this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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[–] downpunxx@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

That's nothing, wait til you hear what we did to Iraq

[–] DominicO@ttrpg.network 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

what if... the US invasion of Iraq and Saudi censorship of the press can both be bad?

[–] downpunxx@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They are, after 600 thousand dead Iraqis to distract away from Saudi 911 terrorists, one is so much worse its on another plane of existence

[–] Skyler@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

"We can't talk about a bad thing if there's a worse thing."

[–] Skyler@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"It's good that Saudi Arabia is causing our media to censor itself because we invaded Iraq."

If that's not the point you're conveying, then whatever point it is that you're feebly TRYING to convey is falling flat on its face.

[–] Ubermeisters@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Whataboutism? That's so reddit

[–] cooljacob204@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Every thread has an what about Iraq poster now. Even pretty unrelated ones like this.

Fucking bots. Tired of these assholes using it at an excuse for continued injustices.

[–] Jack@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This whataboutism may not be saying that what the Saudis are doing is excusable, but instead pointing out the hypocrisy and saying that if you're going to complain about the psychotic Saudi regime, you have to admit that the voters who elected Bush and then re-elected him after his invasion of Iraq, are vastly worse than the Saudis. It's important to know if we are the baddies, especially if we are vastly worse and propping up the Saudis.

I think it's important to criticize and boycott the psychotic Saudi regime, but also to keep in perspective that there are worse people out there: people who are orders-of-magnitude worse.

Iraqi deaths in the Iraq war in the 8 years from 2003 to 2011 = approximately 461 000 (PLOS Medicine 2013) to 655 000 (Lancet 2006 (PDF)).

That's currently even worse than the psychotic Russian invasion of Ukraine:

I'm not sure about the Saudi/Kuwait/UAE/Egypt/Morocco/Jordan/Sudan/Senegal/Bahrain/Blackwater (supported by US/UK/France) coalition's actions in the war in Yemen since 2015.

Edit: I'm also not sure how many the Saudis have killed in the Iran-Saudi proxy wars, so maybe the Saudis do actually have more direct blood on their hands than the western powers in the last 50 years or so.

[–] argv_minus_one 6 points 1 year ago

We did hear. Constantly. That's why public opinion on that war is so sour.