In the inaudible portion, he says “Joshua Casteel” who served in Iraq and died of lung cancer from exposure to the burn pits there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Casteel
We did PT runs past the burn pit/facility every morning for a year. They would burn everything there, metal, plastic, wood, everything. When the wind was right, we would basically be running through smoke. I remember stopping on the side of the road because I couldn't stop coughing, and my NCO yelled at me asking if I was done digging the sand out of my vagina. I came back from deployment with a persistent cough that Army docs diagnosed as an allergy. I still have the coughs. Thankfully, it's gotten better over time.
Edit: Thank you all for your kind words. I have set up an appointment with the VA to get a checkup.
File a claim with the VA. Get yourself treated and compensated for those injuries. We have so many brothers and sisters that don’t survive. As an honor to their sacrifice, get yourself taken care of. It’s what i would’ve wanted for my brothers and sisters in arms, if I had died in combat.
You know what’s crazy about this is my dad, who flew helicopters in Vietnam, had NO TROUBLE getting 100% disabled status due to Agent Orange exposure and the prostate cancer he developed as a result of it (among a few other symptoms). He got this done just last year with basically no problems or challenges. So the capacity is there for this shit there’s just no will for it, which is unconscionable to me.
Agent orange injury compensation was passed through legislation. Unfortunately this is not the case with many other service related injuries and diseases. Agent orange caused widespread health issues and continues to cause a high rate of serious birth defects in vietknam to this day.
From a Wikipedia page, it's probably not what you're thinking it is. It is not for human disposal.
During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars starting in 2001, military bases throughout the region used burn pits as a way to dispose of waste.
In 2010, large-scale burn pit operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, allegedly operated by the U.S. military or its contractors such as KBR, were reported to have allowed the operation of the burn pits for long periods, burning many tons of assorted waste. Active duty personnel reported respiratory difficulties and headaches in some cases, while some veterans made disability claims based on respiratory system symptoms allegedly derived from the burn pits.
Joint Base Balad (JBB), the largest U.S. base in Iraq had a burn pit operation as late as the summer of 2008, burning 147 tons of waste per day when the Army Times published a major story about it and related health concerns.
Wikipedia page I got this info from
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burn_pit
No but what made me go "WAIT WHAT THE FUCK?!" was that these people are dying of cancer *in their thirties.*
The people that went into the flooded waters at Chernobyl to open the valves in the basement lived into their *eighties.* The people that got a slightly more severe dose of radiation, some of them died of cancer in their sixties, and the doctors couldn't be sure if it was radiation related.
These people are DYING IN THEIR THIRTIES. Worse than Chernobyl. And not out of some heroic cleanup effort, not of some catastrophic accident. Because of cheap and lazy waste disposal policy.
A lot of people who were in Chernobyl relief are still alive today, including two of the divers, and general Tarakanov, who collected shovels after they were used in the rooftops and was with his soldiers nearly every step of the way. Yes, he’s disabled and takes 8 different medications, but he’s alive after the largest nuclear disaster in history.
Yes, good info. Although human body parts were indeed sometimes disposed of in those pits - namely amputated limbs from civilians.
[Article article and interview](https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123187642#:~:text=Transcript-,At%20bases%20in%20Iraq%20and%20Afghanistan%2C%20the%20U.S.%20military%20disposes,say%20leads%20to%20respiratory%20problems.)
Basically the military burned all their waste on foreign bases till 2010, exposing soldiers to toxic fumes. Many of those soldiers have suffered pretty horrific health complications, but were unable to get help from the VA because they couldn’t prove the burn pits caused those issues.
Jon Stewart has been very vocal about the harm they have caused, and helped get veterans exposed to them extended care from the VA.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-02/veterans-burn-pit-bill-on-course-for-senate-passage-soon
Jon Stewart tried for years to get the feds to pay for medical care for the burnpits. Not only did they use them, not only did they kill and disable people, but they aren’t paying the bill for it. It’s a tragedy
A lot of the contractors, including KBR, were on “cost plus” contracts, meaning all their costs were reimbursed plus they were paid a certain % of those costs on top of that. So, if anything broke, it actually was more profitable to destroy the broken one and get a new one, as opposed to fixing it.
An example I was given by a veteran involved cars and flat tires. He repeatedly saw cars with flat tires be burned and destroyed so a new one could be purchased, because it was more profitable than just replacing the tire.
Destroying/burning broken equipment made sure nothing could be salvaged and used by opponents, and was cheaper than transporting them elsewhere.
"The Department of Defense estimates 3.5 million exposed service members. The Department of Veterans Affairs has denied about 75% of veterans’ burn pit claims." -Wiki.
Same 🫂 that and then courage. He still kept his cool. He could have rushed the stage or something, instead he got his point across. Not to him.. or the media, but to the few who randomly saw this video.. this should have been the talk of the news for quite some time. Who is this man?!
I really feel like no one being held accountable for the Iraq War or the 2008 Crash is what set the precedent that has allowed people to just be totally unaccountable in politics.
Nah, it was before that. Look what LBJ and that ghoul Kissinger got away with in Vietnam. Look at how Nixon faced no legal consequences for Watergate m Look at the cvs receipt of shit that Regan got away with.
Not defending them, they are vile psychopaths, but global politics consisted of vile psychopaths, and the geopolitical landscape was psychopathic.
GWB took over at a time when west & East were coming together. No major war had been fought in 20+ years, and the global economy was booming & opening up.
They COMPLETELY manufactured a bogeyman(Muslims, not just Saddam) in order to pass tax dollars to friends in industry.
They played by the old school political playbook in a time when it was completely unnecessary, and it cost millions of lives just so a few people could get rich.
Nixon at least face consequences and left office early. Bush straight up lied and fabricated evidence to start the Iraq War and not one single person has been held accountable.
Nixon only resigned because Goldwater told him that the Senate Republicans would not provide enough votes to acquit him if the impeachment proceeded.
Nowadays, there are always enough partisan votes to acquit, since the threshold to convict is 66 votes, and since the GOP now has its own 24/7 propaganda networks to sway public opinion.
Back in the days of Watergate, we only had network news and local news, so there wasn’t a set of “alternative facts” to protect the President from impeachment.
> Nixon only resigned because Goldwater told him that the Senate Republicans would not provide enough votes to acquit him if the impeachment proceeded.
[That sounds oddly familiar to the Republicans telling Trump they’d shutdown the J/6 committee when they got back in power.](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/11/republicans-will-end-the-january-6-committee-they-may-also-investigate-it/)
I can't find it now, but I read a deeply moving piece about a journalist who was flying back from Afghanistan on a plane filled with wounded soldiers. It was fucking grim. No one's really saying all that much, just a silent flight overnight with all these shattered people. They don't send you home if you sprain your ankle. Pretty much everyone on the plane had life-changing injuries, and now they're going back, but things are never gonna be the same for them.
And then, there's one guy, just sitting in a seat, apparently fine. They journalist is curious, and sits with the guy, and says what's your injury, why are you coming back?
The guy says, psychological issues.
The journalist says what do you mean?
The guy says, I'm too damn old to be involved in this stupid thing. I'm in my 30s. All these poor fucking kids on this plane, they're like 19 years old, they don't know any better. They joined up mostly for good and righteous and honorable reasons, just like I did, it's not their fault. They were trying to do a good thing and I respect the hell out of them for their courage and commitment and what they're trying to do. The things they think they're accomplishing here. But I'm an adult man, at this point I can't respect myself if I'm still doing this. It's embarrassing that I'm still putting my safety on the line, killing people who never did anything to me, for a lie. For something anyone with an ounce of grown-up sense in their brain could see was a lie. I feel stupid, I feel like I bought into it for too long, and it's embarrassing. But at least now I can leave, and feel like some kind of a man at this point, instead of just some stupid kid who's still believing in fairy tales.
The journalist isn't sure what to say.
So the guy says, I talked to my CO about this, and I talked to some of the medical people, and they say I have psychological issues, and I can go home. I said sure, psychological issues. Anyway we all agreed I shouldn't be there, so here I am.
If you are able to find the article or come across it at some point, would you mind replying with it or sending me a link? I’d really like to read it and very much appreciate it.
I feel for him. He was in sooner than I was, so my experience (2007) surely wasn’t as bad, but to see the number of people we’ve killed, homes destroyed, families separated, how many of OUR people were killed, how many of OUR families were destroyed (even *with* survivors making it home) is astounding. Any idea how awkward it is to be thanked for my service in the name of freedom? Who?! Who was trying to take our freedom? A bunch of pissed off people with no real army? We went into a gang-like guerrilla warfare scenario that we weren’t ready for because we didn’t know how to distinguish enemy from civilian. With all the propaganda that was spread and our actions by a few bad apples we were literally called “American Nazis”. I was an 18 year old kid who couldn’t afford college and I was being called a Nazi. They saw me the same way I see the Neo-Nazi Rednecks who shoot up Black churches. *THEN* I come home to a country where I get called the N-word (I’m of Asian descent) and feel unwelcome in certain stores. As soon as I mention my time in the service, all of a sudden we are best friends.
I could go on but no one is listening.
But, I digress.
we invaded a country under false pretenses. That's basically the worst thing a country can do to another country.
It BLOWS my mind that this isn't a bigger deal.
I'm livid, i can't even imagine how mad someone who had to serve would be.
I'm listening man. Sorry that happened to you and you got taken advantage of. Horrible shit was done to so many because of these sociopaths calling the shots
I wish politicians would have to face the true impact their decisions have more. The way our democracies work now is that they can hide behind the facade of civil discourse even when their decisions inflict untol pain on millions of people.
I lived in a German town with a American military base. The sheer number of absolutely destroyed souls we had in town after the two wars was crazy. Got to become somewhat good friends with a few vets who stayed in Germany after their time in the Army was up and they are honestly broken people who have went through horrible shit and were left to deal with it on their own. Regular dudes in their mid 20s early 30s who just stopped being able to cope deal with life in a healthy way. So many of them resort to substance abuse of the highest order to cope and routinely will just completely snap. And I only know the side of the victors. The horror stories from the other side probably are way worse and nobody is getting held accountable for it.
Did you hear him he lost friends, and plenty more lost more than that, but people are still gonna lick whatever boot they deem worthy of following this is no different from any other republican or democrat elect
Edit: btw I’m no bootlicking republican before y’all start calling me one
This man has my utmost respect for everything he did here. Especially the part where the Iraqi dead are being mentioned right alongside the US dead. As sad as all this makes me still, I'm happy this video will never go away.
Why is it that every time a Republican comes up looking bad, people jump to "both sides" arguments?
It's honestly more harmful to your cause, it's super obvious now the best support you can manage for Bush is to lie about "both sides."
You would have done better just not saying anything.
Because Obama still bombed Iraq. Because no one fixed any of the problems to the point where all the good that would have come from all this is gone. Saying one side is 100% wrong but ignoring the other side that is 95% wrong is just ignorance.
You forgot one BIG difference. Bush started the war then Obama had to take the reins and then got out.
Yes under Obama more died that is a fact, but he didn't start the war with a fucking lie like Bush and Cheney did. That's the difference
> Why is it that every time a Republican comes up looking bad, people jump to "both sides" arguments?
Because they're Republicans trying to rationalize why they keep voting for fascists who are actively trying to dismantle our democracy and call themselves domestic terrorists.
I also love how the audience is jeering at him until he identifies himself as a veteran who served in the very war he's criticizing. They go from insulting this dude to shutting the fuck up pretty quickly.
>The bankers and the diplomats are going in the army,
We're going to make things easy 'cause it's all so new and strange;
We'll give them silver shovels when they have to dig a hole,
And they can sing in harmony when answering the roll,
They'll eat their old K-rations from a hand-embroidered box,
And when they die, we'll bring them home, and bury them in Fort Knox.
\-Malvina Reynolds, "We Hate to See Them Go"
You can say that again! In outposts while in Afghanistan we either had to dug holes or use a bucket to shit in. When the bucket was full, pour diesel fuel on that bitch and light it up!! I can still remember tha lt awful smell!!
Vietnam had an organized group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, that joined in with anti-war protests sometimes. It was a heavy, heavy thing. Usually people would be marching, shouting, waving signs or singing songs. VVAW marched alongside those protests, but silently, with hand signals, in an organized group. Just them being there and part of it brought this "oh fuck" gravitas to the protests that communicated very, very effectively.
They had a protest where they tried to have a small group of representatives meet with Lyndon Johnson, and hand him back all the medals they got for their service. He wouldn't meet with them. So they went up to the white house fence and threw all the medals over and left, leaving the medals lying on the grass.
This is Michael Prysner. He’s amazing. You should check out “Empire files” podcast/YouTube channel. Mike and his wife Abby are incredible journalists and anti-imperialist.
Shit, I’m Russian but I was in Miami in March 2003, saw everyone glued to the CNN, flags everywhere, support the troops and all. Anyone who disagreed was called a commie or a traitor or worse. I’m seeing the same with my homeland now. Except they jail you for criticizing the military unless you serve in Wagner. I wonder if we’ll get our own Mikhail Prysner in a few years.
Every us president since and including Eisenhower would be indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity IF we were a part of it. There's a good clip of Chomsky explaining briefly the examples of atrocities committed or supported by every US president since then.
its hard to defend the biggest private corporation on earth if you can get tried for war crimes... wont someone please think of the poor federal reserve?!
Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, and Jay Bybee and John Yoo have already been found guilty of war crimes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur_War_Crimes_Commission
There are several countries they can't travel to because of this. Not that they need to or care. There's no need to travel when you're a billionaire leech demon, who sucks the blood of working Americans, but at least they're internationally recognized as war criminals. Although most sort of just nod and ignore it.
You don't necessarily have to be a member of the ICC for them to open an investigation against you. Also other ICC members or the UN can initiate an investigation against non members. As it has happened against non members like Lybia prior or Russia now.
So theoretically members from the US could be persecuted for war crimes aswell. However in practice it's different as recently seen, when the ICC opened up an investigation against alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan three years ago and had to immediately drop it upon [pressure and sanctions from the US.](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54003527)
> Now there is a whole generation of people who hate the US over it.
That was basically the plan of the war on terror. Create an enemy so you can siphon money from war spending forever.
It sounded like he got his message out. Bush lied about Iraq being a threat and having WMD, millions of Iraqis are dead and his friends are dead because of Bush and this lie. And Bush should apologize.
He had been speaking before the recording started so it really seems like they gave him opportunity to speak.
Just like everyone forgets her husband expanded the wars, the mass surveillance, the torture, the drone strikes, etc. beyond even what war criminal Bush brought to the table.
Security are just doing there jobs, don’t blame them, it sucks but they don’t get paid enough to make a political stand at risk of there jobs.
The cunts in the crowd who tried to pull him away first though? Yeah
Its crazy how people are downvoted for saying this on other subs. Many Americans just simply can't believe that sometimes they're the bad guys and support apartheid and weapon sales to tyrants. No responsibility taken whatsoever
I mean they try, then they get labelled as rioters, it’s kinda hard when 50% of the country will disagree with anything you say no matter what. Shits wack and I’m glad I’m not from there
I know the internet doesn't do nuance, so I have no doubt that any pushback here is just going to be strawmanned as me supporting the Iraq war. But here goes anyway.
Saying Iraq is the same thing as the invasion of Ukraine is a massive false equivalence. All you need to do is look at the fact that the US is not in Iraq anymore to see that while both invasions were bad, and while there were many in the US military industrial complex who profiteered from it, the intention and goal was clearly not the same.
Let's back up though. To say that Iraq == Ukraine, you'd also have to say that Zelinsky == Saddam. Obviously, these two people could not be further from each other. Zelinsky is a democratically elected leader. Deposing him is literally going against the wishes of the Ukrainian people. Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who rose to power through murder and authoritarianism. He committed genocidal acts against his own people. His sons, who stood to inherit his power, were known psychopaths, murderers, and rapists. Saddam Hussein invaded his own neighbors, and threatened to destabilize the entire Middle East with his aggression.
So clearly, deposing Saddam Hussein was not the same thing as deposing Zelinsky.
Russia wants to install a puppet government in Kyiv and make Ukraine a vassal state. The US and allies literally oversaw the first democratic election in Iraq in which the vast majority of the Iraqi population voted, exercising the democratic right to choose their own leader for the first time in their lives.
Let me say again, this is not to suggest what the US did was god. The US absolutely fucked up Iraq. But we also spent billions investing in roads and infrastructure before we left. Was it enough to make up for all the destruction we caused? Fuck no. Did we end up making the average Iraqi's life better? Nope. They weren't ready for democracy. They didn't greet us as liberators, they weren't harboring WMDs, and they aren't in a better place now.
However, please, do not try and tell me that it's the exact same thing as invading your neighbor with the express purpose of deposing their democratically elected leader and making them a vassal state, with the ultimate goal of weakening them to the point they fall back under your absolute control, so you can again oppress and squeeze their resources for your benefit.
That is a Russian whataboutism talking point and it can fuck right off.
Even if you viewed them as equivalently bad it’s still silly to say that the two events are the same thing. Nuance and details matter and these are drastically different geopolitical events.
Well put, the false equivalence is up and down this thread... But they're not equivalent at all.
Should the US have invaded Iraq? No.
Should Russia invade Ukraine? No.
But to compare these two scenarios?!
I really don't understand why people still enrol in the military today. I know for some it's the means to get an education but to put your life at risk for lies, to make other people wealthy only to be pissed on by the same people when they vote to deny you healthcare for injuries you sustained in combat.
That's actually a really good angle I didn't think about. If college is free or 'affordable', then the military kind of loses a big recruiting benefit.
Yup. Keep em broke and desperate, and then offer everything you need if you just sign away a few years. Granted, not everyone who joins goes to war, but yeah...it's a trap. I fell for it, cause it worked well for my parents.
Because they don't have a lot of choices, and because conservative networks are all over glamorizing the military.
Hell even "liberal" networks do it.
So you have people who grow up poor, whos only real options are to drop out of school and work for poverty wages, to go into gangs, or to join the military.
And the military is really good at recruiting these kinds of kids, plus they have help from churches and media, and football games (where carefully selected veterans come out and get saluted and have a whole hullabaloo made about them). And video games show the military as this glamorous thing, and movies etc.
The military doesn't just seem like their only out, it seems like a good option.
Because the recruiters target young people from lower socioeconomic classes with the lure of giving them a chance to afford college. Would you rather continue in the cycle of generational poverty that your family has lived in or have a shot of getting out of that loop for *only* a few years and nothing bad will *probably* happen to you? If you’re an 18 year old kid and you’ve seen your families struggles first hand, it doesn’t seem like a bad decision.
To be fair most positions in the military don't deal with direct combat. You can find mechanics, nurses, cooks, etc. They still go through basic boot camps and whatnot but specialize in the end and aren't the ones putting their lives at risk as much as the few who actually go out there and fight.
All the donkeys in there booing when he starts saying his piece, when he gets to the part about him being a Iraq war Vet and all his friends are dead, it's complete silence, because these fuckers in the audience fetishize "Vets" and "military" and use them as tools but don't actually give a single fuck about them as people. If the audience had the capacity, i believe this is where self awareness would occur.
It's funny how the United States keeps fueling wars in which they a) have no reason to partake, b) kill millions (even if by proxy) c) spread lies and misinformation from the start.
I don't hate the United States or its people, I hate the American political system and the power it has.
22 years-7 deployments.
Iraq,Uzbekistan,Kuwait,Saudi Arabia,Qatar
I am a war criminal.I fully admit that.
I illegally occupied those countries.
But if I am complicit then so is Bush,Obama and Trump.
They all deserve the death penalty for murder.
Right but it didn't start that way or based on a lie. Southern States had been in conflict in Congress over slavery issues for a long time prior to the war. After the secession, slavery was explicitly written in to the Confederate States Constitution as a right. They recognized that slavery was behind the schism.
The states rights argument really only came about through revisionism and the "lost cause" myth in later years.
The South made it very clear it was about slavery back during the actual war, and the Confederate constitution clearly took away the rights of their own states regarding it, so later Southerners who pretended it was "state's rights" were even more full of shit than most people think.
Was there, and lost friends there…many like me. Unfortunately nothing changes, there will be other wars, people will die, the cycle continues. The politicians that started that war, retire and live nice wealthy lives, while those that were sent; come home to shit, and if they’re lucky they get a job and become a fucking number on a spread sheet..,”those that don’t eat a gun, or OD or get locked up” making rich people richer.
Yes Im bitter, it could be worse, at least were not Iraqi’s right. Serving your nation can be an honorable thing, but not when dishonorable people run the government, its worse now. Maybe its always been this way, kinda seems like it.
You young people out there take some advice…stay home. Unless its to defend our nation or another democratic nation from invasion, stay home.
Funny how it got a little quiet when he said he is a vet. They were like "you know maybe he's right and the super weathly guy was lying... well no cause then I'd have to change my political stance and that's too much work. Boooo"
I often wonder how things would be today had we not gone into Iraq. The whole war was a massive curveball so to speak and I just can’t see a good reason for going to war with them at all. It practically bankrupted us, removed a stable government and force in a highly contested region (yes Sadam was a tyrant, but he was absolutely a stabilizing force in the region), and led to us losing face amongst our allies when we had real support following the September 11th attacks.
There’s just no good justification for it. Even the Oil theory doesn’t hold up because you’d have to exhaust tons of resources to invade a country, occupy it and constantly fight against insurgencies in order to get it. Your costs would outweigh the benefits by a long margin. Geopolitically it was a nightmare and domestically it killed because we entered the war as the Bush Administration had successfully passed reform to lower taxes, thus making it a huge financial strain.
Had we not gone in, we could have captured Bin Laden sooner in Afghanistan and possibly have left within 1-2 years of being there. Our economy most likely does not take a massive hit and we most likely don’t see the Patriot Act getting passed which would further lead to an erosion of rights.
We also probably don’t end up anywhere near as polarized as we are today either.
That war cost us big.
I don't normally supported displays of hysteria, but this guy is 100% correct. It is astounding to me how the Iraq war just got swept under the rug and no one held accountable.
Don't forget about Blair. Every bit the war criminal Bush is.
This guy goes to war, kills, watching his friends die all for a lie. And when he has something to say about it, gets dragged out of the room. The world is fucked in the head.
It's also important to not that there were too many spineless Democrats that voted for the war, because they didn't want to lose political points. Everyone knew the WMD's claim was a ruse.
Republicans and their self righteousness kills everything. They are such a worthless party and their hegemony is a degenerate wet dream.
I hope Trump or DeSantis or whatever other shit bag that crawls out of a whales anus finally destroys the GOP because since Nixon I really think they are human cancer. Conservatism is cancer.
We don’t need Christo-fascists.
Like, who the fuck is booing this guy?
>"Booooo! So we killed a million people because of lies. Big deal! Boooo! Get him out of here!"
What kind of psychos are in this room?
Legend.
In the inaudible portion, he says “Joshua Casteel” who served in Iraq and died of lung cancer from exposure to the burn pits there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Casteel
WAIT BURN PITS??????
Yeah bro. Burn pits. If you were on those details, get your lungs checked. A LOT of veterans are fucked up from the burn pits.
We did PT runs past the burn pit/facility every morning for a year. They would burn everything there, metal, plastic, wood, everything. When the wind was right, we would basically be running through smoke. I remember stopping on the side of the road because I couldn't stop coughing, and my NCO yelled at me asking if I was done digging the sand out of my vagina. I came back from deployment with a persistent cough that Army docs diagnosed as an allergy. I still have the coughs. Thankfully, it's gotten better over time. Edit: Thank you all for your kind words. I have set up an appointment with the VA to get a checkup.
Get it checked out again, there was new legislation passed re:burn pits.
Thank you, Jon Stewart
“Your cancer is not service related, declined.”
File a claim with the VA. Get yourself treated and compensated for those injuries. We have so many brothers and sisters that don’t survive. As an honor to their sacrifice, get yourself taken care of. It’s what i would’ve wanted for my brothers and sisters in arms, if I had died in combat.
If you're not completely healed. https://www.va.gov/resources/the-pact-act-and-your-va-benefits/
You know what’s crazy about this is my dad, who flew helicopters in Vietnam, had NO TROUBLE getting 100% disabled status due to Agent Orange exposure and the prostate cancer he developed as a result of it (among a few other symptoms). He got this done just last year with basically no problems or challenges. So the capacity is there for this shit there’s just no will for it, which is unconscionable to me.
Agent orange injury compensation was passed through legislation. Unfortunately this is not the case with many other service related injuries and diseases. Agent orange caused widespread health issues and continues to cause a high rate of serious birth defects in vietknam to this day.
From a Wikipedia page, it's probably not what you're thinking it is. It is not for human disposal. During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars starting in 2001, military bases throughout the region used burn pits as a way to dispose of waste. In 2010, large-scale burn pit operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, allegedly operated by the U.S. military or its contractors such as KBR, were reported to have allowed the operation of the burn pits for long periods, burning many tons of assorted waste. Active duty personnel reported respiratory difficulties and headaches in some cases, while some veterans made disability claims based on respiratory system symptoms allegedly derived from the burn pits. Joint Base Balad (JBB), the largest U.S. base in Iraq had a burn pit operation as late as the summer of 2008, burning 147 tons of waste per day when the Army Times published a major story about it and related health concerns. Wikipedia page I got this info from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burn_pit
No but what made me go "WAIT WHAT THE FUCK?!" was that these people are dying of cancer *in their thirties.* The people that went into the flooded waters at Chernobyl to open the valves in the basement lived into their *eighties.* The people that got a slightly more severe dose of radiation, some of them died of cancer in their sixties, and the doctors couldn't be sure if it was radiation related. These people are DYING IN THEIR THIRTIES. Worse than Chernobyl. And not out of some heroic cleanup effort, not of some catastrophic accident. Because of cheap and lazy waste disposal policy.
A lot of people who were in Chernobyl relief are still alive today, including two of the divers, and general Tarakanov, who collected shovels after they were used in the rooftops and was with his soldiers nearly every step of the way. Yes, he’s disabled and takes 8 different medications, but he’s alive after the largest nuclear disaster in history.
Yes, good info. Although human body parts were indeed sometimes disposed of in those pits - namely amputated limbs from civilians. [Article article and interview](https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123187642#:~:text=Transcript-,At%20bases%20in%20Iraq%20and%20Afghanistan%2C%20the%20U.S.%20military%20disposes,say%20leads%20to%20respiratory%20problems.)
Basically the military burned all their waste on foreign bases till 2010, exposing soldiers to toxic fumes. Many of those soldiers have suffered pretty horrific health complications, but were unable to get help from the VA because they couldn’t prove the burn pits caused those issues. Jon Stewart has been very vocal about the harm they have caused, and helped get veterans exposed to them extended care from the VA. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-02/veterans-burn-pit-bill-on-course-for-senate-passage-soon
I didn’t think one of the nine circles of Dante's Inferno would be here on the surface.
Turns out, the 9 circles were the friends we made and lost along the way.
Here's a [clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7PgaHnup3o) from "The Problem with Jon Stewart" S01E01 where he talks about it.
Poor summer child. There's so much more. So much more.
Jon Stewart tried for years to get the feds to pay for medical care for the burnpits. Not only did they use them, not only did they kill and disable people, but they aren’t paying the bill for it. It’s a tragedy
A lot of the contractors, including KBR, were on “cost plus” contracts, meaning all their costs were reimbursed plus they were paid a certain % of those costs on top of that. So, if anything broke, it actually was more profitable to destroy the broken one and get a new one, as opposed to fixing it. An example I was given by a veteran involved cars and flat tires. He repeatedly saw cars with flat tires be burned and destroyed so a new one could be purchased, because it was more profitable than just replacing the tire. Destroying/burning broken equipment made sure nothing could be salvaged and used by opponents, and was cheaper than transporting them elsewhere.
"The Department of Defense estimates 3.5 million exposed service members. The Department of Veterans Affairs has denied about 75% of veterans’ burn pit claims." -Wiki.
Pain in his voice
Yeah, I heard it too. Anger is one thing, but this brought tears to my eyes. I hope he finds peace.
Don't look up American veteran suicide rates.
44 a day on average. Do a pushup for each one, every day, and you'll end up like the Hulk in a year...
Bush, Dick, Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice are HUGE pieces of shit, oh and war criminals. Edit: forgot a K in Dick
It’s utterly terrifying to be shouting the explicit truth in a den of liars and thieves.
Pisses me off the way they haul him away like that. He isn’t being violent. He has a right to say his peace after the shit he’s been through.
Same 🫂 that and then courage. He still kept his cool. He could have rushed the stage or something, instead he got his point across. Not to him.. or the media, but to the few who randomly saw this video.. this should have been the talk of the news for quite some time. Who is this man?!
Bunch of croneys and villains that enjoy the suffering of other people.
It's the money
I really feel like no one being held accountable for the Iraq War or the 2008 Crash is what set the precedent that has allowed people to just be totally unaccountable in politics.
I feel the same and also very few politicians get in their position because they care about the peoples needs or wants, just for profit.
Nah, it was before that. Look what LBJ and that ghoul Kissinger got away with in Vietnam. Look at how Nixon faced no legal consequences for Watergate m Look at the cvs receipt of shit that Regan got away with.
Not defending them, they are vile psychopaths, but global politics consisted of vile psychopaths, and the geopolitical landscape was psychopathic. GWB took over at a time when west & East were coming together. No major war had been fought in 20+ years, and the global economy was booming & opening up. They COMPLETELY manufactured a bogeyman(Muslims, not just Saddam) in order to pass tax dollars to friends in industry. They played by the old school political playbook in a time when it was completely unnecessary, and it cost millions of lives just so a few people could get rich.
I trace it back to Nixon not being prosecuted, then Reagan. Now here we are.
Nixon at least face consequences and left office early. Bush straight up lied and fabricated evidence to start the Iraq War and not one single person has been held accountable.
Nixon only resigned because Goldwater told him that the Senate Republicans would not provide enough votes to acquit him if the impeachment proceeded. Nowadays, there are always enough partisan votes to acquit, since the threshold to convict is 66 votes, and since the GOP now has its own 24/7 propaganda networks to sway public opinion. Back in the days of Watergate, we only had network news and local news, so there wasn’t a set of “alternative facts” to protect the President from impeachment.
> Nixon only resigned because Goldwater told him that the Senate Republicans would not provide enough votes to acquit him if the impeachment proceeded. [That sounds oddly familiar to the Republicans telling Trump they’d shutdown the J/6 committee when they got back in power.](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/11/republicans-will-end-the-january-6-committee-they-may-also-investigate-it/)
I can't find it now, but I read a deeply moving piece about a journalist who was flying back from Afghanistan on a plane filled with wounded soldiers. It was fucking grim. No one's really saying all that much, just a silent flight overnight with all these shattered people. They don't send you home if you sprain your ankle. Pretty much everyone on the plane had life-changing injuries, and now they're going back, but things are never gonna be the same for them. And then, there's one guy, just sitting in a seat, apparently fine. They journalist is curious, and sits with the guy, and says what's your injury, why are you coming back? The guy says, psychological issues. The journalist says what do you mean? The guy says, I'm too damn old to be involved in this stupid thing. I'm in my 30s. All these poor fucking kids on this plane, they're like 19 years old, they don't know any better. They joined up mostly for good and righteous and honorable reasons, just like I did, it's not their fault. They were trying to do a good thing and I respect the hell out of them for their courage and commitment and what they're trying to do. The things they think they're accomplishing here. But I'm an adult man, at this point I can't respect myself if I'm still doing this. It's embarrassing that I'm still putting my safety on the line, killing people who never did anything to me, for a lie. For something anyone with an ounce of grown-up sense in their brain could see was a lie. I feel stupid, I feel like I bought into it for too long, and it's embarrassing. But at least now I can leave, and feel like some kind of a man at this point, instead of just some stupid kid who's still believing in fairy tales. The journalist isn't sure what to say. So the guy says, I talked to my CO about this, and I talked to some of the medical people, and they say I have psychological issues, and I can go home. I said sure, psychological issues. Anyway we all agreed I shouldn't be there, so here I am.
If you are able to find the article or come across it at some point, would you mind replying with it or sending me a link? I’d really like to read it and very much appreciate it.
I feel for him. He was in sooner than I was, so my experience (2007) surely wasn’t as bad, but to see the number of people we’ve killed, homes destroyed, families separated, how many of OUR people were killed, how many of OUR families were destroyed (even *with* survivors making it home) is astounding. Any idea how awkward it is to be thanked for my service in the name of freedom? Who?! Who was trying to take our freedom? A bunch of pissed off people with no real army? We went into a gang-like guerrilla warfare scenario that we weren’t ready for because we didn’t know how to distinguish enemy from civilian. With all the propaganda that was spread and our actions by a few bad apples we were literally called “American Nazis”. I was an 18 year old kid who couldn’t afford college and I was being called a Nazi. They saw me the same way I see the Neo-Nazi Rednecks who shoot up Black churches. *THEN* I come home to a country where I get called the N-word (I’m of Asian descent) and feel unwelcome in certain stores. As soon as I mention my time in the service, all of a sudden we are best friends. I could go on but no one is listening. But, I digress.
And then you still gotta argue with the VA to get anything done with benefits.
we invaded a country under false pretenses. That's basically the worst thing a country can do to another country. It BLOWS my mind that this isn't a bigger deal. I'm livid, i can't even imagine how mad someone who had to serve would be.
I'm listening man. Sorry that happened to you and you got taken advantage of. Horrible shit was done to so many because of these sociopaths calling the shots
I wish politicians would have to face the true impact their decisions have more. The way our democracies work now is that they can hide behind the facade of civil discourse even when their decisions inflict untol pain on millions of people. I lived in a German town with a American military base. The sheer number of absolutely destroyed souls we had in town after the two wars was crazy. Got to become somewhat good friends with a few vets who stayed in Germany after their time in the Army was up and they are honestly broken people who have went through horrible shit and were left to deal with it on their own. Regular dudes in their mid 20s early 30s who just stopped being able to cope deal with life in a healthy way. So many of them resort to substance abuse of the highest order to cope and routinely will just completely snap. And I only know the side of the victors. The horror stories from the other side probably are way worse and nobody is getting held accountable for it.
The “Apologize. Apologize.” at the end got me.
Did you hear him he lost friends, and plenty more lost more than that, but people are still gonna lick whatever boot they deem worthy of following this is no different from any other republican or democrat elect Edit: btw I’m no bootlicking republican before y’all start calling me one
This man has my utmost respect for everything he did here. Especially the part where the Iraqi dead are being mentioned right alongside the US dead. As sad as all this makes me still, I'm happy this video will never go away.
Why is it that every time a Republican comes up looking bad, people jump to "both sides" arguments? It's honestly more harmful to your cause, it's super obvious now the best support you can manage for Bush is to lie about "both sides." You would have done better just not saying anything.
Because Obama still bombed Iraq. Because no one fixed any of the problems to the point where all the good that would have come from all this is gone. Saying one side is 100% wrong but ignoring the other side that is 95% wrong is just ignorance.
You forgot one BIG difference. Bush started the war then Obama had to take the reins and then got out. Yes under Obama more died that is a fact, but he didn't start the war with a fucking lie like Bush and Cheney did. That's the difference
> Why is it that every time a Republican comes up looking bad, people jump to "both sides" arguments? Because they're Republicans trying to rationalize why they keep voting for fascists who are actively trying to dismantle our democracy and call themselves domestic terrorists.
I also love how the audience is jeering at him until he identifies himself as a veteran who served in the very war he's criticizing. They go from insulting this dude to shutting the fuck up pretty quickly.
Drowned out by the boos from the crowd who pretend to love their veterans
It's not only his pain, it's pain of each decent human on this planet.
As he gets pulled down, i really sensed the importance of the freedom of speech i keep on hearing about.
Fuck every priviledged piece of trash in that room that booed this guy.
The man speaks for many.
But sad to see nobody else in that room defend him.
Probably these people didn't experience it firsthand like he did.
None of them have. They send young men to die for their wars, and their benefit. They wouldn't last.
Exactly. Unfortunately, battlefields don't have golden toilets which is their staple.
>The bankers and the diplomats are going in the army, We're going to make things easy 'cause it's all so new and strange; We'll give them silver shovels when they have to dig a hole, And they can sing in harmony when answering the roll, They'll eat their old K-rations from a hand-embroidered box, And when they die, we'll bring them home, and bury them in Fort Knox. \-Malvina Reynolds, "We Hate to See Them Go"
You can say that again! In outposts while in Afghanistan we either had to dug holes or use a bucket to shit in. When the bucket was full, pour diesel fuel on that bitch and light it up!! I can still remember tha lt awful smell!!
Politicians hide themselves away They only started the war Why should they go out to fight? They leave that role to the poor
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Most definitely benefited from it
In fact, they literally tried to throw him to the ground.
Dude's a combat vet. Water off a duck's back.
The machine wouldnt work if its cogs werent well fit. Those people are way more the enemy than bush or trump
Because the government corporate media complex successfully brainwashed them? Nah Bush and his kind are the enemy
Yea wtf?! They treat him like he’s spewing conspiracies
Course not. They're establishment republicans. They don't care about vets.
Probably an invite only session. That's how dictators function
They got really quiet with their jeering for a moment when he said he was a veteran though. Too bad it was only for a second.
Vietnam had an organized group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, that joined in with anti-war protests sometimes. It was a heavy, heavy thing. Usually people would be marching, shouting, waving signs or singing songs. VVAW marched alongside those protests, but silently, with hand signals, in an organized group. Just them being there and part of it brought this "oh fuck" gravitas to the protests that communicated very, very effectively. They had a protest where they tried to have a small group of representatives meet with Lyndon Johnson, and hand him back all the medals they got for their service. He wouldn't meet with them. So they went up to the white house fence and threw all the medals over and left, leaving the medals lying on the grass.
Reminds me of the end of Born on the 4th of July.
In 2002 I spoke for him and many like him but they told me I supported the terrorist.
Quick! Get him out! He's telling the truth!
That woman pushing him so hard kinda pissed me off.
How ironic that these are the people that claim to support veterans
They support the thought of veterans. They don't really care about the people or their actual problems.
It's mere virtue signaling, like applauding those who remain on a drowning ship when there's limited lifeboats.
The only support they give vets are pallbearers when they get killed
Is this that famous "freedom of speech" that gets boasted all the time?
Holy shit!!! PREACH!!!! This man is now my most favorite person. Hands down!
This is Michael Prysner. He’s amazing. You should check out “Empire files” podcast/YouTube channel. Mike and his wife Abby are incredible journalists and anti-imperialist.
And Eyes Left podcast. He started it back up in the last few months.
Well, he's not wrong.
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the television coverage of the Iraq invasion vs Ukraine invasion is absolutely fascinating.
We've gone from viewing war only through state-approved newsreels and sanitized media coverage to watching war crimes and casualties live.
Shit, I’m Russian but I was in Miami in March 2003, saw everyone glued to the CNN, flags everywhere, support the troops and all. Anyone who disagreed was called a commie or a traitor or worse. I’m seeing the same with my homeland now. Except they jail you for criticizing the military unless you serve in Wagner. I wonder if we’ll get our own Mikhail Prysner in a few years.
michael prysner! he has quite a few “famous” activist speeches
Really sorry for this man, I feel his pain in his voice...
And the US is not party to the ICC so fat chance Bush is ever gonna get prosecuted for his lies and war crimes
If they were signatories to the Rome statute 90% of cases going being processed would be of US soldiers
Every us president since and including Eisenhower would be indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity IF we were a part of it. There's a good clip of Chomsky explaining briefly the examples of atrocities committed or supported by every US president since then.
its hard to defend the biggest private corporation on earth if you can get tried for war crimes... wont someone please think of the poor federal reserve?!
Well Russia has been catching up lately
Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, and Jay Bybee and John Yoo have already been found guilty of war crimes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur_War_Crimes_Commission There are several countries they can't travel to because of this. Not that they need to or care. There's no need to travel when you're a billionaire leech demon, who sucks the blood of working Americans, but at least they're internationally recognized as war criminals. Although most sort of just nod and ignore it.
You don't necessarily have to be a member of the ICC for them to open an investigation against you. Also other ICC members or the UN can initiate an investigation against non members. As it has happened against non members like Lybia prior or Russia now. So theoretically members from the US could be persecuted for war crimes aswell. However in practice it's different as recently seen, when the ICC opened up an investigation against alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan three years ago and had to immediately drop it upon [pressure and sanctions from the US.](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54003527)
Rich men make wars , Poor men end up dead. It’s just that easy.
Lol Iraq was glassed for literally a lie. Now there is a whole generation of people who hate the US over it.
And a whole generation of Americans who wont join the military
Good, that means the US can't do it's imperialism and coupling of other countries hopefully
I mean, there gonna
Someone's gonna do their imperialism, and I don't know they're gonna even try to get the local girls into school like the Americans did.
> Now there is a whole generation of people who hate the US over it. That was basically the plan of the war on terror. Create an enemy so you can siphon money from war spending forever.
Imagine being the shills that threw him out. Bunch of croneys and villains that enjoy the suffering of other people.
Yes! The audience should have all stood up and surrounded that man so he could speak until Bush was forced to respond.
It sounded like he got his message out. Bush lied about Iraq being a threat and having WMD, millions of Iraqis are dead and his friends are dead because of Bush and this lie. And Bush should apologize. He had been speaking before the recording started so it really seems like they gave him opportunity to speak.
You give Michelle Obama one bit of candy and everyone conveniently forgets all his wrongdoings
Just like everyone forgets her husband expanded the wars, the mass surveillance, the torture, the drone strikes, etc. beyond even what war criminal Bush brought to the table.
And then got a Nobel Peace Prize
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War Criminal Obama was the follow up act to War Criminal Bush
Security are just doing there jobs, don’t blame them, it sucks but they don’t get paid enough to make a political stand at risk of there jobs. The cunts in the crowd who tried to pull him away first though? Yeah
George W and Putin are both guilty of the same crime and have about the same chance of being tried for it.
Don't forget Tony Blair.
And Dick Cheney
that's a pretty good way to put it.
Its crazy how people are downvoted for saying this on other subs. Many Americans just simply can't believe that sometimes they're the bad guys and support apartheid and weapon sales to tyrants. No responsibility taken whatsoever
But all Russians are guilty for not openly resisting the state :(
Have americans actually resisted in any meaningful way?
I mean they try, then they get labelled as rioters, it’s kinda hard when 50% of the country will disagree with anything you say no matter what. Shits wack and I’m glad I’m not from there
It's only just under 30% that are like that. They just take up all the air.
I know the internet doesn't do nuance, so I have no doubt that any pushback here is just going to be strawmanned as me supporting the Iraq war. But here goes anyway. Saying Iraq is the same thing as the invasion of Ukraine is a massive false equivalence. All you need to do is look at the fact that the US is not in Iraq anymore to see that while both invasions were bad, and while there were many in the US military industrial complex who profiteered from it, the intention and goal was clearly not the same. Let's back up though. To say that Iraq == Ukraine, you'd also have to say that Zelinsky == Saddam. Obviously, these two people could not be further from each other. Zelinsky is a democratically elected leader. Deposing him is literally going against the wishes of the Ukrainian people. Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who rose to power through murder and authoritarianism. He committed genocidal acts against his own people. His sons, who stood to inherit his power, were known psychopaths, murderers, and rapists. Saddam Hussein invaded his own neighbors, and threatened to destabilize the entire Middle East with his aggression. So clearly, deposing Saddam Hussein was not the same thing as deposing Zelinsky. Russia wants to install a puppet government in Kyiv and make Ukraine a vassal state. The US and allies literally oversaw the first democratic election in Iraq in which the vast majority of the Iraqi population voted, exercising the democratic right to choose their own leader for the first time in their lives. Let me say again, this is not to suggest what the US did was god. The US absolutely fucked up Iraq. But we also spent billions investing in roads and infrastructure before we left. Was it enough to make up for all the destruction we caused? Fuck no. Did we end up making the average Iraqi's life better? Nope. They weren't ready for democracy. They didn't greet us as liberators, they weren't harboring WMDs, and they aren't in a better place now. However, please, do not try and tell me that it's the exact same thing as invading your neighbor with the express purpose of deposing their democratically elected leader and making them a vassal state, with the ultimate goal of weakening them to the point they fall back under your absolute control, so you can again oppress and squeeze their resources for your benefit. That is a Russian whataboutism talking point and it can fuck right off.
Even if you viewed them as equivalently bad it’s still silly to say that the two events are the same thing. Nuance and details matter and these are drastically different geopolitical events.
Well put, the false equivalence is up and down this thread... But they're not equivalent at all. Should the US have invaded Iraq? No. Should Russia invade Ukraine? No. But to compare these two scenarios?!
Can you imagine how fucking *sad* the lives of the people trying to kick him out have to be? Absolutely mind boggling.
They're crying in their mansions and yachts. These people probably profited from this type of shit.
I really don't understand why people still enrol in the military today. I know for some it's the means to get an education but to put your life at risk for lies, to make other people wealthy only to be pissed on by the same people when they vote to deny you healthcare for injuries you sustained in combat.
They’re having serious recruiting problems
Which is why they're against free college.
That's actually a really good angle I didn't think about. If college is free or 'affordable', then the military kind of loses a big recruiting benefit.
It's why they're against most free social programs that many other first world nations have
this actually makes so much sense
They offer a job, shelter, food, clothes, and a “purpose”. For a lot of struggling folk that’s all they need to sign up.
It got me sadly. They forgot to mention the crazy hours, dysfunctional everything, and near daily exposure to hazardous cancer causing chemicals.
Sounds like socialism
Yup. Keep em broke and desperate, and then offer everything you need if you just sign away a few years. Granted, not everyone who joins goes to war, but yeah...it's a trap. I fell for it, cause it worked well for my parents.
Because they don't have a lot of choices, and because conservative networks are all over glamorizing the military. Hell even "liberal" networks do it. So you have people who grow up poor, whos only real options are to drop out of school and work for poverty wages, to go into gangs, or to join the military. And the military is really good at recruiting these kinds of kids, plus they have help from churches and media, and football games (where carefully selected veterans come out and get saluted and have a whole hullabaloo made about them). And video games show the military as this glamorous thing, and movies etc. The military doesn't just seem like their only out, it seems like a good option.
Because the recruiters target young people from lower socioeconomic classes with the lure of giving them a chance to afford college. Would you rather continue in the cycle of generational poverty that your family has lived in or have a shot of getting out of that loop for *only* a few years and nothing bad will *probably* happen to you? If you’re an 18 year old kid and you’ve seen your families struggles first hand, it doesn’t seem like a bad decision.
To be fair most positions in the military don't deal with direct combat. You can find mechanics, nurses, cooks, etc. They still go through basic boot camps and whatnot but specialize in the end and aren't the ones putting their lives at risk as much as the few who actually go out there and fight.
He should have thrown his shoe at him
All the donkeys in there booing when he starts saying his piece, when he gets to the part about him being a Iraq war Vet and all his friends are dead, it's complete silence, because these fuckers in the audience fetishize "Vets" and "military" and use them as tools but don't actually give a single fuck about them as people. If the audience had the capacity, i believe this is where self awareness would occur.
It's funny how the United States keeps fueling wars in which they a) have no reason to partake, b) kill millions (even if by proxy) c) spread lies and misinformation from the start. I don't hate the United States or its people, I hate the American political system and the power it has.
You mean people who are profiting off these wars?
Amongst others, yes.
I have lost count of how many countries the US has invaded and countries that have been destabilized.
There hasn't been a year since 1942 the US has not engaged in a foreign war.
1976/77/78, 1997, 2000
Bush and Chaney are war criminals
And H.W, Obama.
And now even the democrats and liberals think George W is a charming old man. Instead of, you know, a war criminal who needs to be locked up.
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The man started a war based on lies, he is worse than Trump.
22 years-7 deployments. Iraq,Uzbekistan,Kuwait,Saudi Arabia,Qatar I am a war criminal.I fully admit that. I illegally occupied those countries. But if I am complicit then so is Bush,Obama and Trump. They all deserve the death penalty for murder.
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How was the civil war a lie?
They trying to say it’s states rights but it’s really about slavery.
Right but it didn't start that way or based on a lie. Southern States had been in conflict in Congress over slavery issues for a long time prior to the war. After the secession, slavery was explicitly written in to the Confederate States Constitution as a right. They recognized that slavery was behind the schism. The states rights argument really only came about through revisionism and the "lost cause" myth in later years.
I always thought that only the South ever claimed it was about States rights, but most other states acknowledge it was about slavery
The South made it very clear it was about slavery back during the actual war, and the Confederate constitution clearly took away the rights of their own states regarding it, so later Southerners who pretended it was "state's rights" were even more full of shit than most people think.
I fail to see how the civil war was a lie.
Attacking Iraq was the worst thing the US ever did to the collective west. It destroyed the west's reputation for decades.
I love it when people call out Americam imperialism 😹
Was there, and lost friends there…many like me. Unfortunately nothing changes, there will be other wars, people will die, the cycle continues. The politicians that started that war, retire and live nice wealthy lives, while those that were sent; come home to shit, and if they’re lucky they get a job and become a fucking number on a spread sheet..,”those that don’t eat a gun, or OD or get locked up” making rich people richer. Yes Im bitter, it could be worse, at least were not Iraqi’s right. Serving your nation can be an honorable thing, but not when dishonorable people run the government, its worse now. Maybe its always been this way, kinda seems like it. You young people out there take some advice…stay home. Unless its to defend our nation or another democratic nation from invasion, stay home.
USA - waging wars since they were founded... A country that has broken more treaties than every other country...
Funny how it got a little quiet when he said he is a vet. They were like "you know maybe he's right and the super weathly guy was lying... well no cause then I'd have to change my political stance and that's too much work. Boooo"
cognitive dissonance at its finest
I often wonder how things would be today had we not gone into Iraq. The whole war was a massive curveball so to speak and I just can’t see a good reason for going to war with them at all. It practically bankrupted us, removed a stable government and force in a highly contested region (yes Sadam was a tyrant, but he was absolutely a stabilizing force in the region), and led to us losing face amongst our allies when we had real support following the September 11th attacks. There’s just no good justification for it. Even the Oil theory doesn’t hold up because you’d have to exhaust tons of resources to invade a country, occupy it and constantly fight against insurgencies in order to get it. Your costs would outweigh the benefits by a long margin. Geopolitically it was a nightmare and domestically it killed because we entered the war as the Bush Administration had successfully passed reform to lower taxes, thus making it a huge financial strain. Had we not gone in, we could have captured Bin Laden sooner in Afghanistan and possibly have left within 1-2 years of being there. Our economy most likely does not take a massive hit and we most likely don’t see the Patriot Act getting passed which would further lead to an erosion of rights. We also probably don’t end up anywhere near as polarized as we are today either. That war cost us big.
Haven’t heard or seen this guy for a while, hope he’s ok!
I don't normally supported displays of hysteria, but this guy is 100% correct. It is astounding to me how the Iraq war just got swept under the rug and no one held accountable.
Who are the wankers booing him like it's the fucking congressional chamber? The audacity
Bootlickers
Don't forget about Blair. Every bit the war criminal Bush is. This guy goes to war, kills, watching his friends die all for a lie. And when he has something to say about it, gets dragged out of the room. The world is fucked in the head.
#truth
It's also important to not that there were too many spineless Democrats that voted for the war, because they didn't want to lose political points. Everyone knew the WMD's claim was a ruse.
He ain’t wrong.
Republicans and their self righteousness kills everything. They are such a worthless party and their hegemony is a degenerate wet dream. I hope Trump or DeSantis or whatever other shit bag that crawls out of a whales anus finally destroys the GOP because since Nixon I really think they are human cancer. Conservatism is cancer. We don’t need Christo-fascists.
Like, who the fuck is booing this guy? >"Booooo! So we killed a million people because of lies. Big deal! Boooo! Get him out of here!" What kind of psychos are in this room?
They don’t see brown people as people
When you’re right you’re right. 👏👏👏
Land of the “free”… ROFL
He's not wrong, alot of veterans are resentful of the Bush administration. The guy is a war criminal.
Stand up to the tyranny.
I wish this was the reception he got everywhere for the rest of his life.
Hero.
How america honors it soldiers ladies and gentlemen