Iraq never attacked anyone. A better comparison is the war in Afghanistan.
If we compare # of people in each country. 10/07 for Israel was like 15 9/11s (this is a quote from a President Biden speech).
So not only is it worth asking - how many Americans didnt want to fight Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. But how many would be against some sort of war like that, if tomorrow morning they woke up to a 9/11 sized attack in 15 of the biggest US cities, happening at the same time
Not only did the US go far from home to destroy Afghanistan, but the whole world joined them to do it together
Yeah, and the war in Afghanistan resulted in nothing but temporary bloody vengeance. 20 years later, and we're all back to where we were before - minus millions of civilians dead or displaced.
I think your point is pretty cogent, the comparison is not bad. But it suffers from a pretty big flaw in that the US hadn't spent the preceding several decades subjugating Afghanis or encroaching upon their land; didn't have a government whose members and officials openly issued bigoted and racist statements against Afghanis (though I am sure there were a few Congressional Republicans who may have bucked that trend, I don't remember), etc.
US foreign policy isn't nice or morally sound, but one thing it was not doing in the run-up to 9/11 and its subsequent invasion of Afghanistan was directly fucking up Afghani lives and killing Afghani children. Same can't be said for Israel in its relationship to the Palestinians.
That’s perhaps not the best example because the US was deeply involved in Afghani politics from the early 1970s and at least indirectly responsible for fucking up countless of Afghani lives prior to 9/11.
But that said, I agree with your general point: The relationship between the US and Afghanistan is and was very different to the relationship between Israel and Palestine.
In the UK, the Iraq invasion provoked the biggest protests ever witnessed. The current stuff is small potatoes in comparison.
Iraq never attacked anyone. A better comparison is the war in Afghanistan.
If we compare # of people in each country. 10/07 for Israel was like 15 9/11s (this is a quote from a President Biden speech).
So not only is it worth asking - how many Americans didnt want to fight Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. But how many would be against some sort of war like that, if tomorrow morning they woke up to a 9/11 sized attack in 15 of the biggest US cities, happening at the same time
Not only did the US go far from home to destroy Afghanistan, but the whole world joined them to do it together
Yeah, and the war in Afghanistan resulted in nothing but temporary bloody vengeance. 20 years later, and we're all back to where we were before - minus millions of civilians dead or displaced.
The US didn't go to war to 'destroy Afghanistan'. They went to war to fight the Taliban.
> Iraq never attacked anyone
I am not sure Kuwait would agree.
It's also interesting that immediately after 9/11, the majority of American still had a positive view of the Afghan people[1].
[1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/9994/public-opinion-war-afghani...
Or Iran, for that matter. That said, the 2nd Gulf War was started by the US.
Iraq never attacked anyone? Have you heard of Kuwait, Iran and Israel?
I think your point is pretty cogent, the comparison is not bad. But it suffers from a pretty big flaw in that the US hadn't spent the preceding several decades subjugating Afghanis or encroaching upon their land; didn't have a government whose members and officials openly issued bigoted and racist statements against Afghanis (though I am sure there were a few Congressional Republicans who may have bucked that trend, I don't remember), etc.
US foreign policy isn't nice or morally sound, but one thing it was not doing in the run-up to 9/11 and its subsequent invasion of Afghanistan was directly fucking up Afghani lives and killing Afghani children. Same can't be said for Israel in its relationship to the Palestinians.
That’s perhaps not the best example because the US was deeply involved in Afghani politics from the early 1970s and at least indirectly responsible for fucking up countless of Afghani lives prior to 9/11.
But that said, I agree with your general point: The relationship between the US and Afghanistan is and was very different to the relationship between Israel and Palestine.
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