Unhappy Anniversary: Iraq War At 15 - Ron Paul Liberty Report

[bunklocoempire]

(VIDEO - BitChute is an alternative to YouTube)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/gLdzP4KatQ5E/

Unhappy Anniversary: Iraq War At 15
Video 20:34 min. Tuesday March 20, 2018 Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams
Written by Daniel McAdams - Fifteen years ago today the "shock and awe" of an unjust and illegal US war on Iraq began. A million people may have died. Trillions wasted. The neocons told lie after lie, which the mainstream media repeated unquestioningly. Dutifully. Today Iraq remains a devastated, divided country. The war to, as then-President Bush promised, "bring the Iraqi people freedom" has only brought them death and misery. Yet the same neocons continue pushing war propaganda with impunity. Always another monster to slay. We look back at this "unhappy anniversary" in today's Liberty Report:
http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives...raq-war-at-15/
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/...iraq-war-at-15

Copyright © 2018 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.
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[goldenequity]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to bunklocoempire again.

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15 Year 'Anniversary'

‘Bathtub reminds me of waterboarding’: Ex-detainees recount US torture 15yrs after Iraq invasion
https://www.rt.com/usa/421806-iraq-invasion-us-torture/







Former Abu Ghraib detainees say time has not fully healed the physical and mental pain they suffered at the infamous US prison. Iraqis spoke with RT on the 15th anniversary of the US-led invasion of their country.

“The time I spent in that prison felt like a lifetime. An hour of that pain, humiliation, and injustice stays with you forever,” Anwer Al-Sudani, a former Abu Ghraib detainee, told RT.

Once used by Saddam Hussein to lock up political dissidents, Abu Ghraib prison was converted into a US Army detention facility shortly after the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

In April 2004, photographs showing prisoners being subjected to torture, sexual humiliation, rape, and other forms of abuse at the hands of US soldiers were leaked to the press.

The facility, located about 20 miles west of Baghdad, held as many as 3,800 detainees at the height of its use by the US military. In 2006, all remaining detainees at Abu Ghraib were transferred to other prisons, and the facility was handed over to the Iraqi government. More than a decade has passed since the US relinquished control of the infamous prison, but former inmates say the physical and mental scars from their time at the facility have not yet healed.

“I still have nightmares and suffer physical and mental pain, as if it all happened yesterday,” Ali Al Qasi, a former inmate at the prison, told RT.

I work night and day to try to forget it. What we went through, and what happened to Iraq, was a terrible crime. It broke us. Even now I can’t get inside a bathtub because it makes me think of waterboarding.

“After I was released, whenever I saw Americans on the street, I would be terrified they would send me back to that place and torture me again. It still keeps me up at night, remembering the torture. I hear the screams,” Emad Al-Lamy, another former detainee, told RT.

“They would hang a prisoner on the metal door of the cell, and subject him to electrocution or urination. They would stick a rifle into sensitive areas, or they would use a broken broomstick, causing internal bleeding. Prisoners would need surgery,” Al Qasi recalled.

According to Al Qasi, every person who was detained at the facility, including children, “was subjected to violations, torture, sexual abuse, humiliation, rape, and lots of other bad things.”

I saw a child; they raped him in front of his father. These interrogators [were] by the contractors, they committed horrible crimes. I can never forget the electrocution too. It almost felt as though fire would come out of my eyes. I don’t know. It’s something you can’t forget.

According to Major General Antonio Taguba, who led the formal inquiry into prisoner abuse at Ab Ghraib, an estimated 2,000 photographs taken at the infamous prison and six other facilities across Iraq and Afghanistan depict“torture, abuse, rape, and every indecency.”

Taguba’s internal inquiry into the abuses at Abu Ghraib included sworn statements by 13 detainees, which he described as “credible based on the clarity of their statements and supporting evidence provided by other witnesses.”

Among the graphic testimonies, which were later released under Freedom of Information Act requests, is that of Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, who said: “I saw [name of a translator] ******* a kid, his age would be about 15 to 18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn’t covered and I saw [name] who was wearing the military uniform, putting his **** in the little kid’s ***… and the female soldier was taking pictures.”

In 2009, the Obama administration defied a court order which called for the release of the photographs. At the time, then-President Obama justified the decision to withhold the photographs by stressing that “these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational,” adding that “the most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to inflame anti-American public opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.”

The torture and abuse suffered by detainees at the prison fueled anti-American sentiment in Iraq, giving rise to a deadly insurgency which later formed Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).

Al Qasi told Ruptly that if only one percent of what is spent on the war in Iraq was used to help rehabilitate victims of US torture and abuse, “there wouldn’t be terrorism in Iraq.”

“We need a center for rehabilitation of former detainees. Physically and psychologically, to help them cope with life, to get back their rights,” he added.

“When the Americans came in, with their tanks and everything, we thought they would rid us of this unjust regime. Everyone would have his home, his car, just like good Arab countries, or the West even,” Al-Lamy told Ruptly. “But it turned out to be the opposite. They were evil killers of Muslims and everyone. The octopus of the world is American. The world’s top criminal is the United States. We realized we had misunderstood it.”

Fifteen years after the second US-led invasion, Iraq has yet to see a day of peace. Donald Trump has become the fifth straight American president to bomb the country.

[Raginfridus]

Only how many polled knew when the war started?

And like Ron says, it really just began in 91, because we continued bombing and sanctioning Iraq through the 90s. Then we were shown by many 'journalists' how horrible life in Iraq was.

[acptulsa]

When the first recruit is sent there who was born after it began, will the MSM cover the occasion? It will be an American first. Truly a historic occasion.

[AZJoe]

Remembering the Lies

[enhanced_deficit]

Just turned 18.

March 19, 2021

The Iraq War: 18 Years Later

by Vincent Emanuele

Still from Wikileaks’ Collateral Murder video.

‘You sit in your room, and you talk to the wall
You’re feeling small but still have a ball
And you can’t explain what’s anyway in vain
And you paint your face and dress in black
Wear your shades and still can’t express
The way you feel about a lousy fill
And you dance until the morning
All by yourself
And somehow you know
You’re not alone
And you dance until the morning
All by yourself
And somehow you know
You’re not alone’

— ‘You’re Not Alone,’ Amon Düül II

Eighteen years ago, I was perched on my bunk in a makeshift squad bay, awaiting final orders to cross the border from Kuwait to Iraq. Fellow marines wrote letters to their sweethearts, checked their gear for the thousandth time, jerked off in the bathroom, or nervously smoked cigarettes. Others joked about $#@!ing Iraqi women and who would kill the most Iraqis. You know, all American boys, fighting the good fight, with God on our side, as Dylan once sang. After several months of boot camp and infantry training, it was time to rock n’ roll. Finally, the war had arrived.

Back home, a halfwit loser and draft dodger who, eager to compensate for his father’s political failures and yearning for his own, serenaded Americans with a trite speech that marked the beginning of the most destructive and consequential war of the 21st century. At the time, few understood the catastrophic gravity of Bush’s decision, both for the United States and the rest of the world, though to be fair, many antiwar activists did.

counterpunch.org/2021/03/19/the-iraq-war-18-years-later/


Related

Biggest blunder in US history turns 18 next week. Scrubbed from Wiki Selected anniversaries