Lessons America Refuses To Learn From The Iraq Disaster w/ Spencer Ackerman | MR LIVE - 3/21/23

Fun Half Link

Sam hosts Spencer Ackerman, columnist for The Nation and author of the Forever Wars newsletter on Ghost, to discuss his recent piece “The Unlearned Lessons From the War in Iraq”. Sam begins by running through updates on the IPCC’s report on catastrophic warming levels, a brand new Fox lawsuit, the LA school system heading into a 3-day strike, Biden blocking the DC City Council’s right to carceral reform, the Israeli government continuing their attack on the judicial branch, Macron surviving the no-confidence vote, and COVID declassifications, before diving into John Bolton’s musings on the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, as he laments the fact the US didn’t expand their failed military action even more. Spencer Ackerman and Sam then reflect on their own 2-decade relationship built around the developments of the US imperial project in Iraq, as they tackle the severity of American Amnesia around the conflict, before Ackerman walks through the two biggest lessons from the war that America has refused to learn – first on the horrors of American imperialism abroad, and second on why capitalism will always encourage these types of imperial extraction. Using these lessons as a broader lens, Sam and Spencer then look to the role of US intelligence in laundering the lies of the Bush administration alongside two decades of diminishing the horrors that we were conducting in the region, all while attempting to distance themselves from the products of their work (war crimes). Next, they turn to the role of mainstream media in further laundering the imperial perspectives, reflecting on news’ complete kowtow to the Bush administration, from the NYT’s famous “aluminum tube” story to a former Bush White House Press Secretary’s astonishment at the lack of pushback, before touching on how objectors and dissidents were painted as “unruly” and “mobs,” as they tackle the how the Iraq war built on the back of previous manufactured American crises. Wrapping up, Sam and Ackerman parse through the lingering impact of this era on American politics today, from how it affected COVID disinformation to what it can tell us about our current stand-off with China.

Check out Spencer's piece here

Check out "Forever Wars" here

Check out Spencer's book "Reign Of Terror" here

Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com

Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here

Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here

Join the Majority Report Discord!

Get all your MR merch at our store

Get the free Majority Report App!

Check out today’s sponsors:

AuraGo to my sponsor to try 14 days free and let Aura go to

work protecting your private information online

ShopifyScaling your business is a journey of endless possibility. Shopify is here to help, with tools and resources that make it easy for any business to succeed from down the street to around the globe. Go to for a FREE fourteenday trial and get full access to Shopify’s entire suite of features!

Stamps.comTaking trips to the Post Office is probably not how you want to spend your time. that's why you should mail and ship online at Stamps dot com., the place where you get the services of the Post Office and UPS all in one place. There’s NO risk and with my promo code, MAJORITYREPORT, you get a special offer that includes a 4week trial PLUS free postage and a digital scale. Just go to click on the Microphone at the TOP of the homepage and type in MAJORITYREPORT that's promo code MAJORITYREPORT. Stamps.com never go to the post office again.

Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter:

@SamSeder

@EmmaVigeland

@MattBinder

@MattLech

@BF1nn

@BradKAlsop

Check out Matt’s show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon!

Subscribe to Discourse Blog, a newsletter and website for progressive essays and related fun partly run by AM Quickie writer Jack Crosbie.

Check out Ava Raiza's music here!

The Majority Report with Sam Seder