WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.480 In March of 2003, the United States military 00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:05.839 dropped thousands of leaflets all over Iraq. 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:07.980 Right. The psychological operations dropped. 00:00:08.119 --> 00:00:10.419 Exactly. And the message printed on them was, 00:00:10.419 --> 00:00:12.980 you know, essentially a guarantee. It said, if 00:00:12.980 --> 00:00:15.140 Iraqi soldiers lay down their weapons and refuse 00:00:15.140 --> 00:00:17.620 to fight, they'll be allowed to go home. Keep 00:00:17.620 --> 00:00:20.160 their dignity. Yeah, keep their dignity and help 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:23.350 rebuild a new posts a domination. Which sounds 00:00:23.350 --> 00:00:26.410 like a solid strategy on paper. It does. But 00:00:26.410 --> 00:00:28.629 then, weeks later, after the government actually 00:00:28.629 --> 00:00:31.129 falls, the coalition Provisional Authority issues 00:00:31.129 --> 00:00:35.049 an order that just straight up fires all 375 00:00:35.049 --> 00:00:37.929 ,000 of those men. Unbelievable. Just permanently 00:00:37.929 --> 00:00:39.750 dissolve their military. Send them home without 00:00:39.750 --> 00:00:42.320 a pension, without a paycheck, nothing. And I 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:44.259 mean, the immediate consequence of that wasn't 00:00:44.259 --> 00:00:46.719 just, you know, mass unemployment. No, of course 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:49.439 not. It was the overnight creation of this highly 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:52.719 trained, deeply alienated shadow economy of violence. 00:00:52.899 --> 00:00:55.280 And that is exactly what we are focusing on today. 00:00:55.399 --> 00:00:57.780 Welcome to today's Deep Dive. Today's a Monday, 00:00:57.979 --> 00:01:02.039 2026 0323, and we are unpacking the defining 00:01:02.039 --> 00:01:04.519 geopolitical earthquake of the 21st century. 00:01:04.719 --> 00:01:09.680 The Iraq War from 2003 to 2011. Right. And you, 00:01:09.900 --> 00:01:11.620 listening, are probably familiar with the broad 00:01:11.620 --> 00:01:14.579 strokes of this timeline. Our source for this 00:01:14.579 --> 00:01:18.219 deep dive is this incredibly comprehensive, meticulously 00:01:18.219 --> 00:01:21.359 detailed Wikipedia article covering the entirety 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:23.680 of the conflict. It is a massive document. It 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:26.620 really is. But our mission today isn't to just, 00:01:26.620 --> 00:01:29.719 like, read you a timeline. We want to cut through 00:01:29.719 --> 00:01:32.700 the sheer density of this history and extract 00:01:32.700 --> 00:01:36.099 the crucial, you know, aha moments. Yeah, the 00:01:36.099 --> 00:01:38.280 underlying logic of how this war started, why 00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:40.659 it unfolded the way it did, and how it permanently 00:01:40.659 --> 00:01:43.260 reshaped the modern world give you a shortcut 00:01:43.260 --> 00:01:46.459 to being deeply well informed. But before we 00:01:46.459 --> 00:01:47.920 get into the mechanics of all that, there's a 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:49.680 really important parameter we need to set. For 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:51.780 sure. Given the gravity of the source material, 00:01:51.939 --> 00:01:54.219 establishing this baseline is just non -negotiable. 00:01:54.340 --> 00:01:56.689 Yeah. So our source material contains highly 00:01:56.689 --> 00:01:58.750 politically charged content. I mean, it goes 00:01:58.750 --> 00:02:00.930 deep into the debated justifications for the 00:02:00.930 --> 00:02:03.810 war, the actions of various political administrations, 00:02:03.950 --> 00:02:05.530 both left -wing and right -wing, and frankly, 00:02:05.909 --> 00:02:07.890 severe human rights abuses. Committed by all 00:02:07.890 --> 00:02:11.530 sides, really. Exactly. Coalition forces, insurgent 00:02:11.530 --> 00:02:15.189 groups, sectarian militias. So I want to be explicitly 00:02:15.189 --> 00:02:18.400 clear with you listening right now. We are never 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:21.439 taking a side here. Never. We are not endorsing 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:24.639 the viewpoints or the actions described. We are 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:28.099 strictly, impartially reporting the factual ideas 00:02:28.099 --> 00:02:30.539 contained within the original source material. 00:02:30.699 --> 00:02:32.580 And when you look objectively at that record, 00:02:32.780 --> 00:02:35.759 the sheer scale of the event just demands our 00:02:35.759 --> 00:02:38.539 attention. It's staggering. Right. I mean, we're 00:02:38.539 --> 00:02:40.680 analyzing a conflict that stretched for nearly 00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:43.860 a decade, cost trillions of dollars, and completely 00:02:43.860 --> 00:02:46.780 changed global geopolitics for So let's look 00:02:46.780 --> 00:02:48.680 at the spark. Let's start with the immediate 00:02:48.680 --> 00:02:51.780 post -9 -11 climate. The source details this 00:02:51.780 --> 00:02:55.000 chillingly rapid pivot. Oh, the speed of it is 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.759 wild. On the actual day of the September 11 attacks, 00:02:58.180 --> 00:02:59.939 I mean, the Pentagon is literally still burning, 00:03:00.340 --> 00:03:03.099 and Defense Secretary Donan Rumsfeld is already 00:03:03.099 --> 00:03:06.060 instructing his aides to get, quote, best info 00:03:06.060 --> 00:03:08.539 fast on whether they could strike Saddam Hussein. 00:03:09.009 --> 00:03:11.009 Simultaneously with Osama Bin Laden. Right. On 00:03:11.009 --> 00:03:13.250 day one. Which really reveals the prevailing 00:03:13.250 --> 00:03:15.449 mindset of the Bush administration's national 00:03:15.449 --> 00:03:17.949 security team at that time. How so? Well, many 00:03:17.949 --> 00:03:20.250 of these officials built their worldviews during 00:03:20.250 --> 00:03:23.069 the Cold War, you know. They operated under this 00:03:23.069 --> 00:03:26.009 preconceived assumption that an attack as devastatingly 00:03:26.009 --> 00:03:28.930 sophisticated as 9 -11 simply had to have the 00:03:28.930 --> 00:03:31.310 backing of a traditional nation state. Oh, I 00:03:31.310 --> 00:03:33.969 see. Yeah, non -state actors pulling off something 00:03:33.969 --> 00:03:36.150 of that magnitude just didn't fit into their 00:03:36.150 --> 00:03:39.189 established paradigm. OK, let's unpack this because 00:03:39.189 --> 00:03:42.909 that paradigm created a catastrophic intelligence 00:03:42.909 --> 00:03:46.759 disconnect. I mean, the CIA. British intelligence, 00:03:47.039 --> 00:03:49.639 and later the exhaustive 9 -11 commission, all 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:51.780 arrive at the exact same conclusion. Which was 00:03:51.780 --> 00:03:54.020 that there were zero collaborative ties between 00:03:54.020 --> 00:03:56.879 Saddam Hussein and al -Qaeda. Zero. And then, 00:03:56.879 --> 00:03:58.599 regarding the whole weapons of mass destruction 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:01.900 thing, UN inspector Hans Blix was actively on 00:04:01.900 --> 00:04:03.819 the ground in Iraq. Right, conducting actual 00:04:03.819 --> 00:04:05.560 searches. Yeah, and reporting that his teams 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:08.439 were finding absolutely nothing. The entire rationale 00:04:08.439 --> 00:04:11.139 for the invasion essentially rested on fabricated 00:04:11.139 --> 00:04:13.740 intelligence. Primarily from that single discredited 00:04:13.740 --> 00:04:16.569 informant, right? Yes. codename Curveball. And 00:04:16.569 --> 00:04:18.810 then Secretary of State Colin Powell presents 00:04:18.810 --> 00:04:22.470 those fabrications to the UN as hard facts. It's 00:04:22.470 --> 00:04:24.649 just wild. I'd like to give you an analogy. It's 00:04:24.649 --> 00:04:27.209 like deciding a neighbor is dangerous based on 00:04:27.209 --> 00:04:30.129 a totally baseless rumor. Having the police investigate 00:04:30.129 --> 00:04:32.410 and find absolutely nothing, but you go ahead 00:04:32.410 --> 00:04:34.329 and kick their door down anyway just because 00:04:34.329 --> 00:04:37.040 you have this preemptive feeling. What's fascinating 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:40.279 here is how the newly formalized Bush Doctrine 00:04:40.279 --> 00:04:43.199 provided the actual bureaucratic cover for that 00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:45.720 cognitive bias. Right, the doctrine of preemption. 00:04:46.019 --> 00:04:49.079 Exactly. It shifted American foreign policy toward 00:04:49.079 --> 00:04:52.040 preemptive war, this idea that the U .S. couldn't 00:04:52.040 --> 00:04:54.420 wait for a threat to fully materialize before 00:04:54.420 --> 00:04:57.439 striking. Right. And when you adopt preemption 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:00.259 as your core philosophy, you inevitably lower 00:05:00.259 --> 00:05:02.480 the threshold for actionable intelligence. You 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:05.199 start relying on worst -case scenario assumptions. 00:05:05.420 --> 00:05:07.379 instead of hard evidence. And they push forward 00:05:07.379 --> 00:05:10.079 despite massive global opposition. I mean, 36 00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:12.860 million people protesting globally. UN Secretary 00:05:12.860 --> 00:05:15.839 General Kofi Annan explicitly declaring the invasion 00:05:15.839 --> 00:05:18.100 illegal. Said the momentum was locked in. It 00:05:18.100 --> 00:05:20.079 was. So the door gets kicked down in defiance 00:05:20.079 --> 00:05:22.480 of international consensus. Which brings us to 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:25.800 March 2003, and the shock and awe campaign begins. 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:29.180 The conventional military phase. Right. And from 00:05:29.180 --> 00:05:32.319 a strictly conventional standpoint, it's a remarkably 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:36.230 swift victory. Baghdad falls by April, they popple 00:05:36.230 --> 00:05:38.209 Saddam's statue. Yeah, if you stop the clock 00:05:38.209 --> 00:05:40.290 right there, it looks like a total tactical triumph. 00:05:40.430 --> 00:05:42.930 But dismantling a regime is entirely different 00:05:42.930 --> 00:05:45.129 from governing a fractured state, right? Completely 00:05:45.129 --> 00:05:47.629 different. The U .S. military decapitated the 00:05:47.629 --> 00:05:50.029 sovereign government, which instantly transferred 00:05:50.029 --> 00:05:54.050 this massive burden of civil control to the coalition 00:05:54.050 --> 00:05:57.230 provisional authority. The CPA. Right. Led by 00:05:57.230 --> 00:05:59.470 Paul Bremer. Right. And this is where the CPA 00:05:59.470 --> 00:06:02.540 makes a series of unforced errors that honestly 00:06:02.540 --> 00:06:06.420 just defy belief. Bremer's first major move is 00:06:06.420 --> 00:06:10.759 debathification. Right, using post -WWII denazification 00:06:10.759 --> 00:06:13.240 as their blueprint. Exactly. So he fires somewhere 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:16.180 between 85 ,000 and 100 ,000 government workers. 00:06:16.519 --> 00:06:18.480 But he doesn't just target the top political 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:20.759 cronies. No, it went way deeper. It included 00:06:20.759 --> 00:06:23.740 like 40 ,000 school teachers, hospital administrators, 00:06:24.540 --> 00:06:26.879 civil engineers who were only bath party members 00:06:26.879 --> 00:06:29.579 out of sheer professional necessity. And stripping 00:06:29.579 --> 00:06:32.379 away that middle management layer just gutted 00:06:32.379 --> 00:06:34.500 the country's institutional memory overnight. 00:06:34.779 --> 00:06:36.740 Nobody knew how to run anything. Literally. You 00:06:36.740 --> 00:06:39.120 had no one who knew how to route the power grid 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:42.180 or manage municipal water supplies. But it was 00:06:42.180 --> 00:06:45.459 CPA Order 2 that really set the stage for disaster. 00:06:45.740 --> 00:06:48.379 Here's where it gets really interesting. Because 00:06:48.379 --> 00:06:53.399 Order 2 disbanded the 375 ,000 -strong Iraqi 00:06:53.399 --> 00:06:57.009 army without pay. totally reversing the promise 00:06:57.009 --> 00:06:59.149 of those leaflets we talked about. It dismantled 00:06:59.149 --> 00:07:01.910 the only institution capable of maintaining security. 00:07:01.990 --> 00:07:04.540 Right. And logically, the strategy here is just 00:07:04.540 --> 00:07:06.500 completely absent. You've just conquered a foreign 00:07:06.500 --> 00:07:09.319 nation. Why would your first administrative act 00:07:09.319 --> 00:07:11.839 be to take hundreds of thousands of men who are 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:14.660 highly trained in infantry tactics, intimately 00:07:14.660 --> 00:07:16.740 familiar with the local geography and heavily 00:07:16.740 --> 00:07:19.300 armed, heavily armed. Yes. And make them suddenly 00:07:19.300 --> 00:07:21.779 unemployed and deeply furious at the occupying 00:07:21.779 --> 00:07:24.199 force. Aren't you basically just creating and 00:07:24.199 --> 00:07:26.220 funding your own opposition? If we connect this 00:07:26.220 --> 00:07:28.860 to the bigger picture, this wasn't just an administrative 00:07:28.860 --> 00:07:31.759 misstep. It actively transformed a defeated. 00:07:31.850 --> 00:07:35.029 military into the backbone of a fierce organized 00:07:35.029 --> 00:07:38.569 insurgency. It's just devastating. The CPA assumed 00:07:38.569 --> 00:07:40.850 these men would just nicely integrate into a 00:07:40.850 --> 00:07:43.670 new democratic society. Instead, they took their 00:07:43.670 --> 00:07:45.930 command structures, their local loyalties, and 00:07:45.930 --> 00:07:48.189 went underground. Which created a massive power 00:07:48.189 --> 00:07:50.689 vacuum. Exactly. It completely destroyed civil 00:07:50.689 --> 00:07:52.930 order. The occupying forces just didn't have 00:07:52.930 --> 00:07:55.410 the troop density to secure the country, which 00:07:55.410 --> 00:07:57.870 led to widespread looting. And we aren't just 00:07:57.870 --> 00:07:59.569 talking about stealing office furniture here. 00:07:59.689 --> 00:08:02.069 No, not at all. The Pentagon later admitted that 00:08:02.069 --> 00:08:04.149 because coalition forces couldn't secure the 00:08:04.149 --> 00:08:06.970 perimeters of former military bases, insurgents 00:08:06.970 --> 00:08:11.569 systematically looted 250 ,000 tons of munitions. 00:08:11.689 --> 00:08:13.810 A quarter of a million tons. High explosives, 00:08:14.569 --> 00:08:18.180 artillery shells, small arms. The very soldiers 00:08:18.180 --> 00:08:21.319 Bremer had just fired now had access to an endless, 00:08:21.699 --> 00:08:24.800 unsecured supply chain. Those stockpiles literally 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:27.600 became the fuel for the insurgency. Which accelerates 00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:30.379 this terrifying descent into chaos between 2004 00:08:30.379 --> 00:08:33.120 and 2006. We see the rise of these localized 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:36.240 factions. Al -Qaeda in Iraq under Zarqawi, the 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:38.519 Mahdi army. But the pivotal moment, the true 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:41.940 point of no return, is the 2006 Alaskari mosque 00:08:41.940 --> 00:08:45.220 bombing. Oh, absolutely. That single bombing 00:08:45.220 --> 00:08:49.460 sparks a full blown Sunni Shia civil war. The 00:08:49.460 --> 00:08:51.960 metrics are just apocalyptic. Murder rates in 00:08:51.960 --> 00:08:54.759 Baghdad tripled to 33 deaths a day. Yeah, the 00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:57.919 violence shifted into organized, localized ethnic 00:08:57.919 --> 00:09:00.899 cleansing. I want you, the listener, to try and 00:09:00.899 --> 00:09:03.240 imagine surviving in that environment. The police 00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:06.220 force has dissolved. Sectarian militias are cleansing 00:09:06.220 --> 00:09:08.600 your neighborhood. And heavily armed occupying 00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:11.659 forces are caught in extreme urban combat right 00:09:11.659 --> 00:09:13.940 outside your door. And again, returning to our 00:09:13.940 --> 00:09:16.659 impartiality parameters, the brutal reality is 00:09:16.659 --> 00:09:19.240 that no side was spared from committing grave 00:09:19.240 --> 00:09:21.759 human rights violations here. No, the source 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:24.580 material meticulously documents atrocities across 00:09:24.580 --> 00:09:27.120 the board. The insurgents, particularly under 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:30.259 Zarqawi, relied on maximizing terror. Suicide 00:09:30.259 --> 00:09:32.419 bombers targeting crowded markets, sectarian 00:09:32.419 --> 00:09:34.759 death squads, publicized beheadings of journalists 00:09:34.759 --> 00:09:37.529 and contractors. And on the coalition side. The 00:09:37.529 --> 00:09:40.250 historical record is equally grim. You have the 00:09:40.250 --> 00:09:42.529 Abi -Ghraib torture scandal. Right, systematic 00:09:42.529 --> 00:09:44.809 abuse of detainees. You have the Haditha massacre. 00:09:44.850 --> 00:09:47.450 Yeah. And the highly controversial use of white 00:09:47.450 --> 00:09:49.639 phosphorus by U .S. forces in Fallujah. What 00:09:49.639 --> 00:09:52.360 the history shows is a total collapse of the 00:09:52.360 --> 00:09:55.620 rules of engagement. The war had completely mutated 00:09:55.620 --> 00:09:58.100 from a resistance against a foreign invader into 00:09:58.100 --> 00:10:00.980 this incredibly complex sectarian civil war. 00:10:01.259 --> 00:10:03.500 Where Iraqi civilians paid the ultimate price. 00:10:04.019 --> 00:10:06.159 Exactly. So with the country tearing itself apart, 00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:08.799 the US had to drastically change its strategy, 00:10:09.019 --> 00:10:12.480 which leads to the 2007 surge. Right. A massive 00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:16.159 final gamble. President Bush sends over 20 ,000 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:19.080 combat reinforcements under General David Petraeus. 00:10:19.159 --> 00:10:21.399 But it wasn't just the troops that changed things, 00:10:21.559 --> 00:10:23.740 right? No, it was pairing those troops with the 00:10:23.740 --> 00:10:26.379 Anbar Awakening. Ah, right. The U .S. military 00:10:26.379 --> 00:10:28.899 recognized that local Sunni Arab tribes were 00:10:28.899 --> 00:10:31.740 actually getting fed up with al -Qaeda in Iraq's 00:10:31.740 --> 00:10:34.120 extreme brutality. So U .S. commanders began 00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:36.379 actively funding and arming these Sunni tribal 00:10:36.379 --> 00:10:38.720 leaders. Many of whom were literally former insurgents. 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:40.799 Exactly. They were shooting at U .S. soldiers 00:10:40.799 --> 00:10:43.720 just months prior. It's wild. They literally 00:10:43.720 --> 00:10:46.299 bought off the localized power brokers to stop 00:10:46.299 --> 00:10:48.539 shooting at them and aim at al -Qaeda instead. 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:51.480 And strictly in terms of metrics, it worked. 00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:54.820 The Pentagon recorded a 40 to 80 percent drop 00:10:54.820 --> 00:10:58.080 in violence. That relative stabilization paved 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:00.840 the way for the 2008 Status of Forces Agreement. 00:11:01.340 --> 00:11:03.960 The SOFA, which legally set the deadline for 00:11:03.960 --> 00:11:06.820 the 2011 U .S. withdrawal. Right. Under President 00:11:06.820 --> 00:11:10.279 Obama. So what's this all mean? Did the military 00:11:10.279 --> 00:11:12.940 surge actually pacify the country? Or did paying 00:11:12.940 --> 00:11:15.840 former insurgents just buy a temporary, incredibly 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:18.919 fragile peace? This raises an important question 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:21.679 that defines the whole legacy of the war. Because 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:23.820 while the violence dropped, the underlying ethno 00:11:23.820 --> 00:11:25.860 -sectarian cracks were never actually fixed. 00:11:25.980 --> 00:11:27.720 Europe just papered over with cash and combat 00:11:27.720 --> 00:11:30.019 power. Exactly. General Odierno, the commander 00:11:30.019 --> 00:11:32.600 of coalition forces, even warned that in military 00:11:32.600 --> 00:11:34.960 terms, transitions are the most dangerous time. 00:11:35.320 --> 00:11:38.509 And that warning was spot on. In 2011, the U 00:11:38.509 --> 00:11:41.169 .S. officially packs up and leaves, and the fragile 00:11:41.169 --> 00:11:43.330 peace immediately shatters. The power vacuum 00:11:43.330 --> 00:11:45.490 returned instantly. Which leads directly to the 00:11:45.490 --> 00:11:48.549 rise of ISIS. Right. By 2014, ISIS captures major 00:11:48.549 --> 00:11:51.169 cities like Mosul, declaring a caliphate and 00:11:51.169 --> 00:11:53.269 dragging the U .S. military right back into the 00:11:53.269 --> 00:11:57.409 conflict. It reveals the true, staggering, long 00:11:57.409 --> 00:12:00.059 -term costs of the indasion. Let's break those 00:12:00.059 --> 00:12:02.500 down. Financially, the direct cost was around 00:12:02.500 --> 00:12:05.779 $1 .7 trillion. But when you factor in compound 00:12:05.779 --> 00:12:08.340 interest on the borrowed money plus decades of 00:12:08.340 --> 00:12:10.940 future veterans' health care, macroeconomists 00:12:10.940 --> 00:12:13.919 estimate it could hit $3 to $6 trillion. Trillion. 00:12:14.159 --> 00:12:16.960 With a T. Yeah. But the human toll is what's 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:19.539 truly difficult to grasp. Estimates range from 00:12:19.539 --> 00:12:23.960 150 ,000 to over a million Iraqi deaths, plus 00:12:23.960 --> 00:12:27.480 over 4 ,800 coalition military deaths. And we 00:12:27.480 --> 00:12:29.460 also have to look at the environmental devastation. 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:31.519 Oh, right. The source goes into detail on that. 00:12:31.559 --> 00:12:35.659 Over 130 million gallons of oil spilled, 25 ,000 00:12:35.659 --> 00:12:38.100 tons of bombs dropped, and the devastating use 00:12:38.100 --> 00:12:40.480 of depleted uranium munitions, which medical 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:42.759 studies have linked to severe spikes in cancer 00:12:42.759 --> 00:12:44.700 and birth defects, especially in cities like 00:12:44.700 --> 00:12:47.320 Philly. And globally. Instead of defeating terror, 00:12:47.860 --> 00:12:49.840 a U .S. National Intelligence Council report 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:52.639 concluded the war basically became a cause celebre 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:55.220 for jihadists worldwide. It acted as a global 00:12:55.220 --> 00:12:57.360 recruiting and training ground. It's such a dark 00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:00.529 historical irony. An invasion justified to prevent 00:13:00.529 --> 00:13:04.649 global terrorism ended up creating ISIS, a multinational 00:13:04.649 --> 00:13:06.870 terrorist organization. While simultaneously 00:13:06.870 --> 00:13:10.370 emboldening Iran, Iran is really the definitive 00:13:10.370 --> 00:13:13.769 geopolitical victor of this conflict. By removing 00:13:13.769 --> 00:13:17.289 Saddam, the U .S. eliminated Iran's primary regional 00:13:17.289 --> 00:13:19.649 rival and effectively guaranteed a Shia -led 00:13:19.649 --> 00:13:21.990 government with ties to Tehran would take power. 00:13:22.220 --> 00:13:24.539 It completely shifted the balance of power in 00:13:24.539 --> 00:13:26.720 the Middle East. And for you listening, this 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:29.019 is why it matters today. When you see news about 00:13:29.019 --> 00:13:32.120 the Middle East, ISIS, the national debt, or 00:13:32.120 --> 00:13:34.639 veterans issues, The shadow of the decisions 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:37.320 made in 2003 is still driving those headlines. 00:13:37.740 --> 00:13:40.000 We are still living in the aftermath. We really 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:42.179 are. Well, we've covered an immense amount of 00:13:42.179 --> 00:13:44.200 ground today. Thank you so much for helping navigate 00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:46.860 this incredibly dense source material. Of course. 00:13:46.919 --> 00:13:49.620 It's complex, but it's essential history to understand. 00:13:49.879 --> 00:13:51.820 Absolutely. Before we wrap up, I want to leave 00:13:51.820 --> 00:13:53.700 you, the listener, with a final thought to mull 00:13:53.700 --> 00:13:56.679 over. Our source notes that the deeply flawed 00:13:56.679 --> 00:13:59.580 intelligence used to justify the Iraq War is 00:13:59.580 --> 00:14:01.700 actually being weaponized on the global stage 00:14:01.700 --> 00:14:04.110 right now. Yeah, this is a crucial point. Countries 00:14:04.110 --> 00:14:07.610 like Russia actively cite the 2003 invasion to 00:14:07.610 --> 00:14:10.110 deflect criticism for their own illegal invasions, 00:14:10.230 --> 00:14:12.610 like in Ukraine. They point to Colin Powell at 00:14:12.610 --> 00:14:15.509 the UN and say, look, the West does it too. So 00:14:15.509 --> 00:14:18.809 consider this. Did the 2003 invasion of Iraq 00:14:18.809 --> 00:14:22.009 not just destabilize the Middle East, but permanently 00:14:22.009 --> 00:14:24.409 shatter the moral authority of the West and the 00:14:24.409 --> 00:14:26.990 very concept of international law for the rest 00:14:26.990 --> 00:14:29.889 of the 21st century? It's a heavy question. It 00:14:29.889 --> 00:14:32.179 is. Something to think about. Keep questioning 00:14:32.179 --> 00:14:33.879 what you know and we'll catch you on the next 00:14:33.879 --> 00:14:34.399 deep dive.