After the invasion of Iraq happened?

Question

Why didn't the military disarm the Iraqi people? I do believe they did this when we invaded Japan.

Answer 1

Because we didn't need to.

In case you haven't noticed, the violence in Iraq is not very widespread. I know, I know, it's not "fashionable" to believe Iraq is on the road to peace and stability, but I trust numbers, not the media.

When I see that the total number of dead since the invasion is equivelant to only two or three American cities, I laugh at the idiots who think it's going bad there. What exactly are they thinking?

If the murder rate in Detroit or LA is the same or higher than the murder rate in Baghdad, will liberals begin demanding that we withdraw from those cities, as well?

Why are liberals a bunch of losers on purpose?

Answer 2

In response to your question and to some of the previous posts:

1. Most Iraqi civilians were not armed at the start of the war.

2. Iran is not smuggling all these weapons into Iraq. Such assertions are baseless. Further, even if they were, they would not be doing anything that the US had not done countless times in the past. See http://www.killinghope.org .

3. The weapons are largely derived from the caches of weapons and armaments held by the Iraqi government. When the US violated international law and invaded Iraq, the soldiers were given express orders to secure the oil infrastructure of the country, not to guard the weapons depots. Therefore, the caches were looted completely.

4. Iraq is substantially larger than Japan. Compare:

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/iz.html#Geo

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ja.html#Geo

AFAIK, the US does not have as many soldiers committed to Iraq as they did to the Pacific theatre of the Second World War. Recall that the Second World War and Vietnam saw the US drafting civilians -- both citizens and foreign nationals on US soil -- to fight their battles. The US has far fewer soldiers at its disposal for the occupation of Iraq.

An illustration of the comparative smaller amount of personnel on the ground is the Green Zone, around Baghdad airport. It is around 2 miles square, and the US representatives and the colonial government of Iraq are both contained within that zone. They are able to affect little control over the rest of the country.

5. Japan did not have a popular resistance movement. Japan surrendered. Truman ignored their several requests for terms of surrender through the entire summer before he dropped the bomb just so he could show it off to Stalin -- an effort at tipping the balance of power.

Iraq did not surrender. Therefore, there remains a popular resistance movement. The corporate media likes to call them insurgents, but this is not logical. Insurgents are those who fight a legitimately established government. The so-called Iraqi government was cobbled together by the US for US interests. There was never a time where it was universally accepted and not contested. It is, essentially, a colonial government. Apparently, the people of Iraq see it this way as well.

Anticipating those who would call fighters in Iraq parts of Al-Qaeda, I have a couple questions. If one does not inject one's own expectations and biases into the scene but relies wholly on empirical evidence in a single room, how does one tell the difference between the corpses of a Baghdad taxi driver, an unemployed web designer, a restaurenteur, and a resistance fighter who happens not to wear his uniform or gear? In a firefight, how does one tell the difference between someone defending his home from American invaders and an alleged Al-Qaeda militant who holds a broader war in mind?

Hope this helps. If you are interested in more information on militarism as part of Americana, see "Why We Fight", a BBC documentary on the subject: http://www.archive.org/details/Why-We-Fight .

Answer 3

It wouldn't make any difference, Iran is constantly feeding the country guns, IED's and other weapons. Also, one of the later assessments of mistakes was disbanding the Iraqi army rather than retraining and redirecting from the begining. It left a vacuum and void that we are still trying to fill in the security realm in Iraq today.

Answer 4

They had caches of weapons all over the place as they, not unlike Americans, believe in Being Armed for defence purposes

Answer 5

I thought you Americans were all for every man, woman and child being armed to the teeth.

Seems like you consider it a divine right.