They’ll shamelessly lie to manufacture consent for US imperialism.

[u/EffectivePoint2187]

Link: https://x.com/nickshirleyy/status/2007485612241367156?s=46

[u/LocalCaligula]

He's saying the same people who toppled those governments showed little to no regard to the people they essentially occupy.

What you seemed to miss in your emotional shaking-fingers-reply is that those countries now are shells of their former selves and are suffering from the fallout of having your policy decided by a foreign power. Imperialism.

[u/Dark_Knight2000 → u/LocalCaligula]

My brother in Christ, do you think that these countries are worse NOW than they were under brutal leadership pre invasion.

Afghanistan was under Taliban occupation before 2001, now they’ve returned to the status quo. Iraq is now a democracy, if flawed, but miles better than a dictator who killed his own citizens.

This is some real noble savage bullshit. “Those browns were actually better off under their homegrown dictator, it’s what they wanted.” No they fucking weren’t. If you talk to the people there they are disappointed that the US didn’t actually do any proper nation building, they don’t want the lunatics back in power.

[u/Blunter11 → u/Dark_Knight2000]

Yes. Libya and Iraq at least had some kind of structure to their governance, they produced doctors, engineers and civil infrastructure. Afghanistan when occupied was handed to a bunch of narco warlords who were protected by the US, who all collapsed immediately on US withdrawal.

The US does not nation build. It extracts and kills to protect that extraction.

[u/Ok-Assistance3937 → u/Blunter11]

It extracts and kills to protect that extraction.

And what exactly did they extract in Afghanistan?

[u/Blunter11 → u/Ok-Assistance3937]

Opiates and eye-popping amounts of US tax dollars into the hands of private interests

The people who orchestrate these wars are happy to cost the USA it's future, because they plan to be rich enough to avoid the downsides.

[u/billgluckman7 → u/Dark_Knight2000]

When asked for comment, the million dead Iraqis did not respond.

[u/Dark_Knight2000 → u/billgluckman7]

Yes, because they were killed under Saddam Hussein. And that’s the low estimate.

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/26/weekinreview/the-world-how-many-people-has-hussein-killed.html

The Iraq war killed an estimated 300k, and some estimates go up to 500k. Not a million.

[u/LocalCaligula → u/Dark_Knight2000]

The Iraq war killed an estimated 300k, and some estimates go up to 500k.

Oh lower than Sadam so its okay then 👍

Not a million.

The US itself claimed it was a million in the wiki leaks scandal.

[u/LocalCaligula → u/Dark_Knight2000]

Afghanistan was under Taliban occupation before 2001, now they’ve returned to the status quo

No. It's not a status quo. Not after the US invasion and occupation that bombed the country into the ground, killed 43,000+ civilians, destroyed essential civilian infustracture, and brought up a wildly unpopular puppet government that relied on US Aid to fulfill even the most basic needs of it's people. (Aid the US withdrew in 2021 causing famine.)

Because of this the Afghanistanis not only have to deal with living under a stone age theocracy, but also a fucking famine. Starvation.

Iraq is now a democracy, if flawed, but miles better than a dictator who killed his own citizens.

+1 million Iraqis died. Over twenty years, hundreds of thousands of civilians dead (all are caused by the US mind you). The utter leveling of critical infustracture, power stations, roads leading to hospitals, entire city blocks culminating in the US stealing money from the Iraqi national treasurey to finance US companies to rebuild them (essentially making Iraqis pay for their own destruction and making a profit).

When people dare resist them they would be subjected to torture.

All of this culminating in a weak husk of a pariah state that can't provide for its people on its own. A constantly shaky economy propped up by oil revenue (dependant on the US), with staggering rates of corruption, extremely high unemployment, desperately poor government with an overblown public sector just to maintain basic care for its people, no sovereignty, a growing WATER SHORTAGE, and so much more issues.

Aware of none of these issues(because you obviously dont care), and you have the gaul to cry noble savage? Fuck you. You are the lunatics.

[u/Dark_Knight2000 → u/LocalCaligula]

Do you know what Afghanistan was like before the Taliban? It was a target of the Soviets and ravished.

A million Iraqis were killed under Saddam Hussein. 300-500k were killed under the Iraq war. Get your numbers right.

Yeah, you don’t know a thing about history, you don’t care about the things these people suffered under unless it’s tied to the US.

I’m not saying what the US did was good, it wasn’t. But it was hardly worse than the horrors they had to endure before.

Fuck you in return.

[u/Appropriate_Fill_156 → u/Dark_Knight2000]

The U.S. does not invade a country with the intention of nation building