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TOPIC: saddam hussein

Geopolitics

In Iraqi Literature, A Surprisingly Minor Role For The U.S. Invasion

Leading writers in Iraq depict the U.S. invasion and its consequences as just one chapter in a much longer and broader history of foreign occupations and internal political violence in Iraq.

-Analysis-

It’s been just over 20 years since the United States invaded Iraq. Some Americans have largely forgotten about the invasion, despite the fact the Sept. 11 attacks that precipitated it still loom large in U.S. national memory. Even during the heart of the war in 2006, most young Americans could not find Iraq on a map.

Many Iraqis, though, have a more nuanced, deeper understanding of the country’s recent history: An understanding which can be seen in their literature – and particularly in the contemporary, post-invasion literature that scholars like me study.

For the past two decades, Iraqi literature in particular has undertaken a deep excavation of its recent past, going far beyond the confines of the U.S. invasion.

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This Happened - April 9: Saddam Hussein Statue Crashes Down

The photos of the Saddam Hussein statue being toppled were iconic images of the fall of the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on this day in 2003. U.S. forces entered Baghdad and toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square and the image of the statue falling became a powerful symbol of the end of Hussein's regime.

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That Man In Mariupol: Is Putin Using A Body Double To Avoid Public Appearances?

Putin really is meeting with Xi in Moscow — we know that. But there are credible experts saying that the person who showed up in Mariupol the day before was someone else — the latest report that the Russian president uses a doppelgänger for meetings and appearances.

Have no doubt, the Vladimir Putin we’re seeing alongside Xi Jinping this week is the real Vladimir Putin. But it’s a question that is being asked after a range of credible experts have accused the Russian president of sending a body double for a high-profile visit this past weekend in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

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Reports and conspiracy theories have circulated in the past about the Russian leader using a stand-in because of health or security issues. But the reaction to the Kremlin leader's trip to Mariupol is the first time that multiple credible sources — including those who’ve spent time with him in the past — have cast doubt on the identity of the man who showed up in the southeastern Ukrainian city that Russia took over last spring after a months-long siege.

Russian opposition politician Gennady Gudkov is among those who confidently claim that a Putin look-alike, or rather one of his look-alikes, was in the Ukrainian city.

"Now that there is a war going on, I don't rule out the possibility that someone strongly resembling or disguised as Putin is playing his role," Gudkov said.

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This Happened - March 20: Invasion Of Iraq

The United States invaded Iraq on this day in 2003 under the pretext of Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). The Bush administration argued that Saddam Hussein's regime posed a threat to U.S. national security and to the stability of the Middle East. However, no WMDs were found after the invasion.

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This Happened

This Happened—December 13: End Of The Road For The Butcher Of Baghdad

On this day, 19 years ago, Saddam Hussein was captured by the United States military in the town of Ad-Dawr, Iraq.

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Sources
Marie-Hélène Miauton

Here We Go Again: Iraq To Syria, Chemical Weapons And Collective Amnesia

-OpEd-

Tensions are reaching a bursting point over Syria! Just as Saddam Hussein's (hypothetical) possession of weapons of mass destruction led U.S. President George W. Bush to invade Iraq, the (alleged) use of lethal gases on Douma, a district in Syria's Eastern Ghouta controlled by Islamists, now allows Donald Trump to announce harsh reprisals.

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Sources

How ISIS’ Defeat In Mosul Could Make It Stronger Worldwide

-Analysis-

The recapture of Mosul by the Iraqi armed forces, with the support of the international coalition led by the United States, is a real achievement. ISIS has seen its biggest military conquest reversed, and its dream of an Islamic caliphate destroyed.

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Iraq
Alain Frachon

Defeating ISIS Does Not Mean Peace For Syria And Iraq

-Analysis-

The "caliphate" of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi will not last. His self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS), announced two years ago, is on the defensive. It will vanish as quickly as the morning mist on the Euphrates River. But what about jihadism, Islamist terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Syria — all factors that feed this Middle East chaos? Alas, none of that will disappear with the defeat of ISIS.

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eyes on the U.S.
Daniel-Dylan Böhmer and Clemens Wergin

Origins Of ISIS, Imagining If Saddam Was Still In Power

Many now blame the U.S.-led Iraq invasion of 2003 for the spread of terror in the Middle East. But what would the region look like today, if the Iraqi dictator hadn't been ousted?

BERLIN — That's what victory looks like: Saddam's bronze-colored hand up in the sky, greeting his people, his metallic eyes wandering over Baghdad. But at the huge statue's feet in the Iraqi capital hundreds of men riot. A hundred meters above, a U.S. marine covers the fallen dictator's head with an American flag.

Kasim al-Dschaburi, who was an opponent of the regime and spent 21 years in Saddam's prisons, traces the past decade-plus of troubles to the fact that it wasn't the Iraqi flag in that image instead. "Under Saddam we had safety, water, electricity and gas," he says. "Today there's nothing but burglary, murderer and violence between Sunnis and Shias."

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Geopolitics
Dominique Moïsi

Blaming All Middle East Chaos On The West Will Fix Nothing

Western powers must share in the blame for its historic role in the Muslim world, from Napoleon Bonaparte to George W. Bush. But without the Arab world taking its share of responsibility, the chaos will not quiet any time soon.

-Analysis-


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Geopolitics
Matias Spektor

Dilma To Houston, Brazil Aims To Relaunch Space Program With US Boost

After doing business with both Saddam Hussein's Iraq and China, Brazil's space program is going back to where it started: NASA.

-Analysis-


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