[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Saddam wasn't alone, but he was the only one to have crossed the line

Up to this day it baffles me that U.S. citizens do not see how Saddam was played. He might have killed people on cold blood, but he stayed in power because he knew when to attack and when not to "Battles are decided by the quartermasters before the first shot is fired". US diplomacy deceived Saddam into thinking the USA would not support kuwait once it was invaded. Late 20th century was a time of satellite photographs on schedule and transatlantic telephone calls, there is no way the USA would not have known about saddam's plan (I read about Saddam tanks on the border in a local newspaper before the invasion) and warn him of the consequences. Bush needed Saddam to invade kuwait just like Roosevelt needed the japs to invade hawaii.

What did the US get out of it? In the actual war part of it, things felt pretty good.

I have no doubt whatsoever that the news for local consumption make people feel good, even euphoric. But the mass media could not care less what it looked from the outside, it was a train wreck in slow motion.

That and the reminders from casualties (still far less than Vietnam) from bombs mostly.

From the outside we look at the whole picture, the total number of deaths was staggering, "liberation" with that toll in human lives is not worth it.

Hindsight is a wonderful and yet terrible thing. Especially the Arab Spring. Do we know if that would have even happened without the US invading Iraq? No one seemed to see it coming at all from what I recall. It just sort of happened.

No one knew it would happen, also, no one knew the nazis killed millions on the holocaust after the war, but nowadays it is pimped as a reason for going into WWII, it works both ways.

For all we know, if we did nothing, today there would be a war going on between Syria and Iraq due to the Arab Spring, or if sanctions were still ongoing in Iraq, a combined set of problems as the news would still be going on about nukes in Iraq and Iran, with Israel's right-wing government hopping mad that we aren't doing anything about either of them.

but in the end many people would still be alive and the economy of the USA would be in a better position since they would not have wasted so much money on Iraq.