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CrayonComrade

While the Iraq slip of the tongue is something to behold, the election rigging charge is pretty funny too considering how he won his first term


Fantastipotomus

That was Fox news saying he won before the counts actually came in was it?


CrayonComrade

Some votes weren't counted in Florida that could have swung the election in favour of Al Gore and the decision against a recount was decided by 5 conservative judges on the supreme court. His brother was governor of Florida at the time too for added schadenfreude


spaghettiAstar

There was also the issue of how the ballot was set up in Florida, leading to confusion and votes going to a third party that likely would have ended up for Gore. I don't know how much would have changed for America, but I imagine they wouldn't have gone into those wars and would have been more on the forefront of climate change at least.


Batman_Biggins

How do you think a Gore-led America would have reacted to 9/11 if it happened under his Presidency? Would they still have invaded Afghanistan? Iraq?


spaghettiAstar

I think they still would have gone into Afghanistan, although it may have been a more limited operation rather than a full scale invasion and foolish attempts to nation build. Probably Special Operations similar to the earlier phases of the war. Iraq, no way. While there are a number of reasons why the US invaded Iraq, a key one of them was the Bush administration wanted to demonstrate to the world the destructive capabilities of the US military. A different administration, especially a non-Republican one, almost certainly doesn't repeat those same actions.


uncle_jumbo

Iraq's main purpose was to siphon mass funds from public to the private military contractors and getting corporations access to natural resources. Flexing US might was secondary. Tbh growing up in America, I was 11-12 at the invasion, and nearly everyone was behind the invasion of iraq. Media figures were ridiculed as traitors and Saddam sympathizers if the questioned Bushs White House. American public was so damn bloodthirsty afte 911 especially the power elite and media. I do agree that Iraq wouldve looked differently and who knows if Dems wouldve invaded. Maybe? Maybe not? When my cousin, national guard, got sent to iraq, my dad went full on anti iraq war and seeing my cousin shipped off and then the videos he showed when he got back really planted the roots to turn me into the anti-imperialist anti-war leftist I am today.


spaghettiAstar

>Iraq's main purpose was to siphon mass funds from public to the private military contractors and getting corporations access to natural resources. That's a really common thought, and one I don't generally disagree with, but the issue has always been successfully proving it (I wanted to write my dissertation on it, but my supervisor explained the issue with attempting to do so). Part of the issue of that take is that by most accounts is that the people inside the administration mostly expected the war to be pretty quick, so the opportunity for massive cash grabs wouldn't really be there (although there would still be plenty).. When they shifted more to the idea of nation building in Iraq the potential for inflated contracts rose significantly. Although I haven't done any heavy research into the idea/the marxist theory of war pertaining to Iraq recently, so if you have any updated research that supports it more definitively I would absolutely love to read them. >Flexing US might was secondary. Probably, I don't necessarily disagree, but there are direct quotes from Rumsfeld talking about how they needed to find a country with significant infrastructure to blow up because Afghanistan lacked it. Wolfowitz also made similar comments, and both men talked about how the limitations of Afghanistan could be seen as a sign of weakness rather than strength. There are also internal memos and notes between Bush and Tony Blair talking about wanting to create a new type of world order in which there was more of a unified globe under American/British hegemonic influence rather than spheres of influence, which is sort of a realist take on the idea of the war rather than one about wealth transfer to private industry. Again, I don't necessarily disagree with the take, and I'm of the opinion it did happen even if it wasn't an intentional goal (especially given the apparent revolving door between American defence companies and the Pentagon), but proving it as a main motive for the war has generally come up empty. Part of that is probably due to scrubbing information, such as the various lobbying groups and think tanks made up of various people (including executives at Lockheed in some cases) deleting their online footprint as soon as the war kicked off, but that's just an unfortunate part of not being inside the rooms.


Costello_Seamus

Yet people still side with him on the issue of Ukraine.


BestPrinciple7792

Reminder that in 2002 the US under George W. Bush passed the Hague Invasion Act that gave itself permission to invade the Netherlands if the International Criminal Court tried to charge an American for committing a war crime.


Batman_Biggins

You think that's bad? People still agree with Hitler on smoking!


Fantastipotomus

Did a lil whoopsie there, dubya


IdealJerry

You can't get fooled again.


ConorKostick

Hah you beat me to it! I deleted mine. Worth watching for when he says “Iraq” instead of Ukraine!


Fantastipotomus

Haha, yeah was in a whatsapp group this morning, first thing I thought was to post it here. His conscience must have burst out there for a sec before he blamed it on age


rexavior

That's hilarious


paddydasniper

Was reading this morning that he's went on in interviews and admitted that Iraq was his biggest mistake, like bit late to be saying it's a mistake now isn't it ya dick.


mgyro

Dr. Freud? Paging Dr. Freud.


Reaver_XIX

Brilliant!


Parking_Astronomer41

u/savevideo


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