HIST 150 Quiz 6 Iraq War

Quadri, et. al., Shock and Awe

A critical look at the legacy of the Iraq War, focusing on U.S. empire, military power, and private contractors.

Zaynab Quadri, Shock and Awe Revisited

Revisits how imperial power structures continue shaping Iraq and U.S. narratives about the war.

Empire

A dimension of power in which asymmetries enable hierarchy, discipline, dispossession, extraction, and exploitation; highlights the interconnected network of imperialism.

Cost of War Project

Started at Brown University in 2010 to measure social, political, and economic costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Military Contractors

Private military contractors as under-studied brokers of U.S. empire who complicate democratic accountability and operate within opaque governance structures.

Zainab Saleh, Iraqis Deserve Better

Critiques journalistic double standards and efforts to erase the U.S. invasion’s legacy by comparing Saddam’s atrocities with U.S. violence.

Journalistic Double Standards

Mainstream U.S. media focuses on "winners" and "lessons learned" while ignoring the structural violence of U.S. policy.

Saddam as Erasure

Narrative that avoids accountability by claiming that U.S. violence was better than Saddam’s, thereby sanitizing the war.

Madeleine Albright

Claimed U.S. sanctions that killed half a million Iraqi children were "worth it," illustrating the invisibility of war's human cost.

George W. Bush Freudian Slip

Accidentally said Iraq instead of Ukraine, revealing subconscious guilt about the invasion.

Politics of Forgetfulness

Tendency to blame victims, minimize U.S. violence, and pave the way for future wars by erasing past atrocities.

Catherine Lutz, The Cost of War

Documents the catastrophic effects of war on Iraqis and Americans, including corporate profiteering and moral decay.

Corporations

Received billions in contracts while the war inflicted social, political, economic, and moral harm, primarily to Iraqis.

Mental and Physical Health

War caused widespread physical and mental injuries, with long-term care burdens and toxic exposure.

Dislocations

Medical professionals and civilians fled due to insecurity and destruction.

Human Rights

Widespread abuse occurred despite the construction of prisons and judicial buildings by the U.S.

Militarization and Sectarianism

U.S. policies fueled militia growth, arms transfers, and sectarian violence, contributing to ISIS and governance collapse.

Forms of Moral Coarsening

War deepened racism, Islamophobia, and toxic masculinity, weakening social trust and faith in government.

Military Spending

Exploded during the Iraq War, crowding out public welfare spending and accelerating corporate capture of Congress.

Increased Interest Rates

Linked to the growth of military budgets and the war’s economic burden.

Osamah Khalil, History, Science and Mythmaking

Analyzes propaganda and disinformation used to justify the Iraq War.

Lies and Myths

False claims of links to al-Qaeda and surgical strikes used to justify the war.

Uranium

Promoted by Cheney as evidence of Iraq’s supposed nuclear ambitions despite being false.

Defectors

Fake sources used to spread disinformation about Iraq’s weapons and terrorist links.

Abu Ghraib

Prison abuse scandal that exposed moral failure but was met with regret, not shame.

Favored Pro-War Voices

Media spotlighted voices justifying war while ignoring Iraqi suffering.

Abeer Qassim al-Janabi

14-year-old Iraqi girl raped and murdered by U.S. soldiers in one of the war’s most horrific war crimes.

Crime and Punishment

The Iraq War is a war crime with no accountability for perpetrators.

Carly A. Karakow, A Bad War Story

Examines war toxins, the PACT Act, and environmental destruction in Iraq.

PACT

Law that provides healthcare to U.S. veterans exposed to toxins but leaves Iraqi civilians unprotected.

Pattern

U.S. exports toxic war practices, delays care for veterans, and abandons civilians to long-term harm.

Agent Orange

Vietnam War chemical still causing health problems decades later, paralleling Iraq's toxic legacy.

Depleted Uranium

Used in U.S. munitions, it poses long-term health risks through contamination and exposure.

Toxic Saturation

Iraqis are not just exposed to toxins but are saturated by them from birth to death.

Burn Pits

Massive open-air waste fires that released harmful toxins, operated often by contractors.

Slow Violence

Environmental damage from war causes delayed and long-lasting death and illness.

Alex Lubin

Writes on how past U.S. state violence haunts the War on Terror through persistent patterns.

Moustafa Bayoumi, On Truths, Illusions and Delusions

Argues U.S. journalism remains delusional about the Iraq War and its consequences.

The Primary Delusion

Belief in U.S. virtuousness despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Richard Haass

Claimed U.S. didn’t lie about WMDs but misunderstood intelligence, despite evidence of deception.

David Frum

Continued to justify the war by speculating about what might have happened otherwise.

New York Times Apology

Offered a partial apology for its role in war propaganda while deflecting accountability.

The Arab Spring

Condoleezza Rice argued it was linked to Bush’s "freedom agenda," misrepresenting Iraq’s role.

Jean Baudrillard

Claimed the Gulf War was a media spectacle rather than a real war, foreshadowing delusions about Iraq.