Do you remember the start of the Iraq War?

[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....

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.

Thanks Chairman Sanchez....

My sincere apologies.... sometimes I still get a bit emotional on the whole Iraq War thing, since it hit a bit closer to home than for many Americans.

My statement regarding Chickenhawk Pubs wasn't particularly intended towards you, but more of a general statement....

It is a bit interesting that the average age of respondents on this thread skews even younger than the Atlasian average age (which is already fairly Millennial overall), since obviously Iraq War 2.0 was a definitive cultural/generation experience, perhaps even more influential in many ways than 9/11, because of both the duration of the War, as well as the fact that this generation was disproportionately impacted by the costs and consequences of the War.

My fundamental point on my original post was that Iraq 2.0 was a continuation of Iraq 1.0 (Desert Shield/ Desert Storm) and arguably we were in a constant state of War with Iraq from 1990/1991 until the fall of the Hussein regime, and even then we faced a three-front war under the Occupation, with a formidable Shiite resistance from the Sadr forces in Southern Iraq, as well as a significant chunk of neighborhoods in Baghdad, the Sunni insurgency with a mix of Baathist Guerrilla Warfare elements throughout Central and Northern Iraq, combined with Tribal Sunni/Shiite mixed populations, and then additionally a growing Al Qaeda influenced strain, that was essentially the precursor to ISIS....

So regardless, my intention is not to threadjack, since more detailed discussions of the Iraq War likely belong over in an international politics thread or general politics thread.

Roll on thread....

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

No

[Badger]

Yes..... both of them.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Option 3 has precisely 0 votes so far.

[FairBol]

Yeah, a bit faintly though.  I recall watching as the "shock and awe" campaign got underway.  The conflict that I remember most, though, was the 90s Iraq War.  It seemed like there were reports on the war every hour or so....and that's where CNN really made their bones. 

"Something is happening...." -- Bernard Shaw, CNN, upon witnessing the first air attacks from his hotel in Baghdad

[FairBol]

Not to completely hijack this thread, but I remember many big historical moments from the 90s. 

The first was the Waco thing....guy named David Koresh was a leader of a large cult, and believed he was God.  I don't remember exactly why the ATF was called in, but that compound he was in went up almost literally "like the 4th of July". 

The other one that I remember very clearly (pre-9/11) was the Columbine Massacre.  I recall watching news coverage of that event in my high school's TV Production class....it was unbelievable at the time.  What historical events do you guys remember?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Somebody in school convinced me his dad worked for mi6 doing top secret Iraq work, and that Hussein had people looking for his dad. I was duly impressed. (His dad actually worked for the borough councils planning department which is pretty much the same thing).

[fhtagn]

I remember my family not supporting it.
And I remember the stuff on the news at the time.
I also had family that served.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Somebody in school convinced me his dad worked for mi6 doing top secret Iraq work, and that Hussein had people looking for his dad. I was duly impressed. (His dad actually worked for the borough councils planning department which is pretty much the same thing).

It'll be embarrassing, but back when I was about 8 and there was a lot of talk about air strikes on Iraq, I was actually scared of seeing guys with mustaches dumping chemical warfare around.

Of course it was way before 2003.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

My brother was keeping California safe from Iraqi counterattack at the time.  He was in the U.S. Navy at the time and was a plankowner on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) at the time.  In fact, he'd been planning on leaving the Navy and had to stay on a little longer than expected because of the First Gulf War.

[🕴🏼Melior🕴🏼]

No

[Cassius]

Somebody in school convinced me his dad worked for mi6 doing top secret Iraq work, and that Hussein had people looking for his dad. I was duly impressed. (His dad actually worked for the borough councils planning department which is pretty much the same thing).

Lmao, classic primary school banter. Almost on a par with 'my Mum's Sven Goran Eriksson's Mistress'.

As for the question, yes, I do remember the Iraq War, particularly the news coverage of theactual invasion itself. Kind of the second really big world event that I have any memory of (9/11 was the first and the US election in 2004 was the third).

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

George Bush's Iraq war is one of my earliest political memories. But I'm referring to the 1991 Gulf War under George HW Bush. Of course that was an interesting time period in eastern Europe as well.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Yes..... both of them.

Having been born in 1988 I shouldn't remember the first war, but I have vague random memories about seeing TV running with the coverage. Before we're about five, we only have such random memories.

[President Johnson]

Yes, I remember how we watched on television how Baghdad was bombed.

[DPKdebator]

Not too sure a baby could follow the Iraq War.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Yes..... both of them.

Having been born in 1988 I shouldn't remember the first war, but I have vague random memories about seeing TV running with the coverage. Before we're about five, we only have such random memories.

While I still have retained about 40% of 9/11 itself, everything past it until the literal start of Sock and Awe is basically that-random, contextless memories of TV broadcasts.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Not too sure a baby could follow the Iraq War.

Easily:  Soldier come home to spouse.

[SATW]

yes (i also vividly remember 9/11). when we started bombarding iraq i remember being at mom's place of employment (she helped sell cookies and treats at a ma and pa style store) and i remember feeling concerned.

[Bojack Horseman]

I remember being 8 and watching Bush's speech.

[Del Tachi]

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 is my most vivid memory of the Second Persian Gulf War