> Because your average farmer is obviously going to join up with a militia or terrorist group because of some abstract political thing like sanctions which he p

> Because your average farmer is obviously going to join up with a militia or terrorist group because of some abstract political thing like sanctions which he probably has trouble even measuring in his day to life. Sanctions starve people to death, literally. There is a blockade on food, medicine and your entire life savings turn to nothing. Your life becomes rations. It has such a significant effect that this even turned the non-religious Arab nationalist socialist Ba'ath party into an extremist Islamist brigade in under a decade[0]. These sanctions are even one the major stated reason of the 9/11 attacks by Al Qaeda[1] - not that Saudis flying planes into the world trade center somehow represents the suffering of Iraqis. I'm not even sure why this would be contested, I don't think you understand what sanctions are or what kind of almost-genocidal effects they have[2] but with your comment I'm suddenly understanding the reasoning of the people downvoting me and upvoting others. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_campaign [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motives_for_the_September_11_attacks#Sanctions_imposed_against_Iraq https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motives_for_the_September_11_a... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctions_against_Iraq#Effects_on_the_Iraqi_people_during_sanctions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctions_against_Iraq#Effects...