Where were you when we invaded Iraq?

[hedgehog]

I couldn't even tell you what time of year or what year without looking it up. I've had a busy few years - rough job, out of work, working nights forever, out of work again - so it all tends to blur. I do remember this:

- Watching the war get approved with no visible opposition. I remembered the fight over George Bush Senior's war and was appalled at the fact that George Junior got his war so easily.

- Wondering why no one was paying attention to the people asking what we were going to do with Iraq if we "won"

- Watching in horror as the US Army went in on a front 4 lanes wide and 300 miles long. I probably have the distances wrong, but the mad dash to Baghdad looked like a perfect set-up for getting troops cut off, surrounded and cut to pieces

- Watching the triumph when we took Baghdad, followed by where-in-the-world is Saddam? combined with labeling Iraqi patriots as insurgents.

-Watching as no WMD ever turned up, but horribly burned and mutilated people, both military and civilian, did.

[seemslikeadream]

1. Just as with the assassination of JFK I will always remember exactly

where I was and what I was doing. At my desk, posting at DU.

[bluerum]

2. Lest we forget,,,

The day the war started: Wikipedia entry for 2003 invasion of Iraq

Wikipedia Time line for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq

I was home, mourning the death of my wife and planning a road trip to see a childhood friend in Nebraska.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

3. We had the worst blizzard in CO that we'd seen in decades. The roof at DIA started ripping open,

the city was buried, with more roofs collapsing on buildings everywhere.

However, I was still upset that we preemptively attacked another county and I still remember my horrified disgust at the looting, especially the Museum of the Antiquities, whose curators had begged that they receive some protection were the troops to come into Baghdad.

[hedgehog]

4. I forgot about the looting. It didn't make sense to be told that we were in charge

when museums were being looted.

One thing I've never figured out is this: Given how fast we advanced, how much of the infrastructure did we blow up and why?

[lapfog_1]

5. watching the "shock and awe" on the TV

live... thinking about how many are "dead", and thinking how different it was from GWI... the Iraqis couldn't defend themselves at all. It was like watching the neighborhood bully beat up on the crippled guy in the wheel chair. I felt sick.

And all the while I was thinking "why are we doing this?" I figured that if there were any WMDs, they would be leftovers from the 1980s, and that Saddam would never admit that he DIDN'T have them, because that would not be "macho". And I remember thinking that this was going to be bad. That the Shia would take decades of persecution out on their Sunni neighbors...

And I knew also that the 9/11 attackers didn't come from Iraq. I kept thinking "why this place? why now?".

[hedgehog]

9. Do you remember the Highway of Death from the first Gulf War?

I thought that burning up retreating troops like that was a war crime. I say "burning" because I think we mostly used incendiary bombs on them.

I also seem to be the only one who ever noticed that we kept bombing Iraq back during the CLinton administration.

[lapfog_1]

13. War crime?

no, not a war crime... we made it abundantly clear to the Iraqi army that if they got out of their vehicles and surrendered, they would be taken prisoner.

Was it unfair? Yeah. I wouldn't be proud of my actions if I bombed a clearly beaten and retreating army.

And Clinton bombed non civilian targets, and only when Saddam did something to violate the terms of the cease fire that he was forced to sign... like turning on radar installations and targeting our planes. The sanctions were working, though we screwed up after encouraging revolt in regions like Basra, only to abandon them to Saddam's butchers later... it's no wonder the Medhi army hates us. And the toll on the children from lack of medical care was horrible. There simply was no good answer to how we left Iraq after GW1. The Arab and Iranian countries have some of the responsibility as well.

[LynnTheDem]

17. Most definitely a war crime. Among many such committed by the US & UK.

Thousands of Iraqi troops were buried alive in their trenches, with US troops bulldozing over top of them;

"Many Iraqi soldiers were killed by the simple expedient of burying them alive: in one report, American earthmovers and ploughs mounted on tanks were used to attack more than 70 miles of trenches. Colonel Anthony Moreno commented that for all he knew, 'we could have killed thousands'.

One US commander, Colonel Lon Maggart, estimated that his forces alone had buried about 650 Iraqi soldiers.

"What you saw was a bunch of buried trenches with peoples arms and things sticking out of them,' observed Moreno.

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=45

The US Pentagon defended this atrocity, saying there was a "gap" in international law that allowed for burying the troops alive.

http://jeff.paterson.net/aw/aw4_buried_alive.htm

Then there was the Basra massacre, aka The Highway of Death. On March 2, 1991, Iraq announced over public radio that it was withdrawing from Kuwait. The surrendering soldiers, as well as families of Iraq and other nations seeking to escape the US ariel bombings, went down the Basra road to Southern Iraq.

Above them, the U.S. bombed both ends of the highway, ensuring that there would be no escape from what was to follow. Along the seven-mile stretch, the U.S. then killed thousands. On some planes, the PA system bleated out Rossini’s William Tell Overture (the Lone Ranger theme).

The Highway of Death

“Even in Vietnam I didn’t see anything like this. It’s pathetic.“ — Major Bob Nugent, Army intelligence officer.

"It was like going down an American highway—people were all mixed up in cars in trucks. People got out of their cars and ran away. We shot them.... The Iraqis were getting massacred."
—Pfc. Charles Sheehan-Miles

"We've blown away a busload of kids."
—Unidentified platoon sergeant during March 2 assault.

http://www.cornerstonemag.com/pages/show_page.asp?7

"We're yelling on the radio, 'They're firing at the prisoners! They're firing at the prisoners!'
—Specialist 4 Edward Walker, describing February 27, 1991, incident during ground invasion of Iraq.
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27c/069.html

The UK Parliament commented on the Basra road massacre:

UK Parliament
House of Commons
column 1347

Hon. Members will know that I am not emotional about many subjects. But I suggest that, emotionally, we shall be haunted for a long time to come by what has happened in the last few weeks. We shall be haunted in particular by what occurred on the Basra road. That was done in the name of the American Congress and the British House of Commons.
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199091/cmhansrd/1991-03-

Warning: graphic photos

http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0212/pt04.html

War crimes.

[hedgehog]

18. The notion of airmen or tankers bombing and shelling people while

wearing headphones playing ANY kind of music sounds like a sick fantasy from someone's dystopia except for the fact that now it's real.

[lapfog_1]

26. I don't doubt that there were things like this happening

and where they happened, it's a war crime.

Much like when we captured Germans in WWII who were, after being captured and disarmed, shot by our troops. Every war has such stories.

But the question was about bombing the fleeing troops on the "Highway of Death". Those troops, especially the Republican Guard, that were fleeing the war zone and not surrendering, yes, they were bombed, and no it wasn't a war crime.

The incidences you mention qualify as war crimes... except the "we've blown up a buss load of kids" comment. Blowing up a buss load of armed soldiers in a war, no matter what their age, is not a war crime.

Doesn't make it right, but not a war crime.

Shooting prisoners and such IS a war crime.

[LynnTheDem]

15. The Basra Highway massacre was a heinous war crime committed by the US & UK.

Equally as sickening a war crime was the US burying lines of Iraqi troops alive.


Funny how most Americans don't know anything about these facts. Most also don't know that the vote for Poppa bUsh's war passed by 3 votes...all due to the absolutely sick lie of the "incubator babies".

Ya really wonder why they hate us, America??!

[lapfog_1]

28. Yes... the whole

"Iraqi soldiers are walking into Kuwaiti hospitals and using bayonets on babies" thing was a "war crime" in that it was clearly a false story used to whip up the frenzy to start the war.

Going back through history, it seems that every war has these lies told about the other side, lies intended to make people think that war is the only solution. "Gulf of Tonkin", "Remember the Maine", and so on. I have wondered why this particular incident "using a diplomats daughter to tell lies about baby killing Iraqis" never got more press or more outrage than it did. Most people don't even remember this story.

[EFerrari]

29. I do. One of my friends was in the signal corps and he still denies

that it ever happened. :(

[uppityperson]

22. my stomach and heart hurt, watching and listening to that.

imagining yahoos yelling "yahoo! we're sure getting them!" and even non-yahoos since I know some who did. Made me sick.

[malaise]

25. Same here

Hubby & I were screaming at the BBC man who was describing the bombs as beautiful and looking like fireworks. The memory sickens me to this day.

[FightingIrish]

6. My son was leaving for a three week student exchange in Italy

There had been a lot of debate about canceling the exchange because of the looming invasion. As we were leaving the house, the first television images of the air strikes were on the air. His flight was diverted over Scotland out into the Irish Sea to make way for the B-52s. The first day in Italy was total chaos. The school he was supposed to be visiting closed so the students could go into the streets in protest.

[provis99]

7. I remember the run up to the war

Sitting in my neighborhood bar, half drunk, loudly complaining to everyone in the bar that Bush was a liar, there were no WMD, and invading Iraq would lead us into a quagmire lasting years.

So how come a half-drunk, uninformed peon like me could get it right from the beginning, but all the political elites and politicians got it completely wrong?

[ThomWV]

8. Which time?

[stillcool]

10. I remember driving to New Hampshire...

on 1-95 when the first bombs hit Afghanistan. Shock & Awe was a home movie event that did not stay with me nearly as much as the radio announcement of bombs falling on Afghanistan. I believe "Shock & Awe" the movie,
served it's purpose of dulling the senses to the havoc being created. Fallujah, as well, is much more memorable.

[Bennyboy]

11. I was in a favorite brew pub...and some guy

came in with two young kids and asked that the TV's be changed to coverage of the war. We were watching baseball. The man was very insistent and one of the TV's was changed. He pointed the kids at the TV and he beamed proudly as if his team had a fifteen point lead. He was awed and his kids were alpping it up.

Then I saw Bush again announce the start of the war, drank up, yelled "fucking murderer" and left.

It made me fucking sick the way this guy was so detached from the whole thing. Now those kids are getting close to draft age and I wonder if he still thinks the same way.

[LWolf]

12. I was standing on a street corner with a sign

that said "No blood for oil," dodging missiles thrown from passing cars and trucks, and smiling and waving at guys screaming "We need war!" as they drove by. There were also plenty of people who ducked their heads at the red light, then flashed a quick peace sign as they quickly drove away.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. i was in india. my uncle had just died and i had gone for his funeral.

[sueh]

16. at a Liturgy Commitee meeting at my church.

We were planning the Easter season but "shock and awe" was the main topic.

[unc70]

19. Anxiously watching for news of family member in the Army

We did not know for a while where he was. He made it to Baghdad safely and eventually safely completed his tour.

[hedgehog]

20. My niece was serving out her ROTC obligation and followed the troops into

Bagdhad. If she'd been hurt, I hate to think of what would have happened to my sister.


On edit - neither she nor my sister will answer the phone unless the recognize the caller's number. You never know when the Army will find a clause allowing them to call her back in! And this is an Army family!

[uppityperson]

21. Getting ready to go to a dance class. Saw on tv and had to leave

Listened on radio as I drove in. Walked in the class in shock, crying, everyone wanted to know what happened so I told them. Class sucked that night.

I remember well. Having to leave the class to rage out in the lobby. Raging the next day at work. Still raging.

[killbotfactory]

23. In my living room

holding my head in shame.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

24. I don't remember. 17 years is a long time.

Desert storm in 1991. Marines landing in occupied Kuwait. VII Corps making the "left hook", only slowed by masses of Iraqi troops surrendering. The road of death.

And we've been there ever since. We're well on the way to McCain's "Hundred Years War"

[greenbriar]

27. driving. I immediately went to the nearest gas station and filled up

I predicted record highs...I just didn't' think it would take so long