askchapo

i see people mentioning the highway of death when americans committed a bunch of war crimes indiscriminately bombing retreating combatants (a war crime) and non-combatant refugees (also a war crime), but as part of the wanton destruction of infrastructure i think it's worth remembering that the americans also bombed a factory that produced infant formula after running a bunch of news stories claiming it was a chemical weapons plant

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/23/in-middle-east-wars-it-pays-to-be-skeptical/

Tie them up and make them listen to Blowback. All the seasons.

Blowback is the best resource for the answer to this question but in short

1. Kuwait was purposely overproducing oil to undermine the Iraqi economy. The Kuwaiti contribution to the war effort ended up costing about $32 billion USD, Iraq had only requested renumeration of $10 billion prior to the invasion. The conflict was never about money or democracy it was about destroying Iraq.

2. The US government turned Iraq into the state it was in support of them during the Iran-Iraq conflict (including making it the fourth largest military in the world in 1990), and US diplomats expressed at minimum that they had no position on inter-Arab conflict (many have interpreted US statements as tacit endorsement of the Iraqi invasion).

3. The US invasion was in defense of an autocratic petro-state to prevent an emerging successful Arab Republic and to keep most of the Middle East crushed under the boot of imperialism. The bloodshed (including numerous war crimes) and subsequent sanctions that occurred due to US intervention were far worse than anything that might have happened had they not intervend. Furthermore the American public was extensively lied to about the invasion, such as the Kuwaiti ambassador's daughter's lie that she told under oath before Congress that she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers killing babies in incubators. While the lies alone don't justify Iraq's invasion, it should raise the question why Americans had to be lied to in order to gain their support. All the lies about democracy and freedom fall hilariously flat faced when you remember Kuwait is literally a brutal autocratic monarchy.

The US turned Iraq's infrastructure into a smoldering crater. It took until around 2008 for Iraqi power generation to return to pre Gulf War levels. The US used depleted uranium rounds extensively, which has a high probability of causing the increased birth defects and cancer rates Iraq is and has been experiencing.

hell, just send them this

"Many of the targets were chosen only secondarily to contribute to the military defeat of [Iraq] ... Military planners hoped the bombing would amplify the economic and psychological impact of international sanctions on Iraqi society ... They deliberately did great harm to Iraq's ability to support itself as an industrial society ..."

"...Iraqis understood the legitimacy of a military action to drive their army from Kuwait, but they have had difficulty comprehending the Allied rationale for using air power to systematically destroy or cripple Iraqi infrastructure and industry: electric power stations (92 percent of installed capacity destroyed), refineries (80 percent of production capacity), petrochemical complexes, telecommunications centers (including 135 telephone networks), bridges (more than 100), roads, highways, railroads, hundreds of locomotives and boxcars full of goods, radio and television broadcasting stations, cement plants, and factories producing aluminum, textiles, electric cables, and medical supplies."

On 6 August 1990, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 661 which imposed economic sanctions on Iraq, providing for a full trade embargo, excluding medical supplies, food and other items of humanitarian necessity, these to be determined by the Council's sanctions committee. From 1991 until 2003, the effects of government policy and sanctions regime led to hyperinflation, widespread poverty and malnutrition.

Highway of Death

If they think it was all justified, they are lost.

The answer is to scream the word penis at them until they go away, because such people do not deserve a serious answer

It wasn’t kuwait they really wanted to defend it was Saudi arabia. From Saudi arabia the US marched towards kuwait. Kuwait did not want the US getting involved. Us could have taken iraq but there was a logistical issue so they withdrew. The US told Iraq people to revolt and then left them to be killed by the iraqi army.

hit them in the mouth until they stop talking

The Americans were protecting freedom and democracy, which is why the ruler of Kuwait just revoked their parliament for a few years while he reviews democracy

Just keep sending them pics of the highway of death until they block you.

But we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait. I was in the American Embassy in Kuwait during the late 1960s. The instruction we had during this period was that we should express no opinion on this issue and that the issue is not associated with America. James Baker has directed our official spokesmen to emphasize this instruction. We hope you can solve this problem using any suitable methods via Klibi (Chedli Klibi, Secretary General of the Arab League) or via President Mubarak. All that we hope is that these issues are solved quickly.

-April Glaspie, ambassador to Iraq, as quoted in the NYT in September 1990

Our ambassador told Saddam that it would be none of our business. When he acted accordingly, we decided that no, actually this is very our business.

Saddam was our fuckin boy. Why'd they do him like that? CIA affiliated assassin as a teenager, then once in power he waged that totally rad war against Iran! He didn't deserve that shit. Most fucked up part is George Bush was a CIA agent/asset since at least 1953. He was totally cool with Saddam and then he just turned on him! Real bastard, just like how he bailed on the crew of his B-17 and left them to fall to their deaths in the pacific. All the while he, the pilot (who's supposed to hang around until everyone else bails), floated safely down by parachute. By the way, where was he on November 22 1963? Oh, he doesn't know?

Arsonists can’t be heroes for putting out a fire they lit

ask them what the capitol and basic history of Kuwait is if they're such strident defenders of its soverignty. if Americans are dismissive of crimes because you "have to break a few eggs" or whatever you can always fall back on "how is it the US' business, how is it your (them specifically) business"

"what business does the US have to waste its citizens tax dollars and lives halfway around the world in some foreign country that has no quarrel with it?"^

then tell them to read settlers

if they start going "muh world police, muh world order" then theyre a lost cause

^ik this is a fascist argument because it considers a mass murder and invasion as bad because the poor widdle invaders suffered, it's just that this usually shuts up Americans

Ah yes, the US is required to intervene in every little conflict around the world including ones where the violence was minor and mostly a mild threat.

Tell them the Bible says, " thou shalt not kill"

They aren't gonna listen to reason. So might as well fuck with their assumptions

In the invasion and following 7-8 months Iraq occupied Kuwait less than 1,000 people were killed. In the 8-9 months from the US invasion of Iraq to the end of the conflict of 200,000 people were dead, mainly civilians.

Laughter

I tell them that they should be the ones on the receiving end of such actions by NATO if they love them so much, in addition to pointing the facts that other people have brought up here.