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I was surprised by the "million Arabs" figure. For others that were also curious about it, this seems like a reasonable spot to start searching for data https:/

I was surprised by the "million Arabs" figure. For others that were also curious about it, this seems like a reasonable spot to start searching for data https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War It seems to me rather unreasonable to ascribe all of that to the US. On the other hand, there are probably plenty of westerners (me included) that think American leadership should be treated as war criminals for starting that war, at the very least for the false information on which the invasion was justified (whether because of malice or incompetence on their part). Even then, even if the western sactions are self-serving, that does not make this war any less wrong, and Ukraine's desire for existence and self-determination any less valid.

marvin 5y ago
Well said. I don't think GP deserves to have their comment killed; there is a certain amount of hypocrisy when comparing today's response with that of the Iraq war. It was not justified, has killed a huge number of people both directly and indirectly and was waged with impunity. We are right to point this out, and the comparison holds to a certain degree although it is far from perfectly analogous. But two wrongs don't make a right, and I'm sure plenty of us would have wished there existed an external power that could have made the Bush administration reconsider how they perpetrated the whole thing. On a deeper level, the current situation is a conflict of principles; rule of law versus authoritarianism. The former system works better, and enthusiastic debate and denouncement of mistakes democratic governments have made is certainly a part of that.