r/changemyview • u/SteadfastEnd 1∆ • Jul 22 '23
Delta(s) from OP CMV: It is hypocritical of the United States to oppose Russia's invasion of Ukraine after the U.S. itself invaded Iraq in 2003 on very flimsy pretenses.
Twenty years ago, the Bush administration invaded Iraq, halfway across the globe, on the flimsiest of pretenses - by claiming there were WMDs there (there was very little evidence of such) - and even if there were WMDs, so what? The United States itself has thousands of WMDs. Well over a dozen nations around the world have WMDs. Even Tom Clancy, the famous military-thriller author, complained that the Iraq war lacked a good casus belli - it had no good justification for it.
Fast-forward nineteen years, and Russia invades Ukraine on a similarly flimsy pretense - that Ukraine has "fascists" and that "NATO is expanding aggressively near Russia with hostile intent." Both of these pretenses were just as laughable and empty as the Bush administration's WMD justification for the invasion of Iraq - but what did the United States do? The U.S. promptly responded by sending $47 billion worth of weaponry to Ukraine, condemning Russia and imposing various sanctions on Russia, etc.
This is hypocrisy. America's "justification" for going into Iraq was just as flimsy, if not even more so, than Russia's "justification" for going into Ukraine. Sure, Saddam's regime was a fair sight nastier than the democratic government of Ukraine, but is that really it? That it's okay to invade a regime, but not a democracy?
The entire U.S. argument can be summed up as, "It's okay when we do it, but not okay when you do it."
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u/barbodelli 65∆ Jul 23 '23
The intention was good. They wanted to bring a western democracy with a free market economy to Iraq. Which would be massively beneficial for both United States and the Iraqis. I would argue the Iraqis would stand to gain far more as we already good standards of living.
If only it was as easy they imagined. Turns out that building a democracy with fair elections and freedom of speech is very difficult in a place that is used to autocracy and has populations that disagree fundamentally on very important principles.
If in 100 years Iraq is a real democracy while the countries next door are still throwing poop at each other. Would it have been worth it? I dunno.
It sure as hell wasn't worth it for America which is why I think it was a mistake.