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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   18147 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026

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Philip Zekilow, someone who would know more than anyone about the true motivations for the war, admitted it was just for Israel:

https://archive.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/justify/2004/0329israel.htm

Third. The unstated threat. And here I criticise the [Bush] administration a little, because the argument that they make over and over again is that this is about a threat to the United States. And then everybody says: ‘Show me an imminent threat from Iraq to America. Show me, why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us?’ So I’ll tell you what I think the real threat is, and actually has been since 1990. It’s the threat against Israel. And this is the threat that dare not speak its name, because the Europeans don’t care deeply about that threat, I will tell you frankly. And the American government doesn’t want to lean too hard on it rhetorically, because it’s not a popular sell.

We are replaying many of the soundbytes used for Iraq: https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.html

  • seeking nuclear weapons

  • supports terrorism

  • practices terror against its own people

  • “possesses ballistic missiles”

Why is this narrative making the rounds? Yes, okay, Netanyahu and a few of his allies wrote articles supporting an Iraqi invasion, and Israel shared some intel with us, but there's also a pretty large body of evidence suggesting that a lot of Israelis (especially government officials as opposed to pure politicians) felt like it was a distraction from the 'true threat' of Iran, the Axis of Evil member they cared a lot more about. No one seriously believed that toppling Iraq would weaken Iran, after all. And as history proved this notion was indeed idiotic; Iran profited greatly from Saddam's downfall and Israel pretty directly suffered as well as Iran-sympathetic militias and religious groups gained greater control. On the whole there's really no good argument that Israel puppeteered us into Iraq.

Afghanistan? Sure, Israel supported it (happily). So did almost everyone though (at least in general). Other countries and their populations disagreed about how militaristic the response should be (and how quickly the US should have reached for that option), and certainly weren't as gleeful, but the notion that Israel effectually egged us on is extremely skimpy on evidence. In Afghanistan we had invoked Article 5 with NATO, had UN backing, had an obvious grievance, etc. and it's absurd to suggest Israel possibly could have meaningfully moved the needle there.

It’s the threat against Israel

I think this is a factor, but certainly not the only factor or even the biggest factor. Western nations have been getting involved in the sandbox for centuries before Israel came into existence. It's a place with oil resources and a travel route for a preposterous amount of commerce and a geography that lends itself to sectarian conflict. If israel was established in brazil or wherever else they were considering I think we'd still be seeing conflict in that region and I expect the US as hegemon would be involved.

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