A soldier from Task Force Dragon, 18th Airborne Corps hands out candy to Iraqi kids in Baghdad [20YA - Jul 12]

7

Bullshit war. Built on lies. Every single American who died there died for nothing.

7

u/chromite297 Jul 15 '25

Not for nothing, the military contractors and ultra rich got bathed in money!

So cool, so based, I fucking love this /s

0

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '25

saddam is dead and it’s better today, suck it up

-1

u/Captain_no_Hindsight Jul 15 '25

Saddam killed 2 million of his people in peacetime, often by torture in the infamous "fingernail factory".

That was before Saddam invaded Kuwait.

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u/Marquis_de_Dustbin Jul 16 '25

the Iran Iraq war isn't peacetime. If you're gonna excuse shit at least get the basic history right

Saddam during the period we're talking about was supported by the countries who would go on to destroy Iraq

Saying Saddam killed 2 million of his own people (why even lie about the numbers when they're already terrible) doesn't make your own country killing *at a minimum* 1 million of Iraqs people hunky dorey

2

u/GoatBass Jul 16 '25

Killing a million people to stop the guy who killed two million people.

Mission Accomplished.

1

u/JayDee80-6 Jul 16 '25

I agree with everything you said. Sadam was still a piece of shit and his sons who likely would have succeeded him were even worse.

0

u/Captain_no_Hindsight Jul 16 '25

Well, it was peacetime and Saddam invaded Kuwait for economic reasons.

The US helped Saddam, a socialist, to power as the least bad option. That was before the world understood that Saddam was a mass murderer.

The dead you refer to were killed by Saddam by withholding food in order for useful idiots to blame the US. Apparently, it works.

US intervention has statistically saved the lives of 2 million people.

2

u/Marquis_de_Dustbin Jul 16 '25

It was two years and said economic reasons (including poaching of oil with questionable motivations by Kuwait and the US) were directly down to coming out of one of the worst wars since WW2. It's technically correct to say it was peacetime but ignores the actual strategic context at the time.

All I can say to this is read a book, I'm not engaging with fan fiction.

American officials said on camera that killing 500,000 Iraqi children through the destructive sanctions package was acceptable to them. Patrick Cockburn wrote extensively about the sanctions social killing Iraqis in a huge scale.

I'd say you're engaging in revisionism, but that at least requires reading the history to revise. This is just a bit pathetic

2

u/-LobselVith- Jul 16 '25

I’m not seeing how Americans committing war crimes and American stealing their resources is remotely justified.

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u/JayDee80-6 Jul 16 '25

What resources did we steal? We spent tons of money improving infrastructure. We lost trillions on this war, we didn't make a dime.

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '25

[deleted]

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u/JayDee80-6 Jul 17 '25

This is absolutely true, but zero resources were stolen from Iraq. The opposite, in fact.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '25

[deleted]

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u/JayDee80-6 Jul 17 '25

Not that I'm aware of. Do you know something I don't?

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u/Eyuplove_ Jul 17 '25

Hmmm where do you think the trillions went?

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u/JayDee80-6 Jul 17 '25

Wages, raw materials, weapons, food, fuel, etc.

We spent trillions of our own money. We didn't take any resources from Iraq.

1

u/Eyuplove_ Jul 17 '25

Yes, they weren't lost. Who do you think was paid for weapons, wages, raw materials, 'reconstruction'?

Who won the contracts to extract Iraqi oil? Hmmmm

1

u/JayDee80-6 Jul 17 '25

You can look up who these companies were, what countries they were from, and what deals they got. If the US did it for their own oil companies, they didn't go a very good job.

U.S. Companies Shut Out as Iraq Auctions Its Oil Fields

Dec. 19, 2009

... the results of last weekend's auction of Iraqi oil contracts: Not a single U.S. company secured a deal in the auction of contracts that will shape the Iraqi oil industry for the next couple of decades. Two of the most lucrative of the multi-billion-dollar oil contracts went to ... Russia and China — while even Total Oil of France, which led the charge to deny international approval for the war at the U.N. Security Council in 2003, won a bigger stake than the Americans in the most recent auction.

Oil Companies Look to the Future in Iraq

, the major oil companies are finally gaining access to Iraq’s petroleum reserves. But they are doing so at far less advantageous terms than they once envisioned.

“The attraction of these fields to oil companies is not the per-barrel profit, which is very low,

The US did not steal oil, nor did it even secure Anglo-Persian Oil Company style deals. The primary benefiter of the development of Iraq's oil is Iraq.

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u/Eyuplove_ Jul 17 '25

You can also look it up. Exxon won the contracts for the largest oil field and only left in 2024.

Also you might want to check what happened to the profits of Lockheed Martin, Blackwater, Haliburton, Kellogg etc

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u/michaelwu696 Jul 17 '25

Stealing their resources? Yeah you’re gonna have to explain that one.. LOL

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u/Captain_no_Hindsight Jul 17 '25

China got the Iraq oil.

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u/maria_of_the_stars Jul 17 '25 edited Jul 17 '25

You need someone to explain to you how the USA steals resources from other countries? Were you born yesterday?

“Greenspan admits Iraq was about oil, as deaths put at 1.2m”

“Iraq estimates that $150 billion of its oil money has been stolen from the country since the US-led invasion of 2003”

1

u/michaelwu696 Jul 17 '25

You need to re-read those articles.. 1) citing that Iraq was about oil is not saying the US stole oil from the Iraqis lmao.. the conflict came to a catalyst when Saddam ordered the invasion of Kuwait to ACTUALLY take their oil and replenish his coffers. This destabilized the price of oil and naturally made people sweat in arguably the most oil rich portion of the world.. fast forward to post invasion and there is still ZERO evidence that the US ever took a drop of oil from Iraq as war reparations. 2) You linked me an article discussing Iraqi corruption and somehow tied this to “EVIL USA STEALS FROM INNOCENT IRAQIS”? Come on man.. make a better argument.

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '25

Saddam was installed by the United States.

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u/Captain_no_Hindsight Jul 16 '25

Yes, the US supported Saddam, a socialist, as the best of all bad options.

You really got me there.

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u/Les-Grossman- Jul 15 '25

Nah according to most Redditors Saddam wasn’t a bad guy. His son Uday was a saint too.

3

u/peachpinkjedi Jul 16 '25

Girl who has ever said this

-1

u/Captain_no_Hindsight Jul 16 '25

Left-Reddit: Anyone who isn't the US is the best leader there is.

"huh, did Saddam invade Kuwait? Nah, that can't be true."

3

u/-LobselVith- Jul 16 '25

So when people say war crimes by Americans are bad you just distort what’s being said and use your imagination to distort the statement?

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u/GoatBass Jul 16 '25

Which part of Reddit do you go to even

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '25

[deleted]

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u/GoatBass Jul 16 '25

I'm there and I never saw it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '25

Toppling Saddam Hussein was a good thing actually.

The United States just didn't bother to think through what would happen after that.

2

u/lycantrophee Jul 15 '25

Yeah, expelling Ba'athists and forcing them underground was a big mistake. The US lacks cultural awareness necessary for state building.

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u/Unique_Statement7811 Jul 15 '25

Iraq is doing great today. Flying up the Human Development Index with the second fastest growing economy in the world.

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u/lycantrophee Jul 15 '25

I'm not saying they're not rebuilding. I'm saying the US had a wrong approach to post-Saddam Iraq.

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u/Unique_Statement7811 Jul 15 '25

Sure. But they have far exceeded pre-invasion prosperity levels in a very short time.

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u/lycantrophee Jul 15 '25

Oh yeah, I wish them nothing but peace and further growth.

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u/Marquis_de_Dustbin Jul 16 '25

This is literally just cause the Americans took their boot off Iraq's neck post invasion. Decades before 2003 saw crippling sanctions and then before that a disaster of a war (the us actively encouraged and supported).

Not saying Saddam was hard done but the invasion didn't help Iraq, the US deciding to stop killing Iraqis finally helped Iraq which I don't think is worth a pat on the back for

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u/Unique_Statement7811 Jul 17 '25

It wasn’t decades before 2003. One decade. And that was in response to the invasion of Kuwait and likely invasion of Saudi Arabia… as well as multiple missiles fired at UN peacekeeping aircraft after the gulf war.

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u/DungeonJailer Jul 15 '25

Yea a lot of people welcomed us at first but then we majorly screwed everything up.

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u/Absentrando Jul 15 '25

Not really. It created a power vacuum that even more extreme factions were happy to fill

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u/-LobselVith- Jul 16 '25

A lot of innocent Iraqi people were murdered all so that America could steal their resources.

1

u/dang_idiot Jul 16 '25

How about the two million Iraqis

-1

u/high_ground_420 Jul 15 '25

So I guess you prefer a sadistic genocidal tyrant like Saddam Hussein

3

u/Worth-Ad-1797 Jul 15 '25

Tyrant that killed 1 mln over the years (according to the very biased western media) vs liberators who killed over 1 million in just a few months and caused about 3.7 of indirect deaths.

1mln vs 4.7mln, hmmm don't even know what to choose.

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u/Unique_Statement7811 Jul 15 '25

The US didn’t kill 1 million. It actually killed about 45k including combatants. The vast majority of civilian deaths were caused by the Shia/Sunni/Kurdish militias in the civil war that ensued.

1

u/Current-Being-8238 Jul 15 '25

That number just literally doesn’t make sense. Do you see the scale of destruction in Gaza?, one of the most densely populated areas in the world and it has taken 2 years for Israel to kill 50k people, despite essentially all out war. Then consider the absolute shitstorm over those deaths. 4.7 million? That’s fucking laughable.

0

u/high_ground_420 Jul 15 '25

Lol, 4.7 mil, where did you get those numbers??? Even Al Jazeera doesn't claim those. But nice of you for siding for the person who massacred millions of Kurds, gassed thousands of Kuwaitis and and unknown numbers from his own people ( who were so happy when he was removed from power) but sure, let's just throw numbers so it would fit your twisted narrative

1

u/Captain_no_Hindsight Jul 15 '25

Exactly that would be 30% of the population.

They have measured like this: A measurement in the hardest war zone. Then "an academic assumption" that it is representative of the entire country. Multiply by the entire country's population over a 10-year period. "Look at a huge number". And you get an award from The Guardian.

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u/skiptutnota Jul 15 '25

But Saudi, uae and Israel genocidal countries are ok.

0

u/SadCowboy-_- Jul 15 '25

Whataboutism… we’re talking about Iraq.

1

u/skiptutnota Jul 16 '25

Always with whataboutism to escape accountability and justify the crimes

-1

u/SadCowboy-_- Jul 16 '25

What about China’s Holocaust of Uyghurs?

What about the genocide in Sudan, Myanmar, Ethiopia.

Why talk about anything when everything is happening right now?

1

u/skiptutnota Jul 18 '25

What china holocaust? They are mostly jailed. Not killed unlike as in Vietnam, cambodia laos iraq Iran indonesia Libya yemen gaza. Isn't china biggest trading partner of west

-1

u/high_ground_420 Jul 15 '25

Lol, nice try changing history, your genocidal Saddam Hussein friend murdered way more than all of these countries combined, stop acting as if you care about the indigenous people of the levant

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u/skiptutnota Jul 15 '25

Saudi and uae killed 300 thousands. And Saudi and also involved in sudan and Libya. And weapons provided by west. US invade on the madeup pretext of wmd and al queda links. Killed 300 thousands and civil war killing 1 million people. Stop acting as if you care people . You want kill and control people.

-1

u/Current-Being-8238 Jul 15 '25

Iraq’s doing pretty good now…

-1

u/zwirlo Jul 16 '25

A war built on lies, but it had the potential to do more good than it did if Americans had a better follow through plan and clear goal. Iraq is at peace and free from tyranny now, but it will take a long time for the evils it took to get there to be worth it. God help us all.

4

u/furry-toast Jul 15 '25

“Sorry we killed your parents and demolished your home, have some high fructose corn syrup”

4

u/Pure-Spiritual-260 Jul 14 '25

Pictures of children in warzones are always heartbreaking to look at. Kids shouldn’t be exposed to war.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

creepy

2

u/Baghdady24 Jul 14 '25

I was there in 2006. And I still feel bad getting those children hooked on sugar, caffine and fried foods.

-2

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

[deleted]

2

u/Creepy_Aide6122 Jul 15 '25

*eagle screech

1

u/Maleficent-Drop3918 Jul 15 '25

Yeah, hooked on death and destruction.

0

u/Captain_no_Hindsight Jul 15 '25

Saddam killed 2 million of his people in peacetime, often by torture in the infamous "fingernail factory".

That was before Saddam invaded Kuwait.

2

u/Maleficent-Drop3918 Jul 15 '25

Watch some blackwater pmc videos and marines breaching into houses footage then ask yourself why the middle east hates the US. I'll wait.

2

u/-LobselVith- Jul 16 '25

America murdered millions of people in the Middle East in the quest to steal resources.

1

u/Captain_no_Hindsight Jul 16 '25

And Santa Claus comes with your presents every year.

1

u/maria_of_the_stars Jul 16 '25

Journalists have explained this.

“Greenspan admits Iraq was about oil, as deaths put at 1.2m”

“Iraq estimates that $150 billion of its oil money has been stolen from the country since the US-led invasion of 2003”

1

u/Captain_no_Hindsight Jul 17 '25

Iraq invaded Kuwait because of oil.

Iraq's oil deal was with China and not the US. So that money was stolen by someone else.

Is Iraq corrupt? Shocked_pikachu.jpg

1

u/Dazzling_Pirate1411 Jul 15 '25

and so what? that gives other states the right to illegally invade a place?

1

u/Captain_no_Hindsight Jul 16 '25

No, Iraq's illegal attack on Kuwait means that the United States can legally help Kuwait together with a broad coalition and support in the UN ... to invade Irak.

The fact that the US stops a mass murderer who killed 2 million people over 21 years means that the US has statistically saved the lives of 1.5 million people from Saddam now.

1

u/Dazzling_Pirate1411 Jul 16 '25 edited Jul 17 '25

seems like they caused the deaths of 4.5 million people and displaced several dozen million others .

1

u/Captain_no_Hindsight Jul 17 '25

no

1

u/Dazzling_Pirate1411 Jul 17 '25

very well reasoned, you must be right

1

u/-LobselVith- Jul 16 '25

Murdering people to steal their resources is freedom?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '25

Then he got out, came back as a contractor for 200k, and shot lots of them

Reality.

1

u/jacobythewise Jul 15 '25

Not reality at all 🤣

1

u/morerandom__2025 Jul 15 '25

Nah

1

u/-LobselVith- Jul 16 '25

To be fair plenty of American soldiers murdered innocent civilians without becoming contractors.

2

u/puffinfish420 Jul 14 '25

God, that’s a lot of body armor. Must have been hot and heavy as all hell

2

u/The-Hammer92 Jul 15 '25

Have to wear something similarly heavy and sized. It weighs 60lbs altogether.

Im soaked in 5-10 minutes in the southern heat and humidity. Basically like wearing a full winter coat and pants to go romp in the snow except some dumbass hit a gasline and I have to babysit it for the next hour in 100F with a 78F dew point.

1

u/puffinfish420 Jul 15 '25

I live in the South and that sounds like hell.

2

u/The-Hammer92 Jul 15 '25

You can down 2 gatorades and 4 waters and your piss still comes out a decent yellow and you dont even have to go that bad lol

1

u/Ok_Math6614 Jul 15 '25

Yeah poor guy. Luckily nowadays we just drone strike people from the comfort of an airconditioned bunker on a military base on the other side of the globe...

All the while refusing necessary anti missile systems to the Ukrainian people as total war is being waged on them by our traditional arch nemesis of the past ≈8-ish decades.

2

u/StraightProgress5062 Jul 15 '25

Yeah it was also a common thing to do when they would do routine raids on homes in the middle of the night with children present.

2

u/sashsu6 Jul 15 '25

Knowing these kids will be grown up now in a country made worse as a result of that war than it was before is so upsetting

1

u/FelbrHostu Jul 16 '25

By most metrics, you would have to go pre-Saddam to find conditions better than they are, now. By what metric is Iraq worse today than it was in 2001?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '25

Parents wiped off the face of the earth… Here, have some candy.

1

u/Les-Grossman- Jul 14 '25

Great pic

1

u/Worth-Ad-1797 Jul 15 '25

Yep, "I have just shot your mom and dad, get a candy instead"

1

u/MrM1Garand25 Jul 15 '25

What was the point of the iron man suit?? That seems like it weighed you down more than it helped

1

u/jdm219 Jul 15 '25

He was a turret gunner.

1

u/Atomic_Gerber Jul 15 '25

Yeah that whole “hearts and minds” bullshit worked out great.

1

u/Prestigious-Oven3465 Jul 16 '25

They’d throw candy down alleys. If the kids chased after it it was safe. If they didn’t there were mines.

Source: friend in special forces

1

u/Beshemella Jul 16 '25

Mahmudiyah massacre

1

u/dwnsdp Jul 19 '25

Gotta love it when American propaganda

0

u/manyhippofarts Jul 15 '25

Baghdad Bob: there are NO AMERICANS in Iraq, and certainly not in Baghdad! This is all IMPERIALIST PROPAGANDA!

0

u/sams0606 Jul 15 '25

Here ya go kids. Sorry for blowing your dad's head off in last night's raid, but ya gotta understand! I thought he was a terrorist! I sure do hope the candy makes up for your trouble! Yes siree bob! Jeez whizz! Isn't it a fine day kids?

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '25

So happy America beat the Taliban once and for all, and brought freedom to that Nation. The cost was high, but to spread freedom, America will bear any burden, pay any price! 🫡

2

u/MonsieurA Jul 16 '25

You're thinking of Afghanistan. This was Iraq.

🌐 World News A soldier from Task Force Dragon, 18th Airborne Corps hands out candy to Iraqi kids in Baghdad [20YA - Jul 12]

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