrainian land. All countries understand the difference.

[@doncheechako8084]

@@ohauss That is not ironic at all. It s being sensible.

[@catanana]

​@@ohauss unlike US, despite their brutal colonial past,(saying it as a part of former colony) Europeans are much more sensible and nuanced in their dealings with other nations. Except Libyan war being the outlier.

[@btarczy5067]

„If everyone is a Lord no one is a Lord“ - King Richard Thanks a lot for yet again providing education about a conflict that was hard to evaluate when it happened. Considering its sheer immensity it is still hard to grasp for an outsider like me but I consider it important to try and understand beyond any ideological explanations I might prefer emotionally.

[@aaroncampbell1752]

Just for oil is oversimplified, but I wouldn’t argue that any of the reasons presented in this video were justified

[@dbass4973]

thank you for the video

[@HistoryandHeadlines]

I hope it doesn't get demonetized, but I'll give it a thumbs up and a nice comment! Hope that helps! :)

[@CynicalHistorian]

It's already demonetized

[@HistoryandHeadlines]

@@CynicalHistorian Oh, sorry to read that.

[@nachoolo]

The problem I see with the "it was for oil!" crowd is that they see History completely through an economical lens, ignoring the fact that, as said in this video, everything in History is multifaceted. It's like saying that Hitler only invaded the Soviet Union because of the oil in the Urals, ignoring other factors like the obvious ideological background of the conflict (to put it simply, Hitler's hatred of Slavic people and Communism, which the latter also being blamed on Jewish people).

[@Nonsense010688]

Some people make the crusades about controlling trading routes, exactly because they fall into this trap viewing everything through the eyes of economist. It seems to me, that they can't really see the differences in times and mentality as well also that not for everyone it is about "money".

[@cv4809]

That was literally the reason behind Barbarossa, Germany was running out of fuel

[@AureliusLaurentius1099]

@@cv4809 Hitler could have pushed into Egypt and into the Middle East or continued buying oil from the USSR The its for oil argument is bs Marxist Materialism

[@cv4809]

@@AureliusLaurentius1099 yes just move to middle east which was owned by the British, take the oil and use sea routes which were patroled by the Britiah navy to bring it home, and continue to be financially dependent on your ideological opponent and hope they continue to be neutral for the remaining of the war. Every ww2 historian will tell you that invasion of Ussr was an act out of desperation

[@ethans.1905]

@@cv4809 No it wasn't. Hitler's reasons for Barbarossa were first and foremost about Lebensraum, the destruction of "Judeo-Bolshevism" and the extermination of the Slavic peoples. He outlined this idea in Mein Kampf and then the Barbarossa Decree. Resources came as a secondary concern (Paulus warning the Fuhrer that it would actually be a drain on the German economy and resources is evidence of this, hence why Hitler outlined that it would take decades to "tame the land"). The push for Caucasian oil in particular was launched over a year after the start of Barbarossa.

[@PakBallandSami]

“A president who is burdened with a failed and unpopular war, and who has lost the trust of the country, simply can no longer govern. He is destined to become as much a failure as his war.” ― Glenn Greenwald,

[@Sarcasmitron]

If only he still felt this way about Ukraine.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

He now thinks Oliver Stone is a great man and that all the slander against Russia is unjustified.

[@Thememelord134]

@@Sarcasmitron actually the invasion of Ukraine is kinda justified because the Ukrainian have shut off water to chirma and repeatedly tried to join nato and they had a treaty with Russia not to join nato

[@Sarcasmitron]

​@@Thememelord134 They're not under any obligation to give Russia free water, and they only tried to join NATO after Russia tore up that treaty and invaded them.

[@minutemansam1214]

@@Thememelord134 No, the invasion of Ukraine was not justified. Any treaty they may have signed about not joining NATO became void when Russia violated its treaty with Ukraine when they annexed Crimea.

[@Black-Sun_Kaiser]

I'm gonna be honest , I was kinda thinking I wouldn't like you or value what you had to say at first glance. Anyways , you're very intelligent and I appreciate the way you present things and show little biases. Also , thank you for your service.

[@DivideByZeroGetCake]

Thanks Cypher!

[@keithtimmons378]

Excellent!!!! Please keep on turning out great content. To hell with KZbin demonetizing this video.

[@SlavicSloth]

Hey, I love how much context you provide in your videos. I never knew there was an assassination attempt on Bush senior up until now.

[@matsal3211]

As a history major in college I always wonder on “how the heck am I going to talk about this era without being bias and making my students hate this country history even more, (Slavery, reconstruction, black Wall Street, Vietnam and so many others as examples that gets students to dislike our history)” I want to be a non-partisan historian but like u said in a video before, history will have politics in it. What do u think cynical?

[@CynicalRebelGaming]

Love the video Cypher but I wanna add one little caveat, at 12:11 you mentioned an Iranian mine blew up a U.S flagged tanker leading to the U.S navy sinking 6 Iranian navy vessels. I'm not sure about the tanker but I do know the action taken by the USN was in retaliation for the fact that a USN Frigate the USS Samuel B Roberts FFG-58 was hit by an Iranian mine and nearly sunk when the mine broke her keel ( back) The action taken by the navy was named Operation Praying Mantis, it is regarded as the largest naval battle since WWII, if you would like I could post some links in a reply to this comment if you're interested in reading about it

[@thatcanuck5670]

Keep up the good work, Brother.

[@mohammedkh4321]

I'm from Iraq it was a great video, I learned many things from it ♥️

[@marcelthevirginian1656]

Hi Mohammed. I've had the view for some time that the invasion of Iraq was dubiously justified, costly in human lives, and destabilizing. Basically it was the wrong thing for America to do. So say the US didn't invade. So in 2022, Saddam, or a successor, is in power, and the dictatorship remains. Neither option is desirable, and when I try to pretend I'm an Iraqi, I can't say which I'd prefer. As an Iraqi, which do you wish had happened? Thanks, Marcel (Disclosure, I'm an American)

[@mohammedkh4321]

@@marcelthevirginian1656 Hi Marcel! In fact, Saddam was a horrible dictator, and my family was personally affected by him because he executed my mother's father, as well as many of her uncles and cousins. My father lost his brother in the war with Iran. Despite this, I can say that Saddam's regime will be much better than the current regime! Saddam was a secular man who hated Muslim clerics. It was the duty of all Iraqi women to study and work, and he gave them many freedoms and supported them, as the women of Iraq could go out alone after midnight No one can approach her or harass her because the punishment will be severe, unlike the current backward Islamic system that confiscates women's freedoms. The educational and health system was very good, the agriculture was excellent, and Iraq was making everything, but today Iraq collapsed because of the Turkish and Iranian dams. The educational system is backward, Islamic and corrupt, the health system is filthy, and Turkey and Iran prevent Iraq from building factories because they want it as a market for their goods! The United States bombed all of Iraq's factories... In sum, I think that Iraq would be much better if the United States did not intervene, at least, but we remained a secular state.

[@marcelthevirginian1656]

Thanks for the fascinating insight. Would you say your view is the typical view among Iraqis? Or are there other views? I was familiar with the damming problem thanks to RealLifeLore's excellent video about it. I think I know why Iran's doing it (Iran and Iraq are traditional enemies, current Iraqi government is US aligned, US and Iran are enemies) but what's Turkey's motivation for the dams? Also, what you do think is the way to a better future for Iraq?

[@mohammedkh4321]

@@marcelthevirginian1656 You are welcome bro, I remember when I was a child and Saddam's regime fell and I am a Shiite. For the first time in their lives, people could insult Saddam. We were taught when we were young, insulting and insulting Saddam in everything and every day at least ten times and everywhere everyone was like that. People thought that America will make Iraq as a paradise. Today people have mercy on Saddam everyday and regret not to stand with him except of those who love Iran and the corrupted government. Last month, I asked my uncle who Saddam killed his father. Saddam also ordered his execution, but he managed to escape to Iran, he told me that Saddam wasn't perfect but he liked him even when Saddam want to kill him because Iraq was strong and people was living a good quality of life. Turkey wants water in exchange for oil. The Turkish Prime Minister said in the nineties: If Iraq has a right to Turkish waters, then Turkey has a right to Iraq's oil. Turkey and Iran use water as a weapon. I work in a farm of my family and our river dried! We don't have enough water now...

[@dazedwit1577]

I used to be a Republican. That party became dead to me after Iraq. Back then I argued with cons that WMD’s weren’t real and this was just a power grab to reshape the ME. Bush should have made that argument instead of fear mongering a still wounded from 9/11 country. I made that arrangement constantly in late 2002. I got, “Why do you hate America,” and such as responses.

[@jessicawilson1751]

I was born in 1990 so I was 11 when 9/11 happened and 13 during the start of the Iraq war. My parents were Republicans and I believed the bullshit being spread at the time because that's how I was conditioned. I started questioning my "beliefs" when I went to college and slowly realized how wrong those beliefs were. I cringe while looking back on the crap that was fed to us and realize that the Republican party I thought used to exist based on how I was raised never really existed.

[@swirvinbirds1971]

Could have all been avoided had Sadam not kicked out the weapons inspectors. It's what allowed doubt and provided an excuse.

[@jurtra9090]

​@@swirvinbirds1971 still didn't excuse an invasion. Kicking out the un inspection didn't cause deaths

[@swirvinbirds1971]

@@jurtra9090 Sadam caused many upon many of a death. Even gassed his own people. 🙄

[@dantemaquiavelli9039]

​​@@swirvinbirds1971 Yes, but it doesn't mean the US could just get in cause everything that happened, specially when so many iraqi civilians died because of the invasion.

[@flouisbailey]

The slip of one man invading was great.

[@pavelandreev4727]

Thank you again for your wonderful nuanced content, honestly, I could watch that all the time, keep it up. I can even stomach the bad, bad role play in the beginning...

[@nickkrueger02]

Great video! Spent a year kicking sand in Iraq (09-10) and I remember the days before the invasion. Not fun times, to say the least. It's a tough pill to swallow that 4,439 Americans died because of the vitriol of a few people. Wish I could say it was worth it but I just can't.

[@CynicalHistorian]

I was in Afghanistan those same years, and it was a very painful realization that the Provincial Reconstruction Teams which i was protecting were the biggest reason for the corruption that eventually lost us that war

[@nickkrueger02]

We can say that we did our best, at least. Of course, that doesn't make it any easier. Hopefully the GWOT generation will not make the same mistakes when it's our time to lead the nation.

[@nickkrueger02]

@@baronvon4158 or how about the thousands of Coalition Forces, who also died? Death is a tragedy but highlighting one group does not negate casualties of another. This isn't a zero sum game, despite your attempts to make it one.

[@podemosurss8316]

4,439 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi...

[@nickkrueger02]

@@podemosurss8316 again, as I stated previously in a later comment, acknowledging one demographic does not negate another. This isn't a zero sum game.

[@durdlegerg7231]

Lord Cypher, that sponsorship intro is one of the best I've seen! Well done! Also, I love the strawman kazoo arguement! An unfortunately accurate commentary of online discourse.

[@silesiaball9505]

Great video. I am a 2000s Polish kid and I only remember a little stuff related to politics from that period. For example I remember that I saw once in TV information about latest deaths of Polish troops in Iraq and I immediately wondered what they were doing there. Now I read and watch about 2000s (and 1990s) to learn what I was missing as kid so I am very thankful to you for it. Also sorry but I have to do this: YOU ACTUALLY FORGOT POLAND

[@decannerlin5950]

I'm a 2000's Australian kid and I feel the same.

[@woongah]

They were there to earn the country some chips to spend at the roulette tables known as "international diplomacy". It is part of the game - as an Italian, I am happy to know that my country's slightly underfunded military still manages to have a few good units that travel the planet doing that job. The conflicts they may be operating in are usually unsubstantial to me - and likely to them - but it is either that or my [our] country[es] being treated like Japan used to be (till they found a way to "justify" sending people around, in the 2010s?).

[@aregularperson7573]

SHOCK AND AWE FLASHBACKS

[@KevinButler55]

Keep up the great work, Lord Cypher!

[@jimmyyu2184]

Great episode, Gonna try and spend some time watch this whole ProjectMiddleEast

[@jessevandeinsen4202]

About the first part, of serving and critique. As a veteran, you can do me no greater service of supporting then keeping the government balanced and in check. I always thought of it like this: because i serve my government I serve the country. As a democratic country I am sure that I am doing what most of my countryman can support. If you can't critique your government or vote in other parties that whole dynamic changes and will mess up the whole ethical process of willingness to scale up violence. A good patriot is the one that has the broader picture and the willingness to do what's best for the country. Not himself or his political biases

[@AriOrSomething]

4:32-4:44 my take on this is: fuck the military industrial complex, but help out your local veterans .

[@posthumousc4913]

I can't remember the name of the documentary but I watched something where people looked back at their reactions to Vietnam veterans returning home and compared them to the reactions of soldiers returning home in the early 2000's. Most were ashamed of themselves because they had come to realize that supporting veterans is not the same as supporting war. And now most agree with your take; oppose war, support veterans. There's also a good MacArthur quote to go with it.

[@SiVlog1989]

I was in high school in the UK at the time the Iraq war took place. I tried to stay of the politics of it (certainly my teachers at school kept tight lipped about it), but looking back, I feel that the reasons given at the time have similarities (at least for the UK aspects of it) to the Suez Crisis. Given the crimes that were committed during his dictatorship, nobody would say that Saddam Hussein was an angel. That being said, justification for going to war that was mentioned by Tony Blair was tenuous at best and outright fabrications at worst. It has unsurprisingly led to a reduction in support for foreign intervention by the UK

[@Thedimensionalwarrior]

As an Egyptian I'm interested to hear more about this Was gamal abdelnasser depicted as a ruthless dictator whose people hated him as well? I always thought the reason for the war is to protect British interests and maintain their control over one of the most important waterways on the planet

[@SiVlog1989]

@@Thedimensionalwarrior I think it can be best summed up by a documentary about the Suez Crisis, specifically, the very first words mentioned: "This is a story of how the government of the United Kingdom decided to attack an Arab nation. Of how, afraid its oil supplies were under threat, it embarked on a strategy of regime change. Of how Britain deliberately bypassed the United Nations. And of how a British Prime Minister led the nation to war based on suspect intelligence. But this isn't Iraq, 2003...this is Egypt,1956... "In Britain, we know Suez is a war based on a Prime Minister's lie, a lie which destroys him. But seen from the other side, Suez is a story of how a small, poor Arab country defended itself against the Western world and won." Although there were those in Britain who were uncomfortable with his rhetoric, especially about Jewish people, when the British Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden, defied the United Nations to try and wrestle back control of the Suez Canal from Egypt, doing so by trying to sabotage the Egyptian efforts to run the canal first (withdrawing the experienced pilots first, then by having hundreds of tankers queued up to go through the canal), then, along with the Foreign Ministers of France and Israel, come up with a way of deliberately engineering a war in the region, it led to protests in London that were just as big as those facing British troops in Egypt. In other words, any misgivings about Nasser were swept aside by the way that (confirmed in writing, through the Severes Protocol) Eden used his own hatred of Nasser and suspect intelligence that said falsely that Nasser was a Soviet puppet to justify their intervention. Rather than giving help to Egypt, advising them on how to develop the nation, the invasion only succeeded in not only blocking the canal, but it also left Britain facing condemnation from all sides (both the Americans and the Soviet Union condemned what happened in their own way, Nikita Khrushchev threatend Britain and France with nuclear weapons if they didn't withdraw). The result was Eden resigning from his position of UK Prime Minister in disgrace and he never returned to front line politics afterwards

[@sudi_cloud]

I quite agree with what you said. It is myopic to blame oil greed for this horrible and complex war. The 911 was recent and decisions were made under a fog of grief. But while I understand that your video focuses on the reasons for the Iraq War, I think you could have said a little more about the aftermath of that. For example, there is a 4-video documentary by Deutsch Welle (DW) entitled "Iraq Destruction of a nation", which focuses on the consequences of the US military strategy of bombing and destroying Iraqi water supplies. It's hearbreaking. It's just a tip and I'm doing it because I liked your work.

[@donny_doyle]

Great video, again. I really enjoy your vids and are so well written. Agin, good work, keep on... And, eff those demonitizing ghouls, we'll support you.

[@andrewjackson7511]

Another great video Cypher.

[@kgregorius8550]

Much thx for the vid, hope to see you for another late night talk on discord.

[@insertcolorfulmetaphor8520]

Recognized by the King??? Way to go, dude! King Richard, The Mew of Sh'Mew, is a good and wise ruler.

[@vianabdullah2837]

This is certainly be uncontroversial

[@GargamelGold]

Vian Abdullah, Yeah. There's probably going to be a war in the comments section

[@ripvanallosaur113]

Thank you King Richard for giving me dopamine after the information. This video fills in a few gaps that my mom won't answer...

[@mbsbrown7838]

Thank You!

[@mou6854]

Great video as always

[@drewdelor5680]

Gotta say, your videos are legitimately better than my college education

[@CynicalHistorian]

That's unfortunate, but thanks. I had some bad profs in undergrad, but I they were all adjuncts

[@oceanberserker]

@@CynicalHistorian It's a trend that was starting to become prominent when I was an undergrad myself. Thankfully, I got my bachelor's in criminal justice before things got really bad. On that note, I wish you were around for my history classes, C.H. I would've kept going to them even if I didn't need the credits for my major.

[@christracey5813]

You got it right about the KZbin suppression, I only found this because I felt it was a bit too long since I saw anything from you. And sure enough I found this a week after upload

[@windwind3170]

Not only this video is most likely demonitized but it also only NOW showed up in my notifications and I've subbed to this channel for years!

[@CynicalHistorian]

That might explain why views from the subscription-feed feature is reporting only 9%, as opposed to the typical 15-20 in the first few weeks. Thanks

[@mikeoyler2983]

Rumsfeld gave that "Known knowns and [unkowns]" speech again as a guest on Stephen Colbert in 2019. I am glad that everybody just laughed, but then again I am not. A lot of people died in Iraq and it was not just US Service personal.

[@jakepearson1254]

I don’t △⃒⃘lways agree with you HOWEVER, I do believe in you and what you’re doing here. Your voice is very valuable to myself and many, many others. Thank you for what you’re doing out here. Been listening to you since I was enlisted and will be as long as you keep up the thought provoking content. Thank you Cipher daddy ❤

[@jakepearson1254]

Pt. 2 😂 Now that I’ve finished this video this does sit in the majority where I agree with you. Thank you for not being an echo chamber, once again. It does mean the world to me. Keep your head low and stay frosty brother.

[@AbdulHannanAbdulMatheen]

👏🙂 Great video Cypher

[@blazodeolireta]

I was going to suggest A. Bacevich...then I read the bio. So I'll add G. Vidal "perpetual war" and Chalmer Johnson's Empire trilogy. Cheers from Italy mr Cypher, and all hai king R.!

[@jphil-mk8bw]

I recently spent my first semester at university essentially studying the basis of GWOT for two classes-this is, unsurprisingly an excellent and affirming video

[@ErickeTR]

Loved to see what I totally expected to read on the comment section at the beginning

[@drgabe2908]

Damn. The "Ain't I right" kazoo cover goes hard.

[@pandepanda31]

As cruel as Saddam was, one can only wonder what would Iraq be like today if the Ba'ath party stays in power or at least toppled during the Arab Spring.

[@ChristianCampbellDiaz]

¡Gracias!

[@ProgressOnly]

That rumsfeld speech makes me cringe still

[@posthumousc4913]

My favorite was when he said, "You go to war with what you've got." That's why I rolled around Baghdad in green canvas humvees and old 1980's style flak vests.

[@koneill123]

Thanks!

[@Artur_M.]

Oh boy, another HistoryTuber collab. Here we go!

[@rocksnot952]

It was a bad joke perpetrated by the incompetent and sold with lies.

[@weezerwookie]

rumsfeld forgot one category: there are unknown knows. things we don't know that we do know, and if you don't know, now you know...

[@theshenpartei]

I still have the newspapers from the war

[@zoharianovici1983]

Great work man! Tiny comment: you wrote “Donal Rumsfeld” in minute 14:10

[@nuke___8876]

"Iraq! Amazing weapons! Terrific weapons! Spectacular weapons!" "How do you know that?" "Uhhhhhh, we looked at the receipts. What time does the bank open? Eight? We're going in at nine!" -- Bill Hicks on the first Gulf War

[@youtubeuser1993]

Amazing video!

[@nickkimmonsify]

That "Cynical10" hit my eardrums so hard

[@robertjarman3703]

Congratulations, you started a war on KZbin. At least it isn´t as bad as starting a war in Iraq. Good luck on your survival...

[@willfaes901]

Great work! I appreciate hearing the history from a new perspective. I originally learned from the book Enough Already by Scott Horton. He dives into about 8 countries in the contemporary middle-east.

[@mrmr446]

Bush would probably have attacked Iraq without 9/11, Saddam couldn't account for all previously owned stocks as they degrade or were bombed continuously for years and the decision had already been made. While the war wasn't only about oil I doubt very much it would have happened without it and having somewhere apart from Afghanistan to attack had the advantage of keeping the momentum of the War on Terror going. The war demonstrated just how democratic many western countries really are when the majority of many populations opposed it but were ignored and declared unpatriotic.

[@CynicalHistorian]

The majority in the US favored invasion

[@mrmr446]

@@CynicalHistorian I think it was one of only two participants in the coalition for whom that was true. In many others the questions asked by pollsters changed to 'do you support the troops?' once the campaign had begun so that claims of support could be disingenuously made by press that banged the drums. If the preferences of the majority in the US mattered then Gore would have won.

[@rangergxi]

@@mrmr446 Gore would have invaded Iraq too.

[@tealion]

Excellent.

[@Knaeben]

The play acting is corny, but effective at making a point.

[@staitroo]

"Do I need to tell you what the fuck you can do with an aluminum tube?! ALUMINUM!!!!"

[@FunkyHonkyCDXX]

Fun fact, the announcement to go to war with Iraq was made on my 21st birthday. I saw it on TV at my first visit to a bar.

[@maxkaufmann833]

I love yah man, even as a leftie. This video is grand and you always find a way to be honest and true about it even if I do disagree sometimes.

[@katrinfuchs6208]

You got art for your cat omg thats so cute

[@alexwendler5479]

Great work!

[@jessicawilson1751]

Thanks for doing this video. I was 11 when 9/11 happened and I remember some events that occurred before Iraq, but my memory of that time is hazy.

[@welcometonebalia]

Thank you for having mentioned "freedom fries" (wtf?) and all such jingoistic nonsense. I can understand kids falling for such silliness, but grown-up, voting citizens? Oh, wait, later Trump would be president? Oh...

[@Necrapocalypse]

I was born in 1990 and the freedom fries thing was laughable to me at the time too.

[@dinotsar6396]

The whole freedom fries thing was honestly similar to the liberty cabbage thing that the Wilson Administration promoted during WWI. Since I am mentioning Wilson on this channel, this is obligatory: WILLLLLSOOOOOOOOON!!!

[@alexhennigh5242]

Here I always thought that unknown-unknown thing was just "The Boondocks" taking the piss. Had no idea that was actually said by a high ranking government official. Wow, just wow.

[@STYLESBYLIFEBEAUTYNMORE]

My grandpa was in Vietnam My dad was in desert storm Both were changed men War is never a good idea

[@outdoorinwithzach]

I just finished watching Generation Kill so this is perfect timing.

[@mikevivona-z2u]

They even called it a "Freedom Poodle"

[@colbyisthewalrus]

Regarding Iraqi WMDs; “We found one deposit.” News to me. I’d thought the fact of the matter was there were none. Why does said notion persist? Was it the case that the deposit wasn’t viable or had been unintentionally forgotten and neglected?

[@CynicalHistorian]

Unintentionally forgotten

[@violinmerchant]

@@CynicalHistorian tfw you forgot about your hiding spot and your mom finds it after you moved out.

[@keithworthing7038]

3 minutes in and I'm already laughing. Loving it!

[@guywithstufftosay]

Now I know where the scene from the boondocks was from thanks!

[@czarjar]

Great video

[@traviswilliams9225]

Good video

[@Seek1878]

Wolfowitz will always stand out as the guy getting spit into his hair in that Farenheit 9/11 opening montage.

[@mathieuleader8601]

Robin Cook's resignation as foriegn secretary was a powerful moment for me in regards to the Iraq War its a shame he never became PM gone too soon

[@FangAzi]

4:27 It would be interesting seeing a video going over all these type of bigotrys, or a playlist or smth...

[@Falcrist]

It doesn't matter how smart your system of government is. If the people in power refuse to govern in good faith, the system will fail.

[@accent1666]

i love how you bash at both sides, Crypto and Chyka. Either way, this was the video i was waiting for.

[@Fordring1776]

the kazoo cover of Ain't I Right has me on the floor

[@danielnguyen3787]

HistoryTube presents… Patriot Cypher Crushes Tankies and Nationalists

[@jerranspearman3369]

good video

[@drcthru7672]

Siezing Iraqi oil (plundering) is a violation of multiple international conventions of which the US is a signatory.

[@robertjarman3703]

If it was an action OKayed by the UNSC resolutions, would they have authorized the command structure and transitional government´s power to adjust economic laws like the fundamental rules on gas and oil ownership? I don´t remembering that happening in East Timor, Cambodia, or Eastern Slavonia.

[@emill232]

Did the US actually plunder Iraqi oil?

[@kauswekazilimani3736]

No one has the ability to hold them accountable. They can do what ever they want.

[@robertjarman3703]

@@emill232 The US the country did not. The Coalition occupation regime adopted new laws. Iraq did have the ability to rescind them if they wanted later after their constituent assembly was elected but the US made a lot of changes in a very short time period without an electoral victory. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Orders What those orders allowed was a lot of private activity into Iraq's oil. Iraq the country still owns the oil but contractors do a lot to benefit from it.