this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2025
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Its hard to say what its actual goals were - nominally, it was about Saddam giving up any WMD. Notwithstanding he didnt actually have any... then it was about freedom and democracy in the middle east, I guess, and winning hearts and minds. Hard to say if that succeeded.
Theres speculated goals, like petro-dollar recycling. Iraq had made moves to trade oil in euros and yuan in the 00s instead of having deals based on US dollars. One of the only ministries that were protected during the Iraq war was the oil ministry. Not even the UN buildings had any protection. Cheney made a lot of money on rebuilding contracts.
It definitely failed in halting Iranian influence in Iraq or the region. It didnt really stop terrorism, ISIS emerged out of it.
Totally agreed, but the anti-America pedant in me feels the need to point something out. That thing being that amerikkka pays lip service to the UN definition of WMD. America has a weapon in every category that the UN covers. Despite that, America falls back on him having chemical weapons. He did have those, ask Iran. That being said, America has them. Russia has them, and damn near every actually powerful nation has them. It’s a loose definition. Nobody gives a fuck about chlorine artillery shells, but it is generally agreed upon if we choose to use UN definition(which America fails on literally every count despite using as a cudgel) that those count as WMD.
It’s not logical or consistently applied. It’s a weapon of the liberal rules based order against “upstarts”.
He did have them, under a specific and hypocritical definition of having “not ok to use” weapons that are inaccurately called WMD. A radiation ray that only targets the pentagon would count as a WMD despite being specifically targeted. It’s a bogus premise hiding behind the general consensus that indiscriminate assault is bad (which it is, for the most part). The definition is flawed.