The Second US Occupation of Iraq Is Underway

With the second US occupation of Iraq in its third month and having claimed its first civilian victim this piece of history is unfortunately again current:

Indeed, imagine Chinese troops were stationed in Texas. Imagine they arrived promising to help fight an extremist group that had swept the Rockies from Mexico. Imagine the extremists had such success that Chinese help was needed in the first place only because the Chinese had fanned the flames of civil war in Mexico, including by funneling arms to friends of the extremists and sanctioning and politically isolating their enemies. Imagine the US government, which had invited the Chinese in, was heavily dependent on them and partly the product of a prior Chinese invasion and occupation. Imagine the extremists had long been defeated but the Chinese refused to leave, but instead used their position in Texas to threaten Mexico with whom the US wanted neighborly relations. Imagine the Chinese used their control of airspace over Texas to enable Venezuela to conduct airstrikes against US militias which rose up during the early onslaught of the extremist from Mexico and had been since been regularized as US National Guard units. Imagine some of the US Guardsmen fought back and shelled Chinese military bases in Texas in hit and run attacks. Imagine a US-born Chinese-citizen civilian contractor was killed in one such shelling causing the Chinese to bomb US border posts and National Guard bases killing US Guardsmen, police and soldiers. Imagine this was done against the express wishes of the US caretaker President in Washington. Imagine the American people staged the largest street demonstration in their history against Chinese presence. Imagine the US Congress voted to instruct the President to tell the Chinese to leave. Imagine the Chinese responded by telling the caretaker President that leaving was not a subject they were willing to discuss. Imagine several weeks later another attack on a Chinese followed and the Chinese again struck US Guardsmen, police and soldiers, and also killed an American civilian worker at an airport. Imagine the Chinese said not to worry because they were going to keep American “collateral damage” at a “low” level that was still “consistent with their [Chinese] values”.

What would you call it? Could you call it anything but Chinese occupation?

🎥Video shows extent of damage at #Karbala airport which is still under development. One worker was killed in the US airstrike. Several locations were targeted across #Iraq. US said strikes hit #PMU weapon depots in response to deadly attack on #Taji base. Via @TomtheBasedCat pic.twitter.com/RQFKItLNLB

— Habib Abdolhossein (@HAbdolhossein) March 13, 2020