Comments by "Dennis" (@Dennis-nc3vw) on "Brutal Urban Combat: Battle of Fallujah (2004) | Animated History" video.

  1. It's amazing how people can use words and never even think about what they mean by them. All the comments calling the insurgents "freedom fighters" and say they were "defending their homeland." Could YOU even name what freedom they were fighting for, or what they were defending their homeland from? Elections? About 88% of civilians in Iraq were killed by "insurgents, militia, and terrorists" according to an estimate by John Sloboda from Iraq Body Count, and anyone who was following the war closely when it was happening (ie basically no one in these comments) would be surprised it wasn't a higher percentage. The lame ass excuse I hear from insurgency cheerleaders is that not all insurgents engaged in this behavior. So what? How does that matter in the slightest? They were their allies and therefore their enablers. In war you can't fight one side without enabling the other. At least tens of thousands of the insurgents had the decency and moral courage to confront this fact, hence the Anbar Awakening (which 99% of you here have never even heard of because you criticize what you've never even attempted to understand), when the "nationalist" insurgents joined the Americans to fight the "jihadists". They had the decency and intellectual honesty their cheerleaders don't.
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  2. "OMG WHY ARE YOU CALLING PEOPLE WHO DEFENDED THEIR HOME TERRORISTS!!!111" We're not. We're calling people who gouge women's eyes out for wearing make up, kill boys for wearing emo hair cuts, carbomb crowded markets, and cut power lines just out of pure meanness terrorists. All the insurgents in Iraq were either A) complicit in these activities B) shooting our boys while they were trying to kill and capture those who were complicit in these activities. It doesn't matter of Ali Al-Fulani doesn't support Al Qaeda, if he's fighting as their ally in battle he's just as useful to them as someone who does. Iraq was at its most violent years in 2006 and 2007. When Iraqis FINALLY admitted who was really killing them, and half the insurgents switched to our side during the Anbar Awakening, and Muqtada Al-Sadr declared a cease fire, American soldiers, Iraqi soldiers, and Iraqi police were finally able to do their jobs, and Iraqi deaths fell by about 80%.
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  3. You know there was a time when being called a freedom fighter actually required you to be fighting for...you know, freedom? What freedom were the insurgents fighting for? The freedom for Iraqis to not be able to elect their own government?
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  4.  @eishaalsadiq4695  The insurgents were fighting against their people's right to elect their own government and preventing the US from rooting out terrorists like Al Qaeda in Iraq. That's why peace only came to Iraq when these insurgents started co-operating with us during the Anbar Awakening. Why does everyone automatically assume "invaders = bad". That's as morally nihilistic as tarring all revolutions/rebellions/revolts with the same brush.
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  5. Remember the good old days when to be a freedom fighter, you actually had to fight for freedom? What freedom were they fighting for? The freedom for Iraqis to not have a say in how their government was run? Fallujah was part of a region called the Sunni Triangle, where the insurgents basically won. The insuing tyranny got so bad, half of the insurgents flipped sides and joined America in what was called "The Anbar Awakening."
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  6. You mean Saddam's sovereignty? America gave the Iraqi PEOPLE true sovereignty. Even if it meant Iraqis electing Sadrists into parliament, electing a Prime Minister who was known for sucking up to Iran, denying the US any permanent based in the 2008 SOFA, letting Russia use their airspace, etc.
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  7. Sadly 90% of Americans today have no patriotism and simply allow their country and their soldiers to be hideously slandered freely, but for the tiny percent of us who still do, here are some facts to use against the agents of hate: 1) An April 2004 Gallup poll showed Iraqis believe the invasion was "worth it" by a margin of 2 to 1. They only changed their mind in 2006 when sectarian violence kicked into high gear. They mass murdered each other, blamed Americans, and then pretended they never wanted to be liberated. 2) Another Public Opinion poll taken in May 2004, compiled in a report in May 15, 2004, showed most Iraqis wanted the US to stay in the country until the elections. 3) Half of the insurgents fighting in Fallujah switched sides after they saw the horrors their side brought about wherever it won. This would become known as the Anbar Awakening.
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  8.  mosaabtwice3999  An April 2004 Gallup poll showed Iraqis thought the invasion was "worth it" by a margin of about 2 to 1. Our crime was giving the Iraqis what they wanted, and not knowing better than them what was best for Iraq.
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  9. Fallujah was part of an area called the Sunni Triangle. This is an area where the insurgents defacto won. Things got so bad half of them switched sides to the US while the other half stayed behind to form ISIS. But sure, the insurgents are heroes and Americans are Nazis, just because you say so.
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  10. What were they defending their homeland from? Elections? 88% of civilian casualties, according to John Sloboda of Iraq Body Count, were at the hands of "insurgents, milita, and terrorists". If you were part of the insurgency you either one of those murders, or their allies and enablers. Many of the insurgents THEMSELVES realized this simple fact which is why they switched sides during the Anbar Awakening.
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  11. Maybe because the US actually gave Iraqis a chance to elect their own government? Grouping all invasions together is as nihilistic as grouping all rebellions/revolutions together. No one does that.
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  12. There is truly no force on Earth more merciless and uncompromising for the human mind than anti-Americanism. It's unreal people frame the insurgents as heroes. During the Anbar Awakening, half the insurgents in the Sunni Triangle saw the horrors their victories left behind and SWITCHED SIDES, while the other half stayed behind and become the precursors to ISIS. So to all those calling the insurgents heroes, let me ask you, who are you calling heroes? The people who formed ISIS? Or the people who themselves realized they were fighting a bad fight and switched sides to the Americans?
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  13. No, but the vast majority of them were killed by the side you were rooting for: "In total, over 150,000 people have been killed and 80 percent of them – more than 122,000 – were civilians, said the IBC. [...] According to a 2010 assessment by John Sloboda, director of Iraq Body Count, U.S. and Coalition forces had killed at least 22,668 insurgents as well as 13,807 civilians in the Iraq War, with the rest of the civilians killed by insurgents, militias, or terrorists." - John Slobeda, Iraq Body Count
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  14.  @sameerkhan3757  Well speak for yourself, the majority of Iraqis in 2004 (when the battle of Fallujah took place) still thought to invasion was a good thing according to both the UN and Gallup. I don't know why being an invader makes you automatically bad. Grenadans literally have a holiday celebrating when the US invaded their country, 92% of Panamanians approved of Operation Just Cause. America itself owes it freedom from foreign interventionism from France and Spain. If Joe Biden declared himself and his sons oligarch for life, and his sons promised to restore our elections, I would not hesitate to side with the invaders.
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  15. Ugh! You don't even think about what any of the words you use actually mean. Believe it or not, there was a time when being a freedom fighter actually required you to fight for freedom, and imperialists actually had to be forming an empire. What freedom were the insurgents fighting for? The freedom of Iraqis to not be able to elect their own government? What imperialism was the US fighting for? Setting up an independent democracy is not imperialism, its basically the opposite.
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  16. "Occupation" is just a buzzword you throw around with no actual meaning. What is an "occupation" really? The US has troops in Germany. Are we occupying Germany? A true occupation would be a military force trying to control a territory, but the US wasn't try to control Iraq, we were setting up elections so they could decide their own future.
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  17.  @user-eh4tb7qi4r  In other words, you're faulting us for not knowing better than the Iraqis themselves what was best for Iraq. Why did decolonialism happen again? Doesn't seem like it should have if we're supposed to know better what's best for them than they do themselves.
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  18.  @clarus.  Well then the insurgents played right into our hands. Stabilizing Iraq was easy once they stopped fighting with us and started cooperating with us during the Anbar Awakening and Muqtada Al-Sadr declared a cease fire.
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  19.  @thrashingmetal  If the insurgents here were fighting a good fight, why did half of them switch sides during the Anbar Awakening?
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  20.  @user-sw7hz7bw2y  No, gouging women's eyes out for wearing make up, carbombing heavily populated markets, and murdering boys for emo haircuts is called terrorism. The insurgents were either A) participating in these activities B) shooting at us while were trying to kill and capture those who were. That's why in 2008, after the Mahdi Army declared a cease fire and a huge number of Sunni insurgents switched sides to fight the Islamic State of Iraq (precursor to ISIS) in what was called the Anbar Awakening, Iraqi civilian deaths plummeted by about 80%.
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  21.  @eliotisconfusedaboutyourpa8105  It doesn't matter whether they personally did terrorism, they were the allies of these terrorists. I know this hard to believe but its more difficult for Americans to capture and kill "AQ and some other militias" when they are being shot at by people "defending their country". Those people "defending their country" realized this THEMSELVES and that's why they switched sides during the Anbar Awakening, which is what finally brought peace to Iraq in 2008.
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  22.  @eliotisconfusedaboutyourpa8105  The precursors to ISIS were alive and well, killing thousands of innocent Iraqis every month knowing people like you would blame America for their atrocities and turn their murders into propaganda victories. Sunni insurgents had already coalesced into something called "The Islamic State of Iraq" by 2007.
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  23. Funny you should say that when half these insurgents (who lived) switched sides and started fighting for the US in the Anbar Awakening.
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  24. An April 2004 Gallup poll showed most Iraqis thought the invasion was "worth it" by a margin of more than 2 to 1. They only changed their mind in mid-2006 onwards when sectarian violence kicked into high gear. They mass murdered each other, blamed Americans, and then pretended they never wanted to be liberated. By the way, Gallup is the same company that polled Crimeans in 2004 and found 90+% of them thought Russia's referendum was legit so don't you dare accuse them of having a pro-American bias.
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  25. How would they tell civilians from insurgents who were trying to leave?
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  26. "In total, over 150,000 people have been killed and 80 percent of them – more than 122,000 – were civilians, said the IBC. [...] According to a 2010 assessment by John Sloboda, director of Iraq Body Count, U.S. and Coalition forces had killed at least 22,668 insurgents as well as 13,807 civilians in the Iraq War, with the rest of the civilians killed by insurgents, militias, or terrorists." The people who killed the overwhelming majority of Iraqis were the people Americans were there to kill and capture.
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  27. An April 2004 Gallup poll showed Iraqis thought the invasion was worth it by a margin of more than 2 to 1, and only 17% approved of attacks on coaltion forces. It wasn't until mid-2006 you changed your tune, when sectarian violence kicked into high gear. In other words you mass murdered each other and blamed Americans. I wonder if you're "low education" or just disingenuous, like so many of your people? By the way Gallup was the same company that polled Crimeans in 2014 and found 90%+ of them thought Russia's referendum was legit so don't you dare use the "they just have a pro-American bias" cop out.
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  28. Yes, trying to prevent their countrymen for being able to elect their own government, and preventing America from effectively rooting the terrorists that killed 88% of civilians in Iraq. So heroic.
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  29.  @swacks7960  That statistic simply takes everyone who died during the war and blames it all on Americans.
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  30. Actually most Iraqis still thought the invasion was a good thing in 2004, according to the both the UN and Gallup surveys. Why does everyone have this "invader = bad" kneejerk thinking? That's as morally nihilistic as saying people who rebel against their government are automatically good.
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  31.  @tarix_x2368  Yeah, during the Anbar Awakening, when they switched sides and joined the US after seeing the horrors that followed every time they won.
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  32.  @maquacr7014  But their little war against the Americans empowered those Wahabis. It's hard for Americans to kill and capture said Wahabis when they're getting shot at.
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  33.  @commontouch1787  These "insurgents" either ended up join the US in the Anbar Awakening or stayed behind to form ISIS. You slimeballs don't have any moral compass whatsoever, you just hate America and will side with whoever else does. In fact a 2004 Gallup poll shows most Iraqis still supported the invasion and another poll take a month later by Global Policy showed most US presence in their country at this time.
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  34.  @74thartillery__  Remember when being a Freedom Fighter meant you actually had to fight for freedom? Why don't you get a speck of intellectual honesty? What "freedom" were they fighting for exactly? The freedom to not be able to elect their own government? Not to mention half these insurgents either realized the error of their ways and joined the US during the Anbar Awakening, or stayed behind to form ISIS.
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  35.  @m.a.6826  Scumbag, you have no moral compass beyond hating America. Half these insurgents weren't even right from their own perspective, because they joined America during the Anbar Awakening after they saw the horrors their "victories" left behind.
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  36.  @74thartillery__  Remember the days when being a freedom fighter actually required to be fighting for, you know, freedom? What freedom were those insurgents fighting for? You couldn't answer to save your life. Freedom from elections?
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  37.  @hermocrasbreadlord9557  These people are monsters, plain and simple. They know nothing but hate. They live, breath, eat, and smoke anti-Americanism. It's their life's blood. Their entire moral compass.
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  38. Surveys by both the UN and Gallup show most Iraqis believed the Americans did the right thing by invading their country in 2004. You wanted to be liberated. Then you mass murdered each other in sectarian violence, blamed Americans, and pretended you never did.
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  39. If we were cowards we would have never taken a single casualty, just leveled Iraq from the sky.
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  40.  @18nakedcowboys69  Those wars wouldn't have lasted as long as they did if that was our tactic. We could have simply nuked North Korea. Remember this is when the US was the world's sole nuclear power.
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  41.  @byronmaxad9679  Being cynical =/= being smart. You don't have a single fact to back that up.
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  42.  @ihateshorts32  Thank you for that deep, thought provoking, well researched rebuttal. I guess the ecstacy of anti-Americanism matters more to you than truth.
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  43. "In total, over 150,000 people have been killed and 80 percent of them – more than 122,000 – were civilians, said the IBC. [...] According to a 2010 assessment by John Sloboda, director of Iraq Body Count, U.S. and Coalition forces had killed at least 22,668 insurgents as well as 13,807 civilians in the Iraq War, with the rest of the civilians killed by insurgents, militias, or terrorists." The vast majority of Iraqis were killed by the side you were rooting for, while these soldiers were trying to kill and capture them.
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  44. And simultaneously ignored and abetted the crimes committed by groups like Al Qaeda in Iraq by doing so. America did some horrible things, but we were there to kill and capture terrorists who were far worse. And guess what? It's hard to do that job when you're getting shot at. That's why when the Anbar Awakening happened, and half the insurgents flipped sides and started working with the US, we could FINALLY do our job and bring peace to Iraq.
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  45. Most people who bitch about the war are completely ignorant about it. All the they think is "America invader, invader bad." It's so frustrating. It's funny because at this time (2004) surveys from both the UN and Gallup showed the majority of Iraqis thought the invasion was a good thing and very few supported attacks on coalition forces.
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  46. I'm not laughing at Russian troops dying, but our invasion of Iraq was nothing like Ukraine. Saddam disappeared 10,000 people every year and we offered them an independent democracy. All Putin is offering Ukraine is annexation.
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  47. Whose side did your father take during the Anbar Awakening?
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  48. Half of those guys switched sides and joined the Americans during the Anbar Awakening, the other half stayed behind to fight ISIS. Not to mention poll data from Iraqis in 2004 showed most of them supported the US invasion and the US staying in their country until elections were set up. But sure, they fought for their country...
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  49.  @Abubakrov1  The overwhelming majority of those civilians were killed by the people US forces were trying to kill and capture: "In total, over 150,000 people have been killed and 80 percent of them – more than 122,000 – were civilians, said the IBC. [...] According to a 2010 assessment by John Sloboda, director of Iraq Body Count, U.S. and Coalition forces had killed at least 22,668 insurgents as well as 13,807 civilians in the Iraq War, with the rest of the civilians killed by insurgents, militias, or terrorists." 13,807 vs 122,000
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  50.  @Abubakrov1  Erm, no, people who carbomb civilians in their own populace are terrorists. Again, if you don't believe the numbers, you're free to look at the videos on my channel which also show who was killing the Iraqis.
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  51.  @tseemeetseemee6636  Thank you. 99.9% of people who run their mouth about the war only have the vaguest understanding of what was actually happening during that time. Please spread the truth. Patriots are so few and far between these days. Most Americans are content to let their country be slandered.
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  52. A 2004 Gallup poll showed Iraqis thought the invasion was "worth it" by a margin of about 2 to 1 at the time the Battle of Fallujah happened. They only changed their tune in 2006 when sectarian violence kicked into high gear. They mass murdered each other, blamed Americans, and then pretended they never wanted to be liberated.
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  53.  @clarus.  Even you don't know what you mean by "stealing resources." The US military doesn't even handle resource extraction. And it was in no way in our interests for Iraq to be destabilized, especially if we wanted resources. Oil pipelines and highways blowing up isn't good for business.
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  54.  @clarus.  The invasion was a mistake but people have no right to hate us for it, especially the Iraqis, who thought the invasion was "worth it" in the early years. Our crime was not knowing what is better for Iraq than Iraq's own people did. The US military ceased Iranian oil because it was in violation of sanctions. There's no way you sincerely believe a significant amount of oil was extracted from Iraq by the US military. If a large amount of gold or something is found in a terrorist hideout, then yes, the US military would decide what happens to it. But 99.9% of the oil that left Iraq in the past 20 years did so the same way it leaves any other country, through free market transactions.
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  55.  @Fox2000xx  "In total, over 150,000 people have been killed and 80 percent of them – more than 122,000 – were civilians, said the IBC. [...] According to a 2010 assessment by John Sloboda, director of Iraq Body Count, U.S. and Coalition forces had killed at least 22,668 insurgents as well as 13,807 civilians in the Iraq War, with the rest of the civilians killed by insurgents, militias, or terrorists." - John Slobeda, Iraq Body Count
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  56. Those statistics on civilians deaths simply take everyone who was killed during the wars. 80% of civilians killed in the Afghan War were killed by the Taliban according to the UN. 88% civilians in Iraq were killed by "insurgents, militia, and terrorists" according to Iraq Body Count.
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  57.  @kamlaahmad3529  Half these insurgents switched sides and started fighting with the US after they saw the horrors that "victory" left behind. It was called the Anbar Awakening. But your filthy, diseased heart knows only one things: hatred of America.
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  58. No, the "freedom fighters" you were rooting for killed the vast majority of those civilians. John Slobeda from Iraq Body Count says about 88% of recorded civilian fatalities were at the hands of insurgents, militia, and terrorists. They did so because you gave them the incentive. They knew every atrocity they committed would be blamed on their American enemies and thus become a propaganda victory.
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  59. Stop all this nihilism. Invasions and invaders are not inherently good or bad just as rebellions are not inherently good or bad. It all depends on the intention of the parties involved. In this case, the invaders were trying to give the Iraqi people a chance to elect their own government, and the insurgents were trying to stop them. So yes, I think its safe to say they were the bad guys.
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  60.  @nigelsookram882  Yes we did, we were ordered to leave in the 2008 SOFA and we did. At least until Trump (who opposed the war) got into office.
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  61.  @nigelsookram882  We weren't asked to leave before that, not by the government.
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  62. Defending their homeland from what? Elections?
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  63. What were they defending their homeland from, elections? About 88% of Iraqi civilians were killed by "insurgents, militia, and terrorists" according to Iraq Body Count. If you were an insurgents you were either one of these murderers or their allies.
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  64.  @not_hAck3r  An April 2004 Gallup poll showed Iraqis thought overthrowing Saddam was "worth it" by a margin of 2 to 1. Then they mass murdered each other and blamed America. They hate us for giving them what they wanted.
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  65.  @CartoonCastro  "did the iraqi millitas do those things? No they didn'" Are you freaking kidding me!? "In total, over 150,000 people have been killed and 80 percent of them – more than 122,000 – were civilians, said the IBC. [...] According to a 2010 assessment by John Sloboda, director of Iraq Body Count, U.S. and Coalition forces had killed at least 22,668 insurgents as well as 13,807 civilians in the Iraq War, with the rest of the civilians killed by insurgents, militias, or terrorists." - John Slobeda, Iraq Body Count They were responsible for about 88% of civilian casualties. You would horrifically slander your greatest ally without even taking to thirty seconds to learn something about this war?
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  66.  @CartoonCastro  Even you don't know what you mean by "take their oil". We've bought Iraqi oil the same way China, France, and everyone else has. And no, America did not put Saddam in power. They trained him to fight in a coup when he was in his 20s, decades before he came to power, that's it.
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  67. Oooh look we've got a badass playing stick it to the man here. You know at this time most Iraqis actually supported the US invasion and the US presence. Read the polls yourself. Gallup took a poll in April 2004.
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  68.  @ihateshorts32  Read the poll factophobe. Yes, Iraqis want Saddam back now, but they believed at the time overthrowing him was right. Our crime was not knowing better than Iraqis what was best for Iraq. Hell, I followed a site called "Iraqi Blogger Central" and saw this transformation myself. The site is gone now but you can still find it with the Wayback Machine. America gave you what you wanted, then you mass murdered each other in sectarian violence and blamed Americans.
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  69.  @Jwjehd-q1k  According to John Sloboda of Iraq Body Count, about 88% of civilians in Iraq were killed by "insurgents, militia, and terrorists." The people we were there to kill and capture. Only the West gets blamed for the crimes of its mortal enemies.
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  70.  @mohammedriadh4990  We controlled the elections? So we told the Iraqis to elect Sadrists into parliament?
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  71.  @mohammedriadh4990  That was under President Trump, who opposed the war. When the Iraqi government told to the US to leave in the 2008 SOFA under George Bush, he accepted it.
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  72. Even you don't know what you mean when you say "occupier." A 2004 Gallup poll showed Iraqis thought the invasion was "worth it" by a margin of almost 2 to 1. Other poll data showed they supported the US staying in the country until democracy was established. It was in 2006, when sectarian violence kicked into high gear, that they mass murdered each other, blamed Americans, and then pretended they never wanted to be liberated.
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  73.  @wound957ruralapex  They were happy enough for Al Qaeda in Iraq blowing up their houses to fight as their allies in battle.
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  74. Defending their land from what, elections? Polls show the majority of Iraqis thought the invasion was worth it for overthrowing Saddam until mid-2006.
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  75. Because only America is blamed for the crimes of its mortal enemies. The overwhelming majority of innocent Iraqis were killed by the people we were there to kill and capture, who no doubt knew full well every one of their atrocities would become a propaganda victory because people like you would blame Americans.
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  76. These same insurgents either switched sides during the Anbar Awakening or stayed behind to form ISIS.
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  77. If America was that brutal we would have never lost a war, we'd just level Iraq from the sky and never have to worry about losing any soldiers.
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