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It has now been eighteen years since the Iraq invasion,and I'm still not done raging about it. Nobody shouldbe.

The reason it's so important to stay enraged aboutIraq is because it's never been addressed or rectified inany real way whatsoever. All the corrupt mechanisms whichled to the invasion are still in place and its consequencesremain. It isn't something that happened in thepast.

The Iraq invasion feels kind of like if yourdad had stood up at the dinner table, cut off your sister'shead in front of everyone, gone right back to eating andnever suffered any consequences, and everyone just kind offorgot about it and carried on life like it never happened.The US-centralized empire is full of willful amnesiacspretending they don't remember Iraq because it's currentlypolitically convenient, and we must not let them dothis.

No institutional changes were made to ensurethat the evils of the Iraq invasion wouldn't be repeated.It's one of those big, glaring problems people just decidedto pretend is resolved, likeracism.

Iraq-Raping Neocon Upset ThatPeople Keep Bringing Up The Iraq Thing

"Youdont get to help murder a million human beings and thenact indignant when people bring it up. That is not athing."https://t.co/wZlUwBYzkG

Caitlin Johnstone

(@caitoz) January30, 2020

There's this weirdimplicit default assumption among the political/media classthat US government agencies have earned back the trust theylost with Iraq, despite their having made no changeswhatsoever to prevent another Iraq-like horror fromreoccurring, or even so much as apologizing. The reasonnobody responsible for the Iraq invasion suffered anyconsequences for the great evil they inflicted upon theworld is because the western empire had no intention ofchanging and has every intention of repeating such evils.The lies and killing continue unabated.

No changeswere made after the Iraq invasion to keep the US governmentfrom deceiving Americans into war. No new laws were made, nopolicies changed; no one was even fired. And indeed, thegovernment did deceive Americans into war again: theLibya and Syria interventions were both based on lies. It'shappened since, and it will happen again unless themurderous US war machine is stopped.

Don't take lifeadvice from people who are miserable. Don't take careeradvice from people whose careers aren't where you want tobe. Don't take creative advice from people who don't createthings. Don't take foreign policy advice from people whosupported the Iraq invasion.

EveryPresidential Election Since The Iraq War Has FeaturedCandidates Who Supported It

"And this says somuch about the state of the US political system today."https://t.co/zDjO992qiQ

Caitlin Johnstone

(@caitoz) October11, 2020

How true can PresidentBiden's claimbe that he regrets supporting the Iraq invasion if heappointed theguy who advised that decision as Secretary ofState?

It's absolutely insane that everyUS presidential general election since the Iraq invasionhas featured a mainstream candidate who actively supportedit. The argument that the Iraq invasion was supported bymost prominent politicians at the time is not a defense ofthose politicians, its an indictment of mainstreamAmerican politics. The fact that politicians who not onlysupported the Iraq invasion but actively facilitated it arestill becoming US presidential nominees proves the entireAmerican political system is corrupt beyond the possibilityof redemption.

Nobody who supported the Iraq invasionshould be working in politics at all. They shouldnt beable to find employment anywhere more prominent orinfluential than a cash register. This should be true ofpolitics, and it should be true of media aswell.

There is no valid reason for the entire US-ledworld order not to have been completely dismantled after theinvasion of Iraq. A world order which can create somethingas horrific as the unforgivable Iraq invasion (or thegenocide in Yemen today for that matter) is not a worldorder that will lead the world in a good direction. Thefacts are in. The US-led world order mustend.

This latest Biden airstrike isbeing spun as "defensive" and "retaliatory" despite itstargeting a nation the US invaded (Syria) in response toalleged attacks on US forces in another nation the USinvaded (Iraq). You can't invade a nation and then claimself-defense there. Ever.

CaitlinJohnstone

(@caitoz) February26, 2021

So much establishmentloyalism ultimately boils down to an entirely faith-basedand unquestioned belief that the corrupt, depraved powerestablishment which facilitated the Iraq war completelyevaporated as soon as George W Bush and Tony Blair leftoffice. There is literally no reason to believe this besidesit feeling more psychologically comfortable to believeit.

It's essential to keep in mind that westernpropaganda hasn't gotten less advanced since the Iraqinvasion, it has gotten moreadvanced. The Russiagate psyop and the smear campaignsagainst Assange and Corbyn make this abundantly clear. Youneed to be more critical of westernnarratives than with Iraq, not less.

Manipulatingpublic thought at mass scale is a science. Scientific fieldsdon't magically become less sophisticated over time, theybecome more sophisticated. Every time they run a newmass-scale manipulation, whether it succeeds or fails, theylearn from it. And they evolve.

We must remember thatthe mass media can create false narratives without evenspeaking them explicitly, just by giving a certainimpression. After the Iraq invasion 70 percent of Americansstillbelieved Saddam was responsible for 9/11, just becausereporters and politicians kept mentioning the two in thesame breath.

People who believed Iraqneeded regime change were pretty fucking dumb. People whobelieve either of the countries on either side of Iraq alsojust so happen to need regime change are exponentiallydumber. It's a strategically crucial region, you morons.pic.twitter.com/0ScClFMIKx

Caitlin Johnstone

(@caitoz) November12, 2018

Supporting the Vietnamwar was dumb. Supporting the Iraq invasion after being liedto about Vietnam was an order of magnitude dumber.Supporting any US war agendas after being lied to about Iraqis an order of magnitude even dumber than that.

Thedebate about whether America has the moral authority tointervene in other countries was settled once and for alleighteen years ago. Western mass media have spent the lasteighteen years trying to slowly spin the narrative away fromfacts and reality, but the Iraq invasion invalidates themall.

Iraq should be a one-word debunk of allpro-regime change arguments. You should be able to just say"Iraq" and have whoever's pushing escalations andinterventionism sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up. Thefact that that isn't enough shows how insanely propagandizedwe are.

America shouldn't be in the Middle East atall, much less Iraq, and the US government is solelyresponsible for every American soldier who diesthere.

Despite being proven right abouteverything from Iraq to Russiagate to Assange to Bolivia,we'll still get labeled crazy conspiracy theorists when wewarn about the empire's next evil manipulation. Our only"reward" for being right will be these worthless, joylesstold-you-sos. https://t.co/CSoc7fdAA9

Caitlin Johnstone

(@caitoz) November15, 2019

When a known compulsiveliar asks you to place your faith in him on a very importantmatter, you tell him to fuck off. When the western empiretells you to trust them that an evil government needs to beousted, you take it with an Iraq-sized grain ofsalt.

Never let anyone shout you down for openlydoubting US intelligence on foreign nations. Iraq means theydon't get to do that anymore. Ever.

I promise I willalways fight to remind the world about the Iraq invasion. Iwill always do everything I can to make sure that as manypeople as possible view all actions of the US-centralizedpower establishment through the lens of what they did tothat country for as long as I draw breath.

I willalways do everything I can to keep Iraq from being dismissedas an anomaly of history that could never happen again.Whenever the empire talks about Russia, China, Syria, Iran,Venezuela, North Korea, Yemen, or any other country, I willbe talking about what they did to Iraq.

You don't getto butcher a million people and then say "Oh yeah, but thatwas a whole eighteen years ago. You can trust us now."That's not a thing. The world has no business taking USdefense and intelligence agencies at their word aboutanything ever again.

Pro Tip: MentallyReplace All Uses Of Conspiracy Theorist With IraqRememberer

"All theyre really saying isthat youre one of those annoying pests who just wontshut up and forget about Iraq."https://t.co/d9UEDcqKOV

Caitlin Johnstone

(@caitoz) December5, 2019

I write about imperialwarmongering not just because it is intrinsically evil, butbecause it is the clearest evidence I can point to that thepeople who are running things are too sociopathic to be leftin charge. The power structure which raped Iraq should notexist. Period.

The way I see it we've got two options:find a way to drastically change the way we think andfunction as a species, or pray that the world will be savedby the same ruling elites who destroyed Iraq while makingthe poor poorer for the benefit of the extremelywealthy.

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Thanksfor reading! The best way to get around the internet censorsand make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe tothe mailing list for at mywebsite or onSubstack, which will get you an emailnotification for everything I publish. My work is entirelyreader-supported, so if you enjoyed this pieceplease consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook,following my antics on Twitter, orthrowing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi,Patreonor Paypal.If you want to read more you can buy mynew book Poems For Rebels (you can also download a PDFfor five bucks) or my old book Woke:A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more infoon who I am, where I stand, and what Im trying to do withthis platform, clickhere. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, hasmy permission to republish, use or translate anypart of this work (or anything else Ive written) in anyway they like free ofcharge.

Scoop Media

Rogue journalist

Caitlin Johnstone is a 100 percent crowdfunded rogue journalist, bogan socialist, anarcho-psychonaut, guerilla poet and utopia prepper living in Australia with her American husband and two kids. She writes about politics, economics, media, feminism and the nature of consciousness. She is the author of the illustrated poetry book "Woke: A Field Guide For Utopia Preppers."

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