The Iraq War strengthened US rivals while alienating its allies

Evidence

Iraq was not Al-Qaeda, but in the minds of most Americans, the distinction was irrelevant. Arabs were Muslims, Muslims were Arabs, and the two conflated identities were tied to terrorism. This was the Orientalist logic that Said dedicated his life to interrogating and undoing, a logic that reemerged more violently during the War on Terror, with deadlier global ramifications. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 268 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Even with all its terrible failings and its appalling dictator (who was partly created by U.S. policy two decades ago), were Iraq to have been the world’s largest exporter of bananas or oranges, surely there would have been no war, no hysteria over mysteriously vanished weapons of mass destruction, no transporting of an enormous army, navy, and air force 7000 miles away to destroy a country scarcely known even to the educated American, all in the name of “freedom.” Without a well-organized sense that these people over there were not like “us” and didn’t appreciate “our” values—the very core of traditional Orientalist dogma as I describe its creation and circulation in this book—there would have been no war. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 33 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Iraq War backfired by strengthening Iran and alienating European allies — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 489; Public conflation of Arab, Muslim, and terrorist identities enabled the Iraq war; Popular conflation of Arabs, Muslims, and terrorism enabled the Iraq war. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 268 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Public conflation of Arab, Muslim, and terrorist identities enabled the Iraq war #complicates (0.95)
• Popular conflation of Arabs, Muslims, and terrorism enabled the Iraq war. #complicates (0.95) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 268
• The Bush Doctrine legitimized unilateral preventive war and rival suppression #complicates (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 417
• Orientalist assumptions about Otherness enabled the Iraq invasion #complicates (0.90) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 33
• U.S.-funded mujahedeen proxy wars helped fuel Al Qaeda’s rise #complicates (0.80)
• US wars functioned to prove emergent power against entrenched aristocracies #complicates (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 277
• Iraq and Afghanistan wars aimed at Middle East oil dominance over rivals #complicates (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 417
• Cold War and oil interests drove US support for autocratic allies #complicates (0.70) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 298
• Cold War US hegemony in the Middle East collided with nationalist independence movements #complicates (0.70) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 638
• American corporations profiteered massively from the Iraq War #complicates (0.70)