#iraq

[T]hose who are in a position of strength have a responsibility to protect the weak. ↗

— Thomas Cushman

#intervention #iraq #iraq-war #liberalism #iraq

For the senior officers in Iraq, at least in 2005-2006, the responsibility was to the men at the top, the media, the message, the public back home - anything and everything, it seemed, but the soldiers under their command. And that's the ultimate betrayal of Iraq, the one that disillusioned me in Baghdad and Nineveh and keeps me outraged today. ↗

— Luis Carlos Montalván

#betrayal #iraq #military #outrage #home

Ramadi’s sky was generously filled with stars. Celestial ornaments set against a banner of a deep blue velvet sky. It was a place where hell, death, and heaven were so clear and the closest I’ve felt to all three in my life. ↗

— M.B. Wilmot

#heaven #hell #iraq #iraq-war #ramadi

In a place of extreme violence and devoid of order, the practical subsumes the principle. I drifted down the path of bribery and corruption endemic to the streets of Baghdad ↗

— Jason Whiteley

#iraq-war #jason-whiteley #money

We would send them all to hell! And hell they would go! ↗

— Thomas Ferreolus

#drama #iraq-war #middle-east-conflicts #war #iraq

The Iraqi sun quickly heated the air to an unbearable one hundred twenty three degree’s, causing an unquenchable thirst to boil up in him. Thomas then dropped his rifle under his right arm, where it hung beneath his pit by a strap called a fast sling, there the weapon dangled under his sweat soaked uniform. ↗

— Thomas Ferreolus

#drama #iraq-war #middle-east-conflict #war #iraq

War is politics for everyone but the warrior. ↗

— Tiffany Madison

#iraq-war #political-commentary #politics #war #war-on-terror

Sometimes, a war saves people. ↗

— José Ramos-Horta

#humanitarianism #pacifism #war #iraq

Fallujah was a Guernica with no Picasso. A city of 300,000 was deprived of water, electricity, and food, emptied of most of its inhabitants who ended up parked in camps. Then came the methodical bombing and recapture of the city block by block. When soldiers occupied the hospital, The New York Times managed to justify this act on grounds that the hospital served as an enemy propaganda center by exaggerating the number of casualties. And by the way, just how many casualties were there? Nobody knows, there is no body count for Iraqis. When estimates are published, even by reputable scientific reviews, they are denounced as exaggerated. Finally, the inhabitants were allowed to return to their devastated city, by way of military checkpoints, and start to sift through the rubble, under the watchful eye of soldiers and biometric controls. ↗

— Jean Bricmont

#foreign-policy #france #human-rights #iraq #kosovo-war

I have to be accurate; I don't have to be impartial ↗

— John Burns

#balkans #current-events #iraq #journalism #iraq