Do you remember the start of the Iraq War?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Of course. I was one of the 20 million to protest it before it started.

[Figueira]

Yes, very much so.

[RINO Tom]

Very, very well.

[Trans Rights Are Human Rights]

No (b. 2001).

[RINO Tom]

Yes, I was watching TV at night and they cut from regular programming to go live to footage of the United States bombing Baghdad.

I remember this exactly.

Me, too!  Doesn't seem that long ago, honestly.  Also remember when we captured Sadam very vividly.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Yup, it was televised.

[diptheriadan]

Kinda depends on what you mean by 'start'. If you mean the literal start (shock and awe; bombing of Baghdad), then no. I was still a child then and most of my attention was on Blue's Clues. If you mean start by just the beginning (compared to how long it would last), then yeah. I remember the Iraq War swaying me to vote for Obama in my school's mock election.

[Tender Branson]

Of course.

I was extremely anti-Bush and anti-Republican back then.

My final 2015 high-school exam in English involved much of the 2004 Presidential election and the main issues in it, so basically everything from 9/11, Powell's fake images, the invasion etc. to Bush's 2nd inauguration. I guess the torture at Abu Ghraib came up at that time too ...

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Of course.

I was extremely anti-Bush and anti-Republican back then.

My final 2015 high-school exam in English involved much of the 2004 Presidential election and the main issues in it, so basically everything from 9/11, Powell's fake images, the invasion etc. to Bush's 2nd inauguration. I guess the torture at Abu Ghraib came up at that time too ...

The torture at Abu Ghraib must've been especially infuriating for you: missing the party.

[Mr. Reactionary]

I remember asking my mom to buy me an operation iraqi freedom t shirt that value city was selling at the time. And I remember that for the first month or so there was lots of footage on TV of random Iraqis beating Saddam pictures with shoes.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Yes, I was watching TV at night and they cut from regular programming to go live to footage of the United States bombing Baghdad.

This

[NOVA Green]

Yes--- I absolutely remember the start of the Iraq War on January 17th, 1991 as well as the military buildup prior to the War.

About 25% of my High School walked out to a large protest the following day.

One could make a strong argument that the Iraq war never truly ended between 1991 and 2003, with the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq being the culmination of over a decade of a low-intensity US War on Iraq by multiple Administrations.

[They not like us]

Very very vaguely. Less than I remember about 9/11.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Vaguely. I remember planes flying over my house-they obviously weren't bound for the war, but they were Air Force jets of some kind probably being tested/inspected before heading over. I thought Baghdad was pronounced Bad Dad.

I also remember the newspaper headlines, which showed US helicopters landing in a desert as women with a wide variety of groceries and goods passed. They were carrying everything on their heads. The footage lingered with me. Lastly I have hazy recollections of the statue coming down. I was way too young to know the news isn't always live, so each time they replayed the coverage I thought they were tearing it down again. I didn't get how it kept getting put back up

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Of course. I was one of the 20 million to protest it before it started.

I bet you want a medal for that.

[Crumpets]

I distinctly remember the fall of the statue of Saddam, because it happened while I was on spring break with my parents in Canada. We watched it in our hotel room, and I remember my mom saying that it was weird because she was also in a hotel room in Canada when the Berlin Wall fell.

Kinda depends on what you mean by 'start'. If you mean the literal start (shock and awe; bombing of Baghdad), then no. I was still a child then and most of my attention was on Blue's Clues. If you mean start by just the beginning (compared to how long it would last), then yeah. I remember the Iraq War swaying me to vote for Obama in my school's mock election.

Yeah, I was thinking mostly of the lead up and opening salvo of the war. All of the depictions of a war lasting a few weeks and costing a few billion dollars, being greeted as liberators, buying Iraqi oil on the cheap, rumors that Saddam might get Al-Qaeda to release nerve gas in the US if we don't act quickly, all that stuff.

[Goldwater]

Eh, vaguely. I was 8, and didn't follow politics yet.

[Frodo]

Yes, and I was among those protesting it. 

[Beet]

Yes, and I remember how it was cheerleaded by the same corporate media that tarred Gore as the "exaggerator", fawned after Obama, and gave Trump $2 trillion in free coverage. Every step of the way in this nation's decline, they have been the handmaiden leading the way.

[SWE]

No. I was 2.

[Cubby]

I went to a small anti-war protest in early March. I remember we chanted "No blood for oil!" near a busy road, and while some honked in support of us, there were a few that gave us a "thumbs down" gesture as they drove by. This was not too long after 9/11 so even a lot of Democrats were afraid to seem unpatriotic. (Cough Hillary cough) 

In the final hours before the War started, I remember Bush going to the Canary Islands or Azores to meet with some leader or leaders. MSNBC or CNN had a countdown clock on the screen during all it's programs leading up to some sort of ultimatum. To show that Bush was not overly concerned but rather a steady commander-in-chief, they showed him on TV playing football. Because that's the kind of imbecile he was.

[NOVA Green]

Of course. I was one of the 20 million to protest it before it started.

I bet you want a medal for that.

All of us that protested against should earn an honorary medal for the worst foreign policy and economic disaster in decades of US History.

My friend Eric McKinley, who marched against the war in Portland with me before it started earned a medal.... posthumously when he died at the hands of an IED outside of Taji/Camp Cooke....

Sure, he deserves his medal much more so than the protesters marching against the war who were not in uniform.

http://thefallen.militarytimes.com/army-spc-eric-s-mckinley/263041

Love all the chickenhawk Pubs out there....

I went to my friend's funeral, spent $100 on a new suit, watched the choppers flying over, missing one in formation as a salute, hugged his wife Coventry, and then went home and got wasted off my ass for two weeks on hard-A....

Most of y'all out here are too young to remember "stop-loss".... this was basically George W/ Don Rumsfeld brilliant strategy to create the occupation of Iraq on the backs of the best National Guard units in the country....   Rural states like Vermont and Oregon suffered disproportionate combat losses because for some odd reason "Atlas Red" states were rated as a much higher caliber of National Guard units...... I'm not even going to go into the lack of up-armored Humvees that was directly responsibly for Eric's death.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/hmmwvua.htm

Yes--- I remember Iraq 2.0 and there are many days I try to forget....

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Of course. I was one of the 20 million to protest it before it started.

I bet you want a medal for that.

All of us that protested against should earn an honorary medal for the worst foreign policy and economic disaster in decades of US History.

My friend Eric McKinley, who marched against the war in Portland with me before it started earned a medal.... posthumously when he died at the hands of an IED outside of Taji/Camp Cooke....

Sure, he deserves his medal much more so than the protesters marching against the war who were not in uniform.

http://thefallen.militarytimes.com/army-spc-eric-s-mckinley/263041

Love all the chickenhawk Pubs out there....

I went to my friend's funeral, spent $100 on a new suit, watched the choppers flying over, missing one in formation as a salute, hugged his wife Coventry, and then went home and got wasted off my ass for two weeks on hard-A....

Most of y'all out here are too young to remember "stop-loss".... this was basically George W/ Don Rumsfeld brilliant strategy to create the occupation of Iraq on the backs of the best National Guard units in the country....   Rural states like Vermont and Oregon suffered disproportionate combat losses because for some odd reason "Atlas Red" states were rated as a much higher caliber of National Guard units...... I'm not even going to go into the lack of up-armored Humvees that was directly responsibly for Eric's death.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/hmmwvua.htm

Yes--- I remember Iraq 2.0 and there are many days I try to forget....

I'm as anti-Iraq as you are; I was just poking fun at Jfern for highlighting his role in something that 90% of the left and 25% of the right participated in.

[Phony Moderate]

Yes, I was nearly 9 at the time. I also have a lot of weird memories of the lead-up to it:

- I remember the television news talking as if it was World War III...I mean really. I recall an item with a reporter who was discussing what kind of food we should all take to our bomb shelters.
- My uncle was talking about how "everything is going to blow".
- My dad was pissed off at Clare Short for her un-resignation.
- When the war began, folks in my class discussed that they had watched it whilst getting ready for school.

[Green Line]

I remember watching the bombing of Baghdad on CNN.  No event has really matched that in America since in terms of public interest.