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I get your point but I honestly think the people planning the second Iraq war really didn't care about casualties, or perhaps we're just badly deceiving themsel

I get your point but I honestly think the people planning the second Iraq war really didn't care about casualties, or perhaps we're just badly deceiving themselves. "We will be greeted with flowers" they said. "the war will pay for itself" they said. Specifically I think Cheney was willing to spill as much blood as needed. Some of his supporters in the media probably we're just in denial about the full costs of over throwing a country as large and fractious as Iraq. What this implies for future wars I'm not sure.

maxxxxx 8y ago
They may not have cared about losing lives when they invaded but the American public quickly got sceptical about the war once they realized that their soldiers were getting killed. I think this definitely put some restraint on further military action.
pluma 8y ago
They cared enough to pressure news reports into not airing any footage of dead American soldiers though. Modern politics are always about optics. Caskets with American flags draped over them are bad optics, especially when there's lots of them all the time.
UncleEntity 8y ago
> "We will be greeted with flowers" That and American flags -- which, at the time, I wondered where they managed to get a bunch of flags? Yeah, yeah, I know people don't like to hear that the Iraqi people were actually glad we were there in the early days of the war and greeted us as "liberators"...
- mythrwy 8y ago
  Just curious if you saw that in the media. If so maybe that answers the first part, where they got the flags, and also makes the second part worth little to nothing.
  - UncleEntity 8y ago
    Nope, saw it firsthand on convoys running around the countryside and also while buying cigarettes and whiskey from the good people of Iraq. Didn't see the media other than occasionally seeing them driving around in their landcrusers.
EGreg 8y ago
Cheney himself was not: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YENbElb5-xY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YENbElb5-xY

maxxxxx 8y ago

They may not have cared about losing lives when they invaded but the American public quickly got sceptical about the war once they realized that their soldiers were getting killed. I think this definitely put some restraint on further military action.

pluma 8y ago

They cared enough to pressure news reports into not airing any footage of dead American soldiers though. Modern politics are always about optics. Caskets with American flags draped over them are bad optics, especially when there's lots of them all the time.

UncleEntity 8y ago

> "We will be greeted with flowers" That and American flags -- which, at the time, I wondered where they managed to get a bunch of flags? Yeah, yeah, I know people don't like to hear that the Iraqi people were actually glad we were there in the early days of the war and greeted us as "liberators"...

mythrwy 8y ago
Just curious if you saw that in the media. If so maybe that answers the first part, where they got the flags, and also makes the second part worth little to nothing.
- UncleEntity 8y ago
  Nope, saw it firsthand on convoys running around the countryside and also while buying cigarettes and whiskey from the good people of Iraq. Didn't see the media other than occasionally seeing them driving around in their landcrusers.

EGreg 8y ago

Cheney himself was not: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YENbElb5-xY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YENbElb5-xY