I am aware that a few years before the invasion, Iraq started selling oil in Euros instead of dollars, and I understand that the preservation of the petrodollar was a reason for the destruction of Libya. Also, there must have been a reason to go to war with Iraq the first time in 1990 and to then wage economic warfare against Iraq.
I’ve heard some stuff about the war being really against Iran, but that doesn’t really make much sense because Iraq under Saddam Hussein was a counterweight against Iran in the region (and in fact the imperialists sponsored an Iraqi invasion of Iran during the 1980s).
Of course, the WMD lie and attempts to link the Iraqi government of the time to al-Qaeda (which seems to just be an imperialist asset anyway) and 9/11 was just a way to find an excuse for the invasion.
The weapons manufacturers, private military corporations, and many other corporations profited greatly from the war, but there must have been a reason that Iraq specifically was targeted.
Just in general I was always confused that Iraq was a US enemy in the early 90s and then they were an enemy again in 2003. I wanted to listen to Blowback podcast but their timeline was a bit confusing
Quoting a WW2 phrase “Anyone who isnt confused doesnt really understand the situation”
Saddam’s Iraq was a friendly regime while it battled Iran, because Iran had a revolution that made USA lose their control over it.
During the war, Iraq started to become arrogant due to being showered in NATO + USSR arms, and they had a dispute with Kuwait who was effectively stealing oil from Iraq (it filtered along the border) because Iraq couldnt extract it at the time. They asked USA if they supported Kuwait doing this or Iraq could pressure/take actions to stop it, and USA gave a neutral answer, which Iraq interpreted as “ok, they allow military force” but US apparently meant as “kids, dont fight, solve this diplomatically”.
Iraq invaded with their army (experienced from iran-iraq war, but they tied in that war, so not that good), USA+NATO+Arab countries responded by wrecking Iraqi armed forces (not infrastructure, in general!), and stopping after the road of death happened.
In the 1991-2003 period, Iraq recovered from the war with Iran and developed a lot. They created a cult of personality around Saddam and islam, expanding religiousness to compete with Saudi Arabia as leaders of the sunni world of islam. They also expanded anti-american sentiment, and due to their mutual oposition of Saudis, Israel and USA, they reached a kind of understanding with Iran on who “the true enemies” were, removing differences between shia and sunni world.
This competition against the west and its puppets, their resource wealth, and their expanding influence of the region, led to support for interventionism in US elites, who used the excuse of removing dictatorships and fighting muslim countries to expand the attack on afghanistan to iraq as well.