I watched the 5-part BBC documentary series "Once Upon a Time in Iraq," told from the perspective of journalists, civilians, and soldiers," (read: US friendly). It got me thinking about who gets to be humanized, given the privilege of complexity, and critiqued on their terms.
US soldiers and commanders get to reflect on the war, but we are reminded of the chaos at the time. One of the most violent commanders, and if the US was ever tried for war crimes, he would be imprisoned; he now spends his days teaching leadership training in the US.
A soldier with severe PTSD recalls how they didn't think that some Iraqis couldn't read, so the signs they put up to stop cars at checkpoints in Arabic couldn't be read all who disobeyed were automatically killed - families were murdered by them. But hey, that's war.
One of the women who shielded soldiers from being killed in this awful massacre by ISIL is the most excited about getting a prize from the US, she loves Melania Trump, and blows kisses to her photo.
Briefly it's mentioned how many Iraqis legitimately liked Saddam, but mainly they focus on one Iraqi who is a nutcase who lives in Saddam's portraits and worships him - Complete caricature. In contrast to US soldiers who killed are complex, thoughtful, and self-critical.
War photographer who has witnessed the deaths of countless Iraqis is haunted the most by a US soldier who died while escorting him to snap a photo of a dead insurgent in a mosque tower to have photo evidence to absolve the US from war crime allegations about targeting mosques
The main journalist and war photographer slept, ate, moved, joked, and were protected by US troops. These are the journalists that shape our understanding of the war.
Then the US creates the conditions for insurgency by purging those associated with the Baath Party (which was apparently everyone) and dissolving the military. Unemployed, able-bodied men are on the streets.
This US commander, who knows nothing about Iraq and is all smiles and sweetness as long as you're worshipping him, turns psychotic and barbwires an entire town because Iraqis killed one of his men, jails everyone, and breaks down the doors every night for families.
You get the sense these US soldiers think of Iraq as the "Walking Dead," the Iraqis are zombies out to get them, and so they have to defend themselves against these faceless, nameless zombies. They are the protagonists in this story, and they must survive.
The same war criminal US commander has tears in his eyes when he talks about democracy. First-time Iraqis get to vote, he says. Except for "democracy" in that context meant the majority sect took control and then used that power for retribution against the former minority sect.
Not a surprise, the minority sect, Sunnis, welcomed Al Qaeda and killed the Shias. And so on. The strands of political fascism kept growing harsher. At different checkpoints, Shia checkpoints you get killed for being Sunni and vice versa, people carried 2 IDs to survive.
Iraqi identityโthe secular one that Saddam had created is dissolved instantly and reified by political groups, and people fall along ethnic/religious lines. Reminded me of the post-Soviet world.
Right after the US invasion, when the entire country gets looted, the infrastructure is gone. Cities are filled with trash, no water, no electricity. Nothing is fixed. People just live in a state that no longer exists - the functions of it.
The country, which was more or less developed, was wiped out. Middle-class and other professionals take up arms against each other. How quickly the situation devolves from office workers to insurgents and enemies based on religious affiliation reminded me of the post-Soviet world
An Iraqi interpreter speaks about looting. There are scenes showing looting and a brief mention that after years of "sanctions," there would be pent-up frustrations. The US soldiers let the entire country get looted and stripped, not surprisingly, they only protected the oil.
There is one woman who hates America forever. She was a child who had a bullet or shrapnel go through her face. The level of violence that the US invasion unleashed on the population is astounding. Everyone else has concluded that Americans are people tooโsome bad, some good.
The capture of Saddam was narrated by an Iraqi who hates Saddam and gets in as much beatings of him as he can until he is stopped. Has George Bush pics up. He is for executing Saddam.
CIA guy is also narrating, and he is more rational. He realizes this "trial" is a sham. Saddam is executed, but he feels uneasy about the process; that's revenge dressed up as court. A US soldier is amazed by Saddam, "Man, this man is soo smart, he beat me in chess every time."
The same CIA guy realizes that Saddam was not helping international terrorism as he was charged but was actually "holding a lid" on it in Iraq since there are tons of violent factions. The US invasion took the lid off.
Killing Saddam was supposed to bring more peace according to the logic because they wouldn't be trying to fight back Shias to regain control and put back Saddam but apparently killing Saddam only made things worse, he gets martyred, and violence gets worse.
So places in Iraq that were secular and developed a few years back, now have hand-cutting, execution, and stonings every day. (Imagine your town being controlled by religious extremists suddenly and enacting medieval laws like hanging witches and so on).
In the beginning, the situation is set, showing how horrible Saddam was, and how many people he killed. The ruthless suppression by Saddam of the 1991 uprising, which the US instigated and then abandoned the rebels (not mentioned how the US also allowed gov't use of helicopters)
Most of the Iraqis in the documentary are either victims of Saddam or hate Saddam, and they state that they were happy with the invasion of the US, thinking, they would get rid of Saddam and become a wonderful country overnight, not anticipating what an invasion would bring.
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