During the Iraq war I let people gaslight me into thinking I didn't know enough about "foreign policy" and "global politics" to say the war was a bad idea.
I would hesitate because, I'm not an expert on those things.
But I was right then and I'm right now.
You don't need to be an expert, it's not "so complex and best left to high level people." You know enough to see this makes no sense.
@futurebird I recall telling people that bombing terrorists just makes more terrorists out of all of their families and compatriots. I also feel quite vindicated on that, seeing how things went.
@futurebird ... particularly since all the "high-level people" are dumb as a doorknob. 😑
Germany standing up to the USA in this was probably one of our proudest moments in modern history.
@futurebird What turned *me* against the Iraq war was that I'd read Shirer's history of the Third Reich at an early age, and the Bush admin press releases were following Goebbel's propaganda playbook beat by beat. If it looks identical to manufactured justification for an illegal war, then that's probably what it is …
(Every time Powell stood up to show "evidence" of Iraqi chemical weapons and was challenged, he changed the subject. No corroboration, just more and wilder acusations.)
The big tell for us was that the war urgently needed to happen but Bush couldn't show us proof *why* because it was too classified. Dude you're the president, if you can't declassify then it doesn't exist.
@Phosphenes @futurebird Yup! They periodically tried to claim revealing the truth would endanger sources (spies), but if all they wanted was evidence to justify a war, why not simply extract your agents? They've already given you what you wanted!
Conclusion: there were no spies, there was no evidence.
Mitigating factor: we now know Saddam was bluffing about having WMDs—at Iran! Who he'd just fought an 8 year long bloodbath with: he wanted to deter them from coming back for more.
So what's next? My bingo card:
* US billionaires privatize all remaining Venezuelan public assets and services. (See Bolivian water war against Bechtel.)
* Crypto becomes official Venezuelan currency.
* Price of gas goes up as Trump gouges his majority control of world oil.
* Underage sex tourism.
* Venezuelan Trump resorts.
* After brief joy of losing Maduro, Venezuelans start disappearing under a Pinochet-style blood and markets dictatorship.
@futurebird @eco_amandine “it’s too complex/it’s been going on for a thousand years/these experts say” is always a smokescreen argument.
This argument would hold a lot more weight if it were backed by even a small amount of evidence that people in government understand the second-order consequences of any of their actions. Without that, I would assume most people with a basic level of critical thinking ability are probably going to make better decisions.
You seem to be replying to something largely unrelated to anything I said.
