Your opinion of no-fly zones in Iraq during the 90's?

[jpgray]

These were declared in Northern and Southern Iraq by the UK, France and ourselves. Ostensibly their intent was to protect humanitarian operations in these regions, safeguarding the persecuted Kurds and Shiites. Did you support them? Do you remember the UN position on them as compared to the UN stance on Libya? In what ways might this history inform our opinion of the present action?

[craigmatic]

1. They worked didn't they?

[kenny blankenship]

12. Nes and Yo.

No fly over the northern third of iraq is credited with helping the Kurds to bascially secede from Iraq. If you think that is good, then no-fly was good and worked. No fly over the southern third was widely regarded as a failure, as in neither case was Saddam Hussein forbidden to use his helicopters, which was frequently a reason given for why the Shiite uprising against him in the south immediately following the defeat of Iraq in Kuwait was a bloody disaster.

Allowing Iraq's military the use of helicopters anywhere in Iraqi airspace helped him hang onto power, and was usually explained as a bungling oversight by Norman Schwartzkopf in his negotiation of the terms of the ceasefire.

[jpgray]

13. Yeah, the Iraqi negotiators said they were needed for emergency services, communication, etc.

Another of those "no one could have imagined" moments.

[HEyHEY]

2. One of my roomates was a Kurd. His family fled to the Netherlands

But not before a bomb from one of Hussein's aircrafts killed his little brother. Hearing stories like that from friends of mine makes me support no fly zones.

However, the Iraq situation is different than Libya. I believe there were more dastardly reasons for the USA always interfering in Iraq.

[Arctic Dave]

3. No fly in Iraq was part of the larger crime of attacking Iraq the first time.

If we were concerned about loss of life we would not have had Saddam fighting Iran. Everything else is fallout from that.

[Joe the Revelator]

4. They worked.

[Poll_Blind]

5. I was against them. I found the whole concept exceedingly pointless, HOWEVER...

...if you'll recall, every few days up to every week- we'd blow up something. It was the best advertisement for U.S. military hardware. Why pay for advertising when you get product placement on the nightly news?

It would go like this, without fail: "Two U.S. airplanes flying routine patrol in the no-fly zone were illuminated by radar and dropped bombs on..."

Somebody, I can't remember who it was, but they basically averaged it out and we had some form of military action (I believe this is just by airplanes) every 3 or so days on average. The whole time...

I know how this insanity turned out: Everything can be wrapped up in Saddam Hussein's execution. I tried my best to sum it up in the post, Casual Friday for Saddam's hangmen: Two legacies in one image. Below is the image which the thread speaks about:



And the chants of "Long live Al-Sadr!". What a fucking clusterfuck.

PB

[OhioBlue]

6. honestly the no fly zones in Iraq during the 90s weren't

on my radar. I wasn't that politically involved. I was liberal.. but not informed nor that interested. The Iraq War made me become active. I have no problem with the no fly zones.

[joshcryer]

7. I would've supported it if it also meant support for the Iraq Uprising.

Bush I was a coward and a fool and it resulted in 100k causalities.

[Puregonzo1188]

8. Absolutely horrendous. We were bombing Iraq every other week and spending millions a year

before the "Iraq War" begin.

That and our sanctions killed over a million civilians, 500,000 under the age of five.

Let's face part of the reason why Obama isn't ending the Iraq War is because it's been being waged for 20 years and four Presidents now.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

9. I agree.

[RSillsbee]

10. My opinion is that we should have finished the job in 91

Then we wouldn't be worrying about it now

[Davis_X_Machina]

11. Measures short of full-scale war....

...are always preferable to war. There grew in the interim a virtual Kurdish state, which we basically owed them, first selling Saddam the means to gas them, and then encouraging them to revolt, and stiffing them.

[TheKentuckian]

14. I was okay with them and thought they were having the desired effect.

Reason # 7,981 why invading Iraq was fuckwitted. We had zero need to occupy to contain and minimize, it was already done. Iraq could not attack it's neighbors and the damage the government could inflict on it's population was curtailed.