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  • The Guardian

    'This is not freedom': militarized US Capitol a sign of forever wars coming home

    Jan 20, 2021 6 minutes

    In early 2003, as government buildings across Iraq were being looted, Donald Rumsfeld told reporters, “Freedom’s untidy.” Iraq was “being liberated”, he said. “Free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They’re also free to live their lives and do wonderful things.”

    Iraqi journalist Ali Adeeb Alnaemi was in Baghdad at the time. “I was driving around and seeing looting and burning while American soldiers were standing there, and they would say to me, ‘We have no orders to interfere,’” he said.

    He knew what he was seeing: “This is not freedom.”

    Almost two decades later, supporters of a different Republican president invaded and looted the US Capitol and left five people dead. Amid a huge security crackdown in the aftermath, a secure “Green Zone” has even been created in the heart of Washington DC – just as the US military did in Baghdad.

    Alnaemi watched the news coverage in shock. It was like “living a nightmare again”, he said.

    Also as in 2003, the chaos and violence he was witnessing

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