Photos: The Iraq War, 10 years on - Polidicks

[B]Photos are in the link[/B] Wasn't sure if this should go here since there's not really an article or the GD. If a mod judges it should go to the GD, please move? [url]http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/15/world/gallery/iraq-war/index.html?hpt=hp_t3[/url] Some captions of the photos: [quote]U.S. Marines in northern Kuwait gear up after receiving orders to cross the Iraqi border on March 20, 2003. It has been 10 years since the American-led invasion of Iraq that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. Look back at moments from the war and the legacy it left behind.[/quote] [quote]Smoke and flames rise from the riverside presidential palace compound in Baghdad after a massive airstrike on March 21, 2003.[/quote] [quote]A technician works on a prosthetic at a factory in Baghdad on December 13, 2011. Iraqis have faced a shortage of prosthetics due to a spike in war-related injuries over the years.[/quote] [quote]An Iraqi woman votes in parliamentary elections in Kirkuk on March 7, 2010.[/quote] [quote]A U.S. soldier prepares to fly out of the Sather Air Base in Baghdad on December 15, 2011. The last U.S. forces left Iraq and entered Kuwait on December 18, nearly nine years after launching a divisive war to oust Saddam Hussein.[/quote]

I was hoping it would be a before and after of major landmarks and settlements in Iraq, as opposed to a bunch of war photos throughout the years.

Shits cray

It feels like the war has been going on forever. Also: [img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19779215/Photos/Funny/dfadawfqa.jpg[/img] That's rather odd...

[QUOTE=Marbalo;39938367] what an atrocious clusterfucked waste of human lives, money, property and history [B]every[/B] war has been.[/QUOTE] Fixed that

[QUOTE=Amez;39938314]It feels like the war has been going on forever. Also: [img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19779215/Photos/Funny/dfadawfqa.jpg[/img] That's rather odd...[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/qXufI4g.jpg[/IMG]

It was kinda harrowing to see that mother given that American flag for her son. That could've happened to my family if my bro kicked the bucket. Makes me extra thankful.

[QUOTE=Amez;39938314]It feels like the war has been going on forever. Also: [img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19779215/Photos/Funny/dfadawfqa.jpg[/img] That's rather odd...[/QUOTE] Isn't noclip a direct violation of international law?

[QUOTE=Amez;39938314]It feels like the war has been going on forever. Also: [img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19779215/Photos/Funny/dfadawfqa.jpg[/img] That's rather odd...[/QUOTE] I can't tell what the hell he's doing, is he trying to curb stomp that cards table?

[QUOTE=Ericson666;39938460]I can't tell what the hell he's doing, is he trying to curb stomp that cards table?[/QUOTE] I'm thinking he wants a clear view of the entire room.

[QUOTE=Marbalo;39938367]looking at the photos i couldn't help but feel a mixture of utter disappointment and regret what an atrocious clusterfucked waste of human lives, money, property and history this war has been.[/QUOTE] Sums it up perfectly IMO.

Hehe, it's amusing seeing the woodland camo a lot of soldiers were stuck with at the beginning of the war. I remember this being mentioned in Generation Kill too.

soooo.....mission accomplished right?

8 photos in and funny faces are already starting to show. [IMG]http://i348.photobucket.com/albums/q354/Zaerg/hurr_zps2f55747e.png[/IMG]

[QUOTE=Flapjacks;39938483]I'm thinking he wants a clear view of the entire room.[/QUOTE] Well as soon as he sets his foot down, he's gonna knock that table over and fall down. I bet the soldier had to bribe the photographer to leave the shots of him on the ground out of the roll.

[QUOTE=Ericson666;39938656]Well as soon as he sets his foot down, he's gonna knock that table over and fall down. I bet the soldier had to bribe the photographer to leave the shots of him on the ground out of the roll.[/QUOTE] i think his foot is down, just on the side arm of the booth

[QUOTE=Amez;39938314]It feels like the war has been going on forever. Also: [img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19779215/Photos/Funny/dfadawfqa.jpg[/img] That's rather odd...[/QUOTE] his left foot is on the chair and his right foot is on the arm rest, what is so hard to understand about that

[QUOTE=Ericson666;39938656]Well as soon as he sets his foot down, he's gonna knock that table over and fall down. I bet the soldier had to bribe the photographer to leave the shots of him on the ground out of the roll.[/QUOTE] He's not walking, his right foot is rested on the chair he's standing on. He's probably just getting a clear view out the front of the place. ninja'd

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39938384]Fixed that[/QUOTE] war as an action is a waste and the waste of lives that comes from it is useless. But you can't tell me the cold war didn't bring any technological innovation or the space program with it. There are more benefits to war than perceived benefits/failures, but overall, war is not the best way to go about things. Far from it.

[QUOTE=lifehole;39938827]war as an action is a waste and the waste of lives that comes from it is wasteful. But you can't tell me the cold war didn't bring any technological innovation or the space program with it.[/QUOTE] We placed a man on the moon while hundreds of men died in an Asian jungle far from home. Depends how you look at the cost.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39938384]Fixed that[/QUOTE] Would you include WW2 in that statement, or is it an exception?

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39938843]We placed a man on the moon while hundreds of men died in an Asian jungle far from home. Depends how you look at the cost.[/QUOTE] Yes, but the technology that the arms race created was used in more than one domestic tech we use in our everyday lives. And human lives are not to be calculated by math only. Ideas spread and the effect on the world as a whole with nowadays information technology is tremendous, 500 people dying nowadays would be far outshadowed by an establishment of a colony on mars. (Or introduction of a technology that could instantly produce food for the cost of 10 bucks, which would be to today as the microwave was to yesterday.) Plus, y'know, if someone started nuking the world and said "you're all going to be our slaves" I think sometimes war is justified, but only in the extremes of the extreme. The war in Iraq was very, very stupid. Not trying to say war is always good, it almost never is. I'm a pacifist myself. Just saying it isn't a complete waste in every sense of terrible.

Mission accomplished. What an absolute joke of a proclamation that was. And yet he still got reelected. Blows my mind

[QUOTE=Psychokitten;39938862]Would you include WW2 in that statement, or is it an exception?[/QUOTE] But WWII only happened because of the repercussions of the Great War, which was caused by earlier events, and so on and so forth all the way back to the first caveman hitting another caveman with a stick. So, building on Scorp's statement, every war is a waste, and if the events of that war caused another war, it's even worse.

[QUOTE=DaysBefore;39938968]But WWII only happened because of the repercussions of the Great War, which was caused by earlier events, and so on and so forth all the way back to the first caveman hitting another caveman with a stick. So, building on Scorp's statement, every war is a waste, and if the events of that war caused another war, it's even worse.[/QUOTE] Declaration of war and vying for control like a crazed jingoistic country is stupid. But we learn from conflict, as we learned from WW2. If the political situation was completely dormant and we developed nukes slowly and then a world war broke out in 1990, lets just say I wouldn't want to be on that planet. It's a good thing we learned, and I can't imagine what the world would be like if we hadn't.

[QUOTE=lifehole;39938909]Yes, but the technology that the arms race created was used in more than one domestic tech we use in our everyday lives. And human lives are not to be calculated by math only. Ideas spread and the effect on the world as a whole with nowadays information technology is tremendous, 500 people dying nowadays would be far outshadowed by an establishment of a colony on mars. (Or introduction of a technology that could instantly produce food for the cost of 10 bucks, which would be to today as the microwave was to yesterday.) Plus, y'know, if someone started nuking the world and said "you're all going to be our slaves" I think sometimes war is justified, but only in the extremes of the extreme. The war in Iraq was very, very stupid. Not trying to say war is always good, it almost never is. I'm a pacifist myself. Just saying it isn't a complete waste in every sense of terrible.[/QUOTE] This is a common misconception. Yes, it's true that war brings military tech. But that tech come along even faster if you put that money into science instead. Let's say that war produces tech at a 10% efficiency, with the rest of the money going into fuel, MRE's, and a bunch of other stuff you'd need to support a war. Now consider science, which generates tech at a 90% efficiency, with some of it lost due to bureaucracy. You'd have to put 9x more money into the war effort in order to get the same amount of research out of it versus just giving that money directly to scientists and universities.

[QUOTE=lifehole;39939017]Declaration of war and vying for control like a crazed jingoistic country is stupid. But we learn from conflict, as we learned from WW2. If the political situation was completely dormant and we developed nukes slowly and then a world war broke out in 1990, lets just say I wouldn't want to be on that planet. It's a good thing we learned, and I can't imagine what the world would be like if we hadn't.[/QUOTE] But what makes you sure a war would break out in the 1990's? If we're making up scenarios completely out of thin air then what if we devolved into a feudal monarchy between 1939 and 1990? I wouldn't want to live there either. It's also possible that everyone decided that blowing each other up was a less favorable alternative to working together and providing power for poor nations, or something. Yes, we have learned thing from war, both technologically and, let's say, philosophically (Mainly because I can't think of a better term), but that does not mean that the lives lost and the damage caused by that war are not pointless, no matter how noble the cause is.

[QUOTE=Psychokitten;39938862]Would you include WW2 in that statement, or is it an exception?[/QUOTE] It was a waste of lives, both American, British, Russian, German, Japanese, Italian and many more.

[QUOTE=Led Zeppelin;39938961]Mission accomplished. What an absolute joke of a proclamation that was. And yet he still got reelected. Blows my mind[/QUOTE] Yeah I went to Iraq twice, both times I felt like we accomplished nothing at all and were just wasting our time.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;39939096]It was a waste of lives, both American, British, Russian, German, Japanese, Italian and many more.[/QUOTE] I hate to seem like the warmonger here, but you have to think why the war started. I totally get what you're saying that it was a result of the Treaty of Versailles. No ands/ifs about it. But say we're in that position, before World War II. World War I already happened, and Nazi Germany is rising and looming. If left alone, it'd create mass genocide as you hear reports of abuse and such from the country. What do you do? Do you ignore it, referring to war as a waste? Say diplomatic relations fail, and Germany refuses to stop what it's doing?