The 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq resulted in massive death and destruction, and fueled sectarian tensions, which culminated in a violent civil war. More than 300,000 Iraqis have died from direct war violence and 9.2 million people have been internally displaced, according to Brown University's Costs of War Project.

The brutal invasion and occupation of Iraq entrenched the country in a cycle of sectarian violence and impacted every aspect of life in Iraq, from governance to health care, infrastructure, economy and the environment and long term trauma

In a recent piece in the Guardian, one of today’s guests Professor Sinan Antoon writes, “I had always hoped to see the end of Saddam’s dictatorship at the hands of the Iraqi people, not courtesy of a neocolonial project that would dismantle what had remained of the Iraqi state and replace it with a regime based on ethno-sectarian dynamics, plunging the country into violent chaos and civil wars."

This week, we bring you the first part of our conversation about the reasons behind the catastrophic invasion of Iraq.

Host: Shahram Aghamir

Guests:
Sinan Antoon is an award winning Iraqi poet and novelist, and an Associate Professor at New York University's Gallatin School and co-founder and co-editor of Jadaliyya. His most recent novel is The Book of Collateral Damage

Dr. Omar Sirri is a research associate in the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS, University of London. His doctoral dissertation, Scarecrows of the State: An Ethnography of Security Checkpoints in Contemporary Baghdad, was named co-winner of the 2022 Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Award in the Social Sciences from the Middle East Studies Association.

Courtesy of Voices of the Middle East & North Africa.

Why did the U.S. invade Iraq twenty years ago? A conversation with Sinan Antoon & Omar Sirri

Lucas Giolito and his Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year; And (2:28) Special Guest Sarah Tiana, LA based Comedian, talks Atlanta Braves and performing in Afghanistan.

Drink: Lager from Narragansett Brewing Company in Providence, Rhode Island.

Sarah Tiana Twitter: @sarahtiana
Sarah Tiana Instagram: sarahtiana
Sarah Tiana 44 Standup Special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ArqsXiBzOU&t=1358s

Last Call Baseball YouTube: https://youtu.be/WO3dtKpsDLc
Last Call Baseball T-Shirts: https://lastcallbaseball.creator-spring.com/
Podcast Twitter: @LastCall4040
Podcast Instagram: lastcallbaseball
Intro and Outro music: DeCarlo
Podcast Logo: regan_vasconcellos

Ep. 128 - Special Guest Sarah Tiana

Flying the Tyrant Saddam Hussein | My Story

Mohammed Sulaiman was the son of a distinguished military officer of Saddam Hussein and the Iraq Air Force. He grew up one day wanting to follow his father's footsteps and fly. He graduated flight training and his experience resulted in him becoming a member of the Iraq elite VIP Squadron. It wasn't long before he became the pilot of Saddam and his family.

In this episode, Mohammed shares how he became Saddam's pilot and how he was in Baghdad at the military airport in a bunker during Desert Storm when all of the aircraft was destroyed by US bombing raids. He shares how things changed in that country and how his life was in danger, before escaping to America where he's raised his four children and has enjoyed the American Dream.

_______________
Please leave us a review on Apple/Spotify Podcasts:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mentors-for-military-podcast/id1072421783
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3w4RiZBxBS8EDy6cuOlbUl

#Flying the Tyrant Saddam Hussein | My Story
#SaddamHussein
#saddam 
#Flying the tyrant
#mentors4mil 
#mentorsformilitary

Mentors4mil Links:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Mentors4mil
Patreon Support: https://www.patreon.com/join/Mentors4mil 

Guest Links:
Flying the Tyrant at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Flying-Tyrant-Declassified-Escaping-Assassination/dp/B0BTKVS343
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flyingthetyrant

00:00 Intro
00:19 Flying tyrants - Saddam and his family
00:28 Desert Storm - the attack and aftermath
00:42 Splitting Iraq into - the civil war
00:48 Mohammed names Mohammed a "high value target" and how he escapes the attack on his house
00:59 Living the American Dream

Intro music "Long Way Down" by Silence & Light is used with permission.
Show Disclaimer: https://mentorsformilitary.com/disclaimer/

EP-352 | Flying the Tyrant Saddam Hussein

With hindsight, the wars waged by the US and Britain in Afghanistan and Iraq look like terrible failures, both strategically and politically: the Taliban are back in power in Afghanistan, and living standards are worse in Iraq than they were before Saddam Hussein. 

In his book The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the Middle East, 1979-2003, veteran American journalist Steve Coll looks at British and American foreign policy through the lens of one man: Saddam Hussein. He sat down with Aaron to explain why it's a mistake to avoid talking to your enemies.

Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Novara Audio: Radio for A Different Politics

Downstream: We Are Getting Foreign Policy Very Wrong w/ Steve Coll

ssadaam huzzein

A report about genocide and propaganda - at the time of Kosovo, but applicable today.
The mass murder of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel is not genocide, it's mass murder.
Rwanda was genocide.
The Holocaust was genocide.
Genocide is the deliberate murder of a whole community or race.
Twenty per cent of the citizens of Israel are Palestinian. They are not being rounded up for extermination.
Calling the killings in Gaza genocide diverts attention from the horror of the event to an earnest discussion about semantics. 
Examples from history of blatant propaganda are also useful - for example the lies spread by Kuwait during the first Gulf War.

Genocide and propaganda

saddam hussein

Glory to 1990s

Nostalfan

Welcome, O Battles of Fate/مرحبا يا معارك المصير - Iraqi Ba'athist Song

Jerusalem is in our Eyes - Iraqi Ba'athist Song

Ba'athist Revolutionary - Iraqi Ba'athist Song

Status/الوضع is an audio-visual magazine (Podcast) that features interviews/conversations, on-the-scene reports, reviews, informed commentary, and lectures held around the world on the Middle East and North Africa. Activists, journalists, scholars, and citizens feature both as guests and hosts on a variety of subjects.  A distinct flavor of this podcast is its attention to cultural production and the various processes of knowledge production and information dissemination for public consumption, via social or traditional media. Status/الوضع has established a large number of regional and global partners who partake in the production of material for our audience, in several languages.

One-man amateur music project hailing from the East. 

The music behind Krivan draws inspiration from all that the Universe has created around us, both physical and abstract. Musically, the sound aims to blend a variety of styles that were influential on Krivan's Krimzon - the project's founder.

There are no boundaries, no rules, no authority. 

Krivan's instruments, composition, production and artwork are by Krimzon - unless stated otherwise.

Imagine a bunch of veterans sitting around a living room with their favorite adult beverage and someone brings up a topic that takes the conversation down a rabbit hole. That's our show. Grab a chair and your favorite beverage and join in on an awesome topic. Our hosts are military veterans and our guests are real people with a message to share. Real Talk. Real People. (aka Mentors4Mil)

Join me for baseball, drinks, and everything under the sun.

New tracks tagged #Saddam Hussein