A Military History of the Iraq War Part 1: "Shock and Awe"
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 พ.ค. 2024
- The Iraq War is one the crucial events of early 21st century history. In many ways it defines the unipolar moment, a historical period where American global power truly stood unchallenged. The events leading up to the war, and the way in which it was justified by the Bush administration, still dominate most people's conception of the conflict. However, the fact that most popular histories of the Iraq war focus on its dubious casus belli tends to obscure what is a fascinating military campaign, one that had a pivotal role in shaping the 21st century global order.
This video is a military history of the Iraq War, one that is almost completely engaged in a technical military analysis of the campaign, rather than the legality of the conflict, Weapons of Mass Destruction or the truthfulness of the Bush administration. Part 1 covers the historical and strategic background to the conflict, including a discussion of the Iraqi-American strategic relationship, the state of the American and Iraqi militaries in the 1990s, the development of critical American doctrine and technology, campaign planning and then a blow by blow account of the conventional phase of the war.
Although it was followed by a disastrous civil war and insurgency, the conventional phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom was one of the most brilliant military campaigns in modern history. In just 20 days, coalition forces dismembered Baathist Iraq, capturing Baghdad and defeating an Iraqi army that outnumbered them by 5 to 1. It was a triumph of technology and doctrine, a victory that is often obscured by both the war's dubious casus belli and the bloody and painful insurgency which lasted for nearly a decade after the invasion. Despite these strategic blunders, as a piece of operational art it is an amazingly successful military campaign, and certainly one that deserves more attention from military historians.
0:00 A Military History
5:10 Desert Storm, AirLand Battle and the Second Offset Strategy
23:38 The RMA and the Reform of the US Military
31:32 The Iraqi Military in the 1990s
41:09 Neither War nor Peace
46:01 Shock and Awe: Planning for the Invasion
56:33 Saddam's Strategic Indifference
1:04:11 The Coalition Order of Battle
1:09:23 Initial Operations - Special Forces, Um Qasr and the Air Campaign
1:25:10 Nasiriyah and the Ambush of the 11th Attack Helicopter Regiment
1:42:16 The Mother of All Sandstorms and the Operational Pause
1:50:08 Technological, Doctrinal and Qualitative Dominance
2:01:46 The Karbala Gap and the Siege of Basrah
2:15:49 The Battle of Baghdad
2:28:48 Decisive Victory, Elusive Peace
Aussie TH-camrs seem to have a knack for military history and defense analysis. Excellent work.
Aussies in general honestly lol. My cousin is Australian and he teaches military history for a living lol
The Great Emu war of 1932 clearly exposed the faults of Australian military strategy. Since then they've been focusing on mending those strategies in order to try and put up more of a fight in case of any future attacks, that's why they're so good at military analysis.
Perun
Are you thinking of Perun?
This is a more hardcore version of Perun, considering he only has 1 hr PowerPoint presentations, while this one clocks to almost 3 hrs
BABE WAKE UP
The man with 10 seconds of silence where you wonder if the video is actually playing just dropped
You know TH-cam war documentaries my white noise, go back to sleep
I wonder about this did someone think they were texting their babe
Hypo just dropped a new video 📹 😳 get tf over here
No, I refuse. I love my Maga/Qanaon and don’t care If Im a fool and it’s all lies. I like my Maga Rallies and Qanon gossip circles. Do I believe 5G causes Covid and the Hillary eats babies for breakfast? No, but This is MY CULT and Trump and Q are my Daddy’s. Marge Greene is hot 🤮 (stay in character or they will never give you a MyPillow)…Freedumb for the Qanon Shaman Guy and James Brown; blame it on the PCP, don’t blame it on James set him Free! Oh, er…Where we go one we go…to the Mall!
Absolute banger of a video. I can verify just how hard it is to source, edit and write 2 hour videos. And for it to be this good throughout is a testament to the level of work put in here.
Thanks for the heads up
Found this video because of you
Do all military TH-cam Australians know each other?? 😂
@@tannermurphree8247 Yeah pretty much, mate.
Best BBC war documentaries in the last 50 years (best group of war documentaries overall) can't match this quality.
I love Perun & Battle Order, but this is just another level of grit & excellence - it's "put this man on commercial TV" level.
As an Iraqi witnessing the war as it went on i can testify that this is the best objective and honest take on the tactical and strategic outlook on the war .. even so painful to watch , still it is what it is .
As a someone from a military family and though lost couple of them to the war , as an individual and as the survivors of the war from the family we cannot but have deep respect for the professionalism and the tactical prowess of the coalition forces , a respected and powerful enemies yes but even if the reasons for the war was misleading and unfortunate we still hold that war in our minds to this day ,
..
I deeply respect that you didn't say what most youtubers imply that the Iraqi army was "Saddams Army" basically trampling the honor of the service men that actually do as anyone in the military service do which is Defend the country and the people .. even if Saddam Hussein was a dictator no one worth their uniforms will let a foreign power take a hold of their destiny by force , Saddam was our problem, take it a 10 .. 20 or more years he would be gone as all the dictators before him,
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Idiology aside .. the Fidayeen were retired or auxiliary troops taken from other units and Civilian voulentees from the same city they were defending for situations as these as fighting in an area well known and with limited to no support as we knew the huge tactical disadvantage of the war , as not defending them but all the sources that claim they were ruthless is very exaggerated by the current political climate of Iraq today as anything with "Saddam" in it's name is villified beyond recognition and it's up to you to take my word for it, they have been sworn an oath to die and they knew what they were up to , mere distraction to slow the Coalition as the Army have at least reorganize into a minimal fighting formation , they used everything to be shown as a threat included heavy handed show of brutality to any Coalition soldier as to make as much noise as possible so they have attention of the opposition forces and to be perceived as a threat to divert attention from the main defense forces ,
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To be honest the army was out gunned and out matched, they lacked range and fire power , people knew they were going to die , even so they went anyway ,
Fighting in the open ground with such a total air superiority is basically a suicide, I can't blame anyone who surrendered and the same for anyone that kept fighting, if you have met with overwhelming odds then its better to have the shame of surrender than a a coffin sent to your family, its a matter of pride ,
..
I think you will have the insurgency as a topic for the next video
I can give you one insight, even with the huge advantage of the coalition forces and the losses inflicted to the Iraqi military as to leave a big chunk of it to "recal" it later for a provisional government was a HUGE mistake , as they knew that urban fighting was the best chance of inflicting damage to Coalition forces , they just simply changed tactics and left the Coalition forces with a huge force eager and motivated for revenge now free to move freely without restraint as the bulk of the insurgency, for the first years after the war at least then religious and terrorist groups took over after the huge failure of keeping the borders open without even considering the threat of religion and politically backed groups to the security of the Coalition and the civilian lives ..
Sorry for the long comment i will try to have it shorter in the next video
I pray for all those died in the war .. Coalition and for ours too
Thank you for the good video
@Abdullah Obada Amen brother
What do you think the coalitions biggest mistake was after defeating the Iraq army
@@warcrimeenjoyer219 As an Iraqi myself i think the lack of knowledge on the inner politics of the country and the weak government they set up lead to a power vacuum and rise of insurgents
@@warcrimeenjoyer219 i hope you forgive me for not going into that, it's a long and very complicated subject, for such i apologize for not commenting on that, As there is no way we can talk about that without involving politics and politics would sour the discussion.
But i would say even if the mistakes were made of mostly no ill intent, it really showed the inexperience and sometimes the criminally political incompetence of mostly the US side , nothing would ruin a brilliant millitary achievement as a really bad political performance, the military side and the political side does not match up,
I think the end of the video when they say " now what ?" Is enough to paint the picture of how little they thought of what to do after the war, the british actually did a better job in their areas and had some limited but definite success in the south, but overall it was a disaster, they failed to draw the people to their side and focused on raising a political class that was backed by foreign powers that had agendas that is at odds and even hostile and harmful to the coalition forces at the field undermining their good will and raising the populace resentments that wasn't even a thought to consider at the end of the war .
Believe me watching these events unfolding before my eyes over the years was akin to watching a very bad nightmare dressed as a comedy, leaving a sensations of bewilderment and shock and utter horror and dispair .
@@warcrimeenjoyer219 Adding on to what the Iraqis replied here: The shootdown of an actual reconstruction plan by Rumsfeld, because much like his growing doctrine-fetish with maneuver warfare, his overconfidence of the military bloomed into a deadly hubris: "If they can blow up Saddam's Iraq, they can fix and create a better Iraq."
There were reconstruction and nation-building plans cooked up pre-invasion but Rumsfeld believed the military could do it itself, cutting costs and streamlining the transition process. Of course, there weren't enough troops to enforce this nor did they have any experience in nation-building.
Also, for those wondering, Blitzkrieg’s actual name is Bewegungskrieg or “Movement War”. It’s more about concentration of combat power with concentric advances aimed at identified weak points.
So much more fun to say as well!
Nooo you can't just erase Basil Liddel Hart's catchphrase like that nooooo....
Using combined arms*
"lightning war"
Is that what the Germans came up with in World War I to take trenches?
This was an exceptional video, 2 hours and 40 minutes of top quality military history. The amount of work and effort that went into making this was obviously immense. This video was better than many professional media companies have ever produced. Very well done, thank you for making this.
The guy who did this reached the level of "professional" back with his series about battles of New Guinea in WW2.
Bloody hell I love this guy, his content is always amazing
Great video, I myself was an infantryman in Australia's 2nd force rotation in 2005 after the end of the initial conflict, I spent 7 months at camp Smitty outside of Al Samawah, I also travelled to Basrah, Talil, Nasiriyah and many other places that I can no longer remember the names of. We were warmly welcome wherever we went because the Iraqis knew we weren't there to fight them, we were there to ask what they needed and then we would do it for them.
Sarcasm or?
@@JasperKlijndijk No, not sarcasm, we spent the whole time either training new recruits or building schools, hospitals or bridges. In fact, the Al Muthana province in southern Iraq which was left for the Australian's to be caretaker of was the first province in all of Iraq to be handed back to local forces to govern.
So nation building in that province actually worked
@@JasperKlijndijk it was a reasonably quiet province, the Australian government of the day wasn’t too keen on Australian soldiers being killed in an unpopular war
Don't let you son's and daughters be killed or wounded in a place no one ever heard of by people that don't want you there. Is a saying every world leader should learn
This has an insane level of detail compared to everyone else covering this topic
It's quite biased
@@stuartfleming How is it biased? You can't just say that it is and be done like that.
A nearly 3 hour video! That's a hell of a lot of work, man. Awesome. Gonna enjoy this on my ride to work
Here I am . 5am, waking up, smoking a cigarette and I get a 3 hour video when I got 1 hour till work.... I'm calling out today
Yeah I had to split this video up, 3 days of watching it. Its great!
We appreciate how much work goes into the production of the videos. Cant wait for this channel to grow so more people can find value in it as well! Keep it up mate!
I just got here from the algorithm so it bodes well!
This production is beyond brilliant. It eclipses any main stream media documentaries of this conflict immeasurably, it should receive international recognition and an award.
You are a pure Gem mate!! As a lifelong glutton for a good documentary…you Sir, provide sustenance to my palette in a way I didn’t know was possible.
I am a Iraq war veteran. You have some precise information about Iraqi military and doctrines. 👏
Absolutely brilliant video as always. Sometimes I have trouble finding the motivation to continue on my path to become a history teacher, with all the placement hours and discussion posts. Then I come across a video like this and am reminded of how deep my love for history is, and suddenly I have all the motivation in the world. Genuinely love your content.
I have been aware of this video for some time, but have hesitated watching it for fear it would stir my anger up. Thank you one of the most professionally done “intros” that immediately diffused my tension. Excellent, objective analysis once again!
While it's not the Ukraine War, some of the tactics discussed here have echos in the current war, so still relevant. And the whole story of the Iraq invasion is great history. "Now what?" Oh that's right, part 2👍 Cheers
Stop comparing everything to Ukraine, redditor
i remember in the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russians brought with them police riot gear.
While the US did not prepare to police the Iraqi population once the seat of power had been catipulated, the Russians were preparing too early to beat down unarmed civilians, thinking it'll just be like Kazahkstan or Belarus, even if they haven't fully captured the country.
@@triadwarfare seems like that was the worst they were expecting.
Man, it literally feels like 1941, but if it went forward 2 years in 7 months.
@@nukclear2741 yeah they had some truly dark stuff planned, idk how many people understand they thought they were going to “russify” Ukraine, and torture, kill or ship anyone who resisted to Siberia. Their ethnic supremacist attitudes to Ukraine are a major reason for failed blitz, they really thought most people wouldn’t resist because if forced to they would accept Russian identity, even if begrudgingly.
@@nukclear2741 You say that Putin is fighting the displaced Iranians?
Brilliant. Such a joy to see a youtube video that takes on a complex subject and does an in depth analysis instead of the usual under 10-minute skim through. Thanks for all the work that took.
Thank you once again!
Have you considered uploading these videos on podcast platforms as audio only versions? I would enjoy listening to you while rucking, and I enjoy listening to these presentations as I fall asleep.
Just use a different TH-cam front end like piped . You can choose Audio only and play videos in the background. No ads either.
Yeah whilst the graphics really help understand everything, a podcast form would be great
there are apps you can use, but honestly just pay for youtube premium. it lets you listen to video with the screen off, plus no ads. it’s literally the only “streaming service” i pay for. it’s worth every penny.
I'll preface that I use YT premium because I appreciate that it rewards the creators whose content I consume - but if you don't have the spare cash to go to another subscription service, Newpipe via the F-droid store is another option, as it allows video and audio only downloads, picture in picture and background play. Haven't used it in a long time, mind you, so YMMV.
TH-cam premium let’s you download content and play in background. It’s worth it.
Looking eagerly for Part 2 of this. Excellent breakdown of the initial phases of the Iraq War, great video.
It took me 12 hours to find the time to watch the vide in its entirety, I am shocked by the amount of quality and effort that went in. I can't wait for the rest.
Very good video, looking forward to pt.2
Would've liked to have seen further elaboration of Task Force Viking, which was the opening of a Northern front, and included the 173rd Airborne Brigade's combat jump into Northern Iraq, the largest airborne drop since the invasion of Normandy in WWII. The iconic photo of the solider taking a knee under his load was all that was shown and a passing mention.
What an exceedingly detailed and well produced video, with many aspects not covered anywhere else and new to me.
Major kudos to you, sir.
Very rarely do I feel the need to comment on a YT video. But I would just like to thank this creator for such an incredibly clear, concise and engaging video. It took me five viewing sessions to watch but not once did my level of interest falter. I am not a heavy user of YT and nor do I subscribed to many channels yet I subscribe to this channel halfway through this video. I look forward to watching this channels videos of the Australian Army’s New Guinea campaign from WWII. Again, thank you for your effort.
Yes he gives a good perspectiv of Australians at war WW2..
@@nedkelly9688 Eliso Obeid
Great to see new content. Vietnam from an Aussie perspective would be awesome
Can you make the Ultimate Guide to Biological Weapons video?
Bush is smart, you know that the country that has an American nuclear bomb does not confront me
Outstanding to be able to listen to a practically day by day breakdown and the workings leading up to the conflict! Thank you 🤙
Thank you so so so much for this. I’d been doing amateur research into this war and you have done the best historical description I’ve seen of this so far THAT ISNT BIAS
Extremely high quality. Can't wait for part 2.
Finally watched this,....a number of times. Needless to say,....its brilliant, informative and incredibly engaging.
Its actually the first time I have chosen to listen to this wonderful piece of work,..by just listening to it on my way to and from work,...as well as watching it on youtube. Essentially, I listened to it as I would a podcast. Both watching and listening were equally a terrific experience. Notwithstanding the brilliance of the work,.....this has led me thinking to another podcaster.
I am sure you have heard of Dan Carlin and his, "Hardcore History" podcast. They are in a word,.........brilliant. They are different to hypohystericalhistory,..in that Dan is very much about the Human Experience,.....or as he says, the extremes of human experience. But,....he is my favorite long form podcaster. Without doubt, hypohystericalhistory's New Guinea Campaign series is of a similar vein and can be easily be listened to as a podcast. It is, in my view, as good as Dan Carlin's "Supernova in the East" series,...which is my favourite series from Dan Carlin.
I actually prefer hypohystericalhistory's method,...with a Stategic, Operational and Tactical overview of a Campaign, with an occasional/personal/individual view. My point being,...in my view hypohystericalhistory is clearly a star and podcasting,......more importantly, making a living from podcasting like Dan Carlin,....has to be a possibility.
hypohystericalhistory is that good!!
Encore!!
Excellent video. I really hope part two is coming as I'd love to learn more about why it all started going into a tailspin fairly quickly. Thanks for a terrific work!
I like that you pound it into even the dimest bulb that this is ONLY about the presentation of accurate information / execution of military aspects of this war.
No theories or conspiracy about why or who.
Thank you.
I’m really grateful for this. So many books on Iraq (especially the second engagement) look at the internecine clashes between intelligence and the White House and I’ve been trying to find a source on the overall strategy that isn’t boring. I’m about 20 minutes in and it looks like I found it!
Ask and you shall receive. Crazy how i got a feeling it's been too long since we got any of your fenomenal content.
Unbelievably good video, the amount of information, effort and work to produce it is just incredible. Thank you so much for such a hard work.
Outstanding! What an interesting and concise analysis of the initial phases for the war. Left me feeling awe as to how well it was executed although the foreboding ending leaves me in anticipation for part 2.
When you mentioned the questionable motives behind the Iraq War, it really made me reflect on what people thought the motive was back then. Being a kid at the time, I had an idea what was going on but I needed clarification from adults, who would often be wrong about the definition of WMDs, the relation of Iraq to 9/11 and Afghanistan, and whether or not the mission was to find WMDs or free Iraqis from Saddam. If you spoke to the wrong person they'd tell you about how Osama bin Laden has nukes, or Saddam and bin Laden have teamed up. I think this was an intentional effect of using vague descriptors like "WMDs" and "War on Terror" to get folks to draw their own conclusions on why they should support the war.
i was a young man when it started and relatively conservative (being from the country) and the war (among a couple of other things) transformed me into a leftist as every BS reason that was given fell away with time and evidence (i mean my transformation is more complicated than that......but this was a lodestone) as millions of bodies were racked up , torture , white phos , blackwater...alll the known dogs of war were unleashed
NATO illegal wars include bay of pigs in Cuba and NK and Vietnam which were ideological cold War invasions and when you get OIL wars like Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya etc.
Eh, IMO it was more convenient than intentional. I think the Bush administration had genuine concern about Iraqi WMDs after 9/11, just as it had a genuine desire to simply see rid of a hostile dictator. Obviously, the administration will focus more on presenting the more publicly "acceptable" justification, and the post 9/11 media and public are likely to jump on that and run wild.
Not to justify the invasion (I'm genuinely neutral on the subject), but concerns about WMDs and Iraqi hostilities weren't completely pulled out of Bush & Cheney's ass. There was precedent for concern, even if that realistically wasn't their entire motive.
@Gangster Computer God maybe
they should've let the UN inspect
@@gangstercomputergod9362 At the time, it did seem though that the whole WMD was a stretch. I also remember how it just seemed as though the Bush administration got sidetracked from their War on Terror, by going down the Iraq rabbit hole.
Ppl were scratching their heads a little and the job was still not complete in Afghanistan.
Well this will fill in my saturday morning.
Hello from Newcasle NSW
Really appreciate the effort you've put into this one mate, enjoyed the video, thanks!
I love your (continuously exemplary) hard historical investigative research... cobber. Much appreciated - Onya!
Yes … a new episode..! Thank you very much ..!
Amazing content as always. Thank you for your work and effort.
New favorite military history and analysis channel. Awesome work.
I'm totally waiting for part 2, I lurk for a very long time between YT videos, this one here is top prime content.
i adore your content dude. watched all of it.
A great way to start the weekend thanks. Nice work
The most comprehensive account of the Iraq War I have seen .. kudos.
This is an incredibly well researched and well presented video. I basically got glued to my chair watching this. Cheers man, I am very impressed and pleased with your content!
Brilliant, can't wait for part 2.
I'm a USN vet, so the only parts of the video I understood were the deep penetrations of the enemies' rear.
😂
Not with the Greek Army?
Great video mate. Definitely going to go back through your older videos and watch those too.
Abosuletly excellent!! I can't wait for more parts to come do you by chance plan on covering the whole Iraq war? Even as and american its rather confusing and your ability to decifer and explain this history and information is incredible.
Love the video well researched and how I can tell is the fact you gave the example of the first recon divisions run in with an Iraqi tank battalion. And you told it right as it’s put in the reports. Not a single combat jack was in your retelling. Which is what those marines were more concerned with.
Awesome content as always sir!
Currently watching the older videos whilst waiting for a part 2 to this series, its good stuff
This was excellent. Looking forward to part 2
You don't p*ss around, do you !!!
A two & a half hour part one !!!
And yes, we want more !?!
While you never can divorce politics from war, I like your approach here.
Man youtubers like you and others really put documentaries to shame
The amount of work it must have taken to make this must have been immense. Thank you very much.
I need part 2 asap. Thanks for all these amazing videos.
Overall very well put together. I was with task force tarawa in Nasiriyah during the invasion and can certainly attest to the heavy fighting in the area.
Only feedback I have is that I'm pretty sure it was seal team 6 as the primary rescue force for Jessica Lynch and not Delta Force.
But again, fantastic job. Even though I was there I was living in my own little bubble. So this was a great high level view of the strategy going in.
It’s funny that Russia even today cannot match the level of air and ISR capacity the US had back in 91.
What is even funnier is that although this is the best example of a large scale modern Invasion, Russia seems to have totally ignored any lessons or even looked at Western capabilities. Ridiculous really.
I mean, Russia as it is today has only been around for 30 years. Coming from where they were in the 1990s, 40%+ of their GDP destroyed (German invasion in WWII destroyed around 20+% if I recall correctly, for some perspective) strategic assets stripped and sold for Pennies, a collapsed State, 6 million excess deaths over less than 10 years. To today, that’s pretty impressive.
@@shmeckle666 Russians are a joke if they face the British army we see here on their own they would get rekt let alone the behemoth that is the US army.
@@accountreality1988 Britain would get their shit pushed in and their piss holes split, they’re cute though. They got heart. Just our source everything short of pulling triggers, to the US-like the Saudis and Israelis.
The British, Saudis, Israelis are exceptional and the best on earth when fighting small children with sticks and stones. No wonder that their primary targets. Israel we know what happens when you fight a competent fighting force. We know what happened in Operation Change of Direction 11, Zionist, Shut it down! Lmao gods chosen. Lunatics, they should stay fighting kids with stones.
But anyway, Right, the British military getting its piss hole split in two. Couldn’t even win in Afghanistan with all us ISAF.
@@shmeckle666 lol Israel would walk through russian army too. you guys cannot even beat underequipped poorer Ukrainian, and they are pushing you back in all fronts. a nation 10 times poorer then uk or Israel. lol cope rage if i had ever seen it. Russia is not the 3rd best army in the world it is not even the 10th. you guys are armature like the Iraqis. we can all see that now. uk proves itself time and time again russian never does. the only successful thing you have done in war in the last 30 years is bomb Syria civilians for a mass murdering tyrant.
I didn’t notice “part 1” you have no idea how happy that makes me as I get through this video 😊
Well don’t excellent video. I’m really enjoying it
One of the best videos ever. Highly recommend watching all 3 hours. Very compelling.
9:00 thank you for point it this out
This is a very high quality upload. This is greatly appreciated! No matter how much time it took to prepare this, I think it was totally worth it.
This was amazing, can't wait for part 2!
Thank You for the Excellent and Outstanding Analysis!!!
Rumsfeld wasn't nearly as knowledgeable about military operations as he believed he was, but I don't have to give him 1 thing. He was right about keeping the war in Afghanistan to as small of a footprint as possible. The Afghani people supported us in the beginning for the most part until our numbers started to rise and we went from being seen as liberators to conquerors. Nothing will make the Afghan people come together faster than a foreign invader. They will tolerate a brutal regime full of locals before they will allow a foreign government to come in and take control even if their way of life is better under the foreigners. Had we have kept it at a small Special Forces dominated war we would have been far more successful. The leaders of the Taliban have said themselves that once they saw the build up happening they knew they would win in the long run because we would lose the support of the people. The problem with us Americans is that we assume everybody wants to live the way we do and not everybody does. We've forgotten our roots and the fact that America was founded because our founding fathers wanted to live their own way and not within the "status quo" of an England dominated world.
The Afghan people just always fight. They're like ancient warriors in modern times.
No matter what the US would've done in 2002. Stay, leave, help with building a new state or just leave it completely to the Afghans. The outcome would've always been the same: War
There just is no Afghan nation. It's merely a description of a region were serval peoples, tribes, clans settle.
The new Taliban regime might be the first successful try to form a functioning state for a long time. Yeah, there's the Hazara, which are Shiite. But the Taliban ruling over a Sunni Islamic Emirat, with the sharia as their law, kike in Saudi Arabia or Iran, might be accepted by a majority of the many peoples of Afghanistan. If they establish law and order _(in form of the sharia)!_ That's what everyone wants.
And what people in the West also have to understand is that Kabul is no representation of Afghanistan. It's is own microcosm. Home to the elite, the opposition of the Taliban and other forces + most modern _(I don't want to say Western)_ city. It also works as a refuge for people that were rejected by the families, or hiding from clan feuds/vendettas.
So to thinking of Kabul, when thinking/talking about Afghanistan doesn't do it justice.
_(Pardon any mistakes/misunderstandings. English isn't my native language and I've never been to an English speaking country)_
I agree with the top post
Part 2 when??
Fantastic video, really appreciate the quality of your work!👏
Listen to this as a podcast didn't take long to realise that it's definitely something I'm gonna sit down a watch a few times
This is pretty incredible for a small team to produce such a high quality presentation. Ken Burns would be proud. He might suggest more pans or slow zooms since you have a lot of static images. That's literally the only thing I'd change. You covered so much of the high level overview of this war in this video and tried to cover only the military aspect except in cases where political context was integral to the military picture.
It seems like this is exactly the way Ukraine is finding success. They are doing it without the conventional airpower. But they have some other aces up their sleeve that the US and UK dreamed of in 2003. 20 years later the gap has widened even further between the US and countries like Russia.
Well put commentary. Moving forward to the exposure of the Russian military in their invasion of Ukraine, I am astonished to see the crumpled mess left of the Soviet empire’s forces. Ken Burns, a former historian/story teller, has morphed into a leftist propagandist.
If he would have had a hand in this production, he would have found a way to work in snarky references to the Real Prez Donald Trump, mixed with the brilliant statesmanship of Hillary Clinton and Barry Sotero.
You are delusional if you think Ukraine will ever “win” this war. It’ll end up as a hole that our government burns in🗿
When is part 2?
Although I cannot attest to its impartiality and unbiased content, it is detailed and concerned with dates and numbers, impressive!Congratulations on the initiative and sincerely for the work you certainly put into making it. Thanks
Found your channel recently and I am enjoying it, good stuff
The chemical weapons stash was much larger than the remnants from the 80's. I was part of the unit that found one the larger stockpiles, they were co-located with the yellow cake processing and uranium enrichment facilities. (about 40km south/southwest of Baghdad.) Most of the chem weapons were of soviet/iraqi origin, some were US weapons leftover from the iran/iraq war, but most were newer 90's manufacturing dates coming out of Saddams own factories (old soviet tooling mostly).
The UE facilities were operational and he (Hussein) had enough yellow cake to eventually make plenty of nukes, and I mean plenty. The site was near camp muleskinner, The chemical weapons were destroyed, and I think the Uranium Ore was eventually sold off to western companies capable of processing it. It was estimated they had achieved a critical mass at least once, but of course it was controlled and very small, similiar to the chicago pile reactors.
I've got plenty of primary source material for this episode in history. I lived it. I went through the crosssabers in May 2003.
damn
Most official reports also cite that Iraq planned on restarting WMD production as sanctions enforcement began to weaken and retained a considerable amount of production capability. IIRC they even started construction of a new chemical plant weeks before the invasion.
Iraq also had full knowledge and capability to build w m d s but mostlikely were just slow pacing it and we knew this thus the w m d threat was not without merit but just over exaggerated; even if they had them we will never know as trigger happy pilots blew up the underground bunkers that made have held them thus buried evidence forever; on top of that if a breach in US or EU security led to iraq gaining their knowledge then that info will never get released to the public... what we do know is the same nuclear specialists who later helped NK gain their weapons first stopped by Iraq but Sadam refused him thinking he was a spy trying to force iraq into faster production... US had many just reasons to invade Iraq with or without nuks or 9/11... vast majority of lives lost were not the US fault, but everyone still keeps blaming them all on us... war was won and ended in just a year then rightfully a couple year peacekeeping mission started but after that US never should've stayed... failure in Iraq and Afghanistan is mostly the ppls fault for not uniting thus self-inflicted destruction
Eres chingon
Thank you for helping to get rid of those
When is pt2 coming?
Absolutely superb work. Thank you!
What an incredible effort! Thank you!
when will part 2 be out?
Wow what a intense history piece of history. When you think of the many many battles over this ancient land. NEVER EVER HAS THERE ALL THERE BE SUCH A UNITED FRONT OF DEVASTATING DISPLAY OF ABSOLUTE POWER!! BUT ALSO THE FIGHT OF THE OCCUPATION OF THIS COUNTRY. What a beautiful piece of narrated and illustrated history. Thankyou sir. Simply didn't Evan leave the chair for a outside cigarette 😅. Well done. The best I've Evan read by many books.
Superb content. The best on YT on this topic. I've seen them all.
Was hoping for some ukraine analysis but this will do
Love your content btw
My body is not ready... Dear God.
Holy daze! This exactly what I didn't know I needed today!
Dude that was awesome, thank you for such detail man
New HHH video!!!
Fun fact; nobody has finished the video yet
Love your content. Thanks for the upload
College of war level video. Absolutely genius in it's presentation and thoroughness. Incredible work.
When is part 2
This video is absolutely incredible. I’m a devourer of historical documentaries and this is the best one I’ve seen about the Iraq war and the build up to it. Well done, sir.
🍻
It's the only one I've encountered that touches on the actual engagements. Talking about the context and the buildup is also 🤌excellent!
What a brilliant exposition! Many thanks.
Yes, i noticed alot of tankies love to downplay desert storm. If youtube existed in 1991. They would be in the chat talking about how the US will get wrekt. Great video by the way!
Never let British diplomats draw your national borders.
This deserves more views and subscribers! Fantastic job🎉 This seems like a relatively fair assessment of events on the ground as they unfolded. As the title teases; an eventual part 2... I wait with baited breath 🤓
Epic my friend oh, what a great documentary. I look forward to part 2. Thank you for your work
US Marine 2002-2006. Iraq was a complete waste of tax payer money and a sad tragedy for all sides. Senseless war. It has changed my life, but I’m making the best of what I have.
Damn right, waste of life spent on the planet fighting that war.
6:00 Jesse please help me , Jesse, I've joined the republican guard Jesse