0:00

Great news, guys. Congress

0:02

is doing another bipartisanship.

0:06

This time, it's about the war in Iraq.

0:09

On the occasion of the twenty year anniversary

0:11

of the invasion, the US Senate

0:14

is pushing a bill that will end

0:16

the authorization for war there.

0:18

Congress has shared its responsibility to

0:20

our troops. For more than twenty

0:22

years since passing these

0:23

AUMS, those in power have stretched

0:26

and skewed their original intent.

0:28

The original intent was to allow

0:30

the United States to go to war against

0:33

Iraq, but twenty years

0:34

later, Iraq's pretty much our ally.

0:37

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

0:41

Every year we keep these AUMS on

0:43

the books is just another chance for future

0:45

administrations

0:46

to abuse or misuse them

0:48

beyond their original intent.

0:51

Nearly every president we've had since

0:53

this war began in two thousand three

0:56

has ended the war in Iraq, and

0:58

it still not really

0:59

over. So

1:00

last week, today explained when down south by

1:03

southwest in Austin, Texas to remind

1:05

people what exactly this war was.

1:07

And We're gonna bring you that live show

1:09

today. It's a little bit of different vibe

1:11

and there's some strong language, but we hope

1:13

you'll listen and we hope you'll

1:15

remember along with us.

1:23

Support for the show comes from Into The Mix.

1:25

A Ben and Jerry's podcast about Joy and

1:27

Justice produced with Fox Creative.

1:30

More than four and a half million people in the US cannot

1:32

vote because they have a felony conviction.

1:34

Season two went into the mix, is the story

1:36

of Desmond Meade who went to prison and then

1:38

went on to lead the largest expansion of voting

1:41

rights in Florida since the Voting Rights

1:43

Act. Into the mix season two

1:45

is out now. Support for this podcast

1:47

comes from Saks dot com. Saks

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the top styles that are trending right now.

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Tailored blazers and mitty dresses are

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saxx dot com.

2:29

It's today explained. I'm Sean Ramos

2:31

Firm, and we are live from south by southwest

2:33

in Austin, Texas on the thirteenth of March

2:35

twenty twenty three. We

2:40

were we were supposed to be here three

2:42

years ago in March, but the whole event got

2:44

canceled, not just our session. Every

2:46

single one of them and that's where I

2:48

knew canceled culture was out of control. We

2:53

are very happy, South by Southwest is back,

2:55

and we are very grateful to be here. It's a

2:57

special occasion and we wanna take that for

2:59

granted. We wanted to use this occasion to talk

3:01

about something meaningful. So today

3:03

I'm gonna talk to y'all about the Iraq War.

3:06

Not the first one, the

3:07

sequel, Iraq two, bush

3:09

two, which

3:10

might be a little random right this is today explained.

3:13

Than the Iraq War and, like, three

3:15

presidents

3:16

ago. It was Afghanistan that

3:18

ended just recently.

3:20

At least we could talk about Afghanistan, plus there's

3:22

whole other war going on right now. Right?

3:24

One that everyone's focused on, one that we

3:26

talk about in show all the time. So why

3:28

use this occasion and talk about a rock?

3:30

I've got a few reasons First,

3:33

it was twenty years ago this month

3:35

that this war began. Second,

3:37

as much as we'd like to think that this war is

3:40

like a distant memory. It's not quite that.

3:42

A few thousand US troops are still

3:44

there. Just last week, Secretary

3:47

of Defense Lloyd Austin took a trip to

3:49

Iraq tell the country that those troops

3:51

were not going anywhere, anytime

3:53

soon. Believe it or not, the

3:55

Iraq War got as many mentions as

3:57

abortion did at this year's state of the union.

4:00

Abortion for obvious reasons,

4:02

but Iraq because it turns out a

4:04

lot of Iraqi veterans are still suffering from

4:07

exposure to toxic burn pits.

4:09

And that's another reason I wanna talk about Iraq

4:11

today. I think for Veterans, this war

4:13

isn't over. And for Iraqis,

4:15

this war certainly isn't over. And since

4:18

it isn't over yet, I think it's really important

4:20

that we remember, but I'm

4:22

not convinced we do. I had a

4:24

feeling before we really jumped into production

4:26

on this live show that a lot of Americans would

4:28

have no recollection of

4:31

why we went. And

4:33

today, explained producer Hadi Mowagdi hit

4:36

the streets of Dallas, Texas not far from where he

4:38

lives to test my hypothesis. You

4:41

remember why we went to water? That

4:44

I don't.

4:47

I'm sad to report back that I was right.

4:54

No. I don't remember the

4:56

reasons to that we were going to work.

4:58

I just remember feeling sad

5:00

when I heard about the when they

5:02

broadcast it on the news that morning.

5:05

I wanna say it may be attached

5:07

to nine eleven. I'm not

5:09

sure, but I wanna say that that's

5:11

my thinking. Yeah. I believe that was two

5:13

thousand one. Right? remember after

5:16

September eleven, you

5:18

know, we had went over there because that,

5:20

you know, the issue with the terrorist attack and

5:22

all of that and then issue over the oil

5:24

and all of

5:25

that. So briefly, yeah, I do remember I don't

5:27

know. I guess I remember, like, I

5:30

I would have just said oil. I I think, like,

5:32

now, I I don't think I I could really

5:34

see her and tell you truly

5:36

the the the on pay a reason why I would, at this

5:38

point, tell you, I would assume oil that they stayed.

5:41

Oil. That's always my assumption. Oil.

5:44

I think Adolfi had something to do with it. I

5:46

might be wrong. I might be thinking of something else.

5:48

But there was

5:51

an element that dealt

5:53

with either

5:56

Iraq or Pakistan.

5:59

One of the two countries were other

6:04

helping hide, like people that actually

6:07

help plan the attack, and that's what actually

6:09

kept it going. If you're not mistaken,

6:13

I don't blame those individuals for not

6:15

really knowing what happened. Most of the

6:17

people Hadi spoke with just kids when this war started

6:20

twenty years ago and I can relate. I was eighteen.

6:23

It was remarkably easy at the time

6:25

to go about your life. As if this war just

6:27

wasn't happening. Since

6:29

this war began in two thousand three, I've gone to,

6:31

like, three schools had, like, two dozen

6:33

jobs and lived in

6:35

four states and the District of Columbia. And

6:37

in all that time, and life,

6:40

I can only recall one person I

6:42

knew whose life was really impacted by this

6:44

war. His name was

6:46

Ricky Slocum.

6:48

Ricky and I went to high school together, Saga's

6:51

high school, Santa Clarita, California, It's

6:53

best known today for being the site of a mass

6:55

shooting in November twenty nineteen. When

6:57

I visit for the holidays, I still see

6:59

saga strong signs everywhere, That

7:02

would mean Ricky went to school there. It

7:04

wasn't really known for much of anything. It was

7:07

kind of place where you could go cause a

7:09

stir just for being a guy wearing a hot pink

7:11

polo. And I know this

7:13

because one day in two thousand one,

7:16

I wore a hot pink polo de saga's high school.

7:19

The only interaction I ever had with Ricky

7:21

Sloakam was on that day. My

7:24

friends and I headed the Saugus goodwill

7:26

a few days earlier I'd found this pop in

7:28

pink polo that felt like a steal at two

7:30

or three bucks. I waited a few days

7:32

before I wore it to school. I didn't wanna seem too

7:34

thirsty. And on the big day, The

7:37

same friends and I were all hanging out in

7:39

the high school quad between classes and Ricky

7:41

was across the quad with his friends

7:43

and they did not like my

7:45

hot pink polo. Or maybe they did, but

7:47

they felt threatened by it. Either

7:49

way, they were all pointing

7:51

and laughing from across the quad And

7:54

I guess that was enough because then one of them yelled

7:56

in my direction. Fuck it.

8:01

Time stopped. I

8:03

didn't know the guys yelling, but all my friends did.

8:06

They didn't think it was Ricky who yelled that they thought it was

8:08

one of his buddies, but it must struck

8:10

a chord because I distinctly remember one of my

8:12

friends saying to me, you shouldn't have won

8:14

that shirt of school to me, man. And

8:17

I was shocked. In just a few

8:19

years, it would be cooler than cool to be a boy

8:21

in a hot pink polo. Andre

8:24

three k would hold a smoking hot

8:26

pink pistol on the cover of the love below Kanye

8:29

would rock pink polo and the all falls down

8:31

video. All the skater brands that

8:33

were so popular at Saga's high school would embrace

8:35

hot pink. But on this particular

8:37

day at Saga's

8:39

high, fall semester two thousand one, I

8:41

was ahead of my time and all

8:42

alone. That interaction in

8:44

the quad that day, as far as I know,

8:47

was the only time it occurred to Ricky Slogan

8:49

that I

8:49

existed. But Ricky

8:51

did come over to my house one time. was

8:54

on

8:54

the night of my eighteenth birthday just a week

8:56

before the United States invaded Iraq.

8:58

It was a Friday night and we almost certainly

9:00

played this song by slick shoes

9:03

on the boombox. Still

9:17

slaps. I somehow

9:19

got my parents into leaving town and

9:21

let me throw throw a big old house party that night.

9:24

And I somehow procured a lot

9:26

of alcohol, which was a pretty

9:28

big deal when you were eighteen years old in

9:30

Saugus, California in two thousand three.

9:32

There was a war going on in Afghanistan. Another

9:35

one was clearly about to start, but I was eighteen

9:37

years old in a finally manicured

9:39

Southern California suburb and felt

9:41

totally

9:41

invincible. It was gonna be great night.

9:47

I

9:47

didn't invite him but Ricky showed up.

9:49

Apparently my buddy John's girlfriend, Missy,

9:51

invited him. But I didn't see Ricky come in.

9:53

One of my classmates had had won too

9:56

many and needed some moral support while he

9:58

was familiarizing himself with the porcelain

10:00

upstairs. But downstairs, things

10:03

were getting uncomfortable.

10:04

So I was drinking that night, so I'll try

10:06

to remember as much as I

10:08

can about it. My friend William witnessed

10:11

Ricky roll in with an entire crew

10:13

of guys who looked really out of place

10:15

at my

10:16

house. A

10:17

group of people showed up

10:20

that were, like, skinheads, but not, like,

10:24

British, like, Scott, anti

10:27

racist skinheads. These were, like, not,

10:30

like, skinny little skin

10:32

heads. They were, like, you know,

10:35

gym rack, like, meat head, skin

10:37

head.

10:37

Like, they just showed up and people started talking

10:39

about it. Everyone coexisted for

10:42

a minute without the house burning down.

10:44

But pretty quickly, someone decided

10:46

this could only end badly and took ownership

10:48

of the situation.

10:50

Somebody went up to them and they were like,

10:52

yo, it's not cool for you to be here.

10:55

And tried to kick him out of the party. And

10:58

remarkably, Ricky and

11:00

his prematurely bald friends decided to

11:02

go. But they took some souvenirs

11:04

on the way out the door. They grabbed

11:07

a bunch of twelve packs from the

11:09

party and tried to steal a bunch of beer.

11:11

William, and another friend Chris

11:14

followed Ricky and his friends outside

11:16

to defend the integrity of our

11:18

Surbaceous.

11:20

Like, oh, no. We're not gonna let these guys

11:22

steal stuff from

11:23

us and went outside. And I think

11:25

I went out with Chris to be like, well,

11:27

something happens. I guess I'll be there.

11:30

As if I was gonna do anything. But,

11:32

like, to, like, back him up

11:34

or something. And then

11:37

as they were getting in their car, Chris

11:39

tried to grab the twelve pack

11:41

from them, and one of them grabbed a

11:44

beer out of the twelve pack and threw it

11:46

and hit Chris in the face. And

11:49

then mayhem

11:53

or whatever they started getting

11:56

aggressive I think that I was trying to be

11:58

like, hey, man. Let's let's let's be cool.

12:00

Like, let's chill out. I

12:02

don't it's like really hard to remember

12:05

because in that scuffle, I

12:07

got punched in the face, and I think I got knocked

12:09

out. So, like,

12:11

I vaguely remember, you know,

12:14

waking up sort of on

12:17

the ground and somebody giving

12:18

me, like, something to put on my face. I

12:21

couldn't believe what Ricky and his friends had done to

12:23

William. It looked like they'd given him broken nose,

12:25

but I should have known because Ricky had

12:27

a bit of a reputation. And most of the

12:29

people at that party were familiar with it,

12:31

including my buddy, Andrew.

12:33

Tell me just like what comes to mind when I

12:35

say the name, Ricky

12:38

Slocum. Oh,

12:40

man. Fighting

12:43

a lot. He and he was, like, he had a reputation

12:46

for, like, going to parties and

12:48

and, like, I was just actually

12:50

just talking about this to someone telling

12:53

him, like, how he's to go to parties

12:55

and be, like, I want give me

12:57

two of your biggest guys. I'll fight them right now.

12:59

And then, like, I

13:02

was hanging out with some dudes looks

13:04

like after high school that went

13:06

to

13:06

Canyon. Canyon

13:08

was another high school in Santa Clara. You call it

13:10

a rival school. And, like, they were talking

13:12

about this do that showed up to their party and

13:14

was, like, I wanna see two of your biggest

13:16

guys outside right now so I can fight

13:18

them. And I was, like, holy shit. They fucking

13:20

ran into Ricky Sloca.

13:23

This is all I really knew, Ricky Slokem. He

13:25

was one of those outsized characters in high

13:27

school. Everyone knew him. A lot of people loved

13:29

him. And a lot of people were terrified of

13:31

them. But then you graduate and

13:33

characters like Ricky Slokem, they

13:35

shrink in magnitude until one day,

13:38

You hear some sad story about them and you can't help

13:40

but feel bad. With Ricky,

13:43

it was that he died in Iraq nineteen

13:45

years old. It was October

13:47

two thousand four. I think I was driving

13:49

around Santa Clara with my friends when Andrew told

13:51

me, as I remember I was in passenger

13:53

seat, he was behind the driver, and I just

13:55

screamed. What? I

13:57

remember the holy shitness of

14:00

that

14:00

moment, but I do not remember a

14:02

lot of tears. Well, I wasn't

14:04

sad. I didn't I

14:06

definitely didn't more than loss. It

14:09

was more like

14:11

yeah. That sounds about right.

14:13

I think for those of us who were sitting in that car

14:16

that night, it felt like a dude who lived to fight

14:18

had gone and died in a fight. But

14:20

not everyone I knew felt that way. About a

14:22

year later, I was getting to my college roommates

14:24

card, go get some dinner with him, and just as I

14:26

was crouching into the passenger seat of his Mustang,

14:29

I noticed a pamphlet was already sitting

14:31

there. There was a pamphlet with Ricky's face on

14:33

it, looked like could have been from his funeral. And

14:35

I turned to Kevin, and I was like, what is

14:37

this? And he was like, Yeah.

14:40

You were holding a pamphlet from

14:43

his funeral. Because

14:45

my college roommate Kevin attended

14:47

Ricky's funeral. I met him

14:50

probably, maybe,

14:53

eleven eleven or twelve years

14:55

old. I don't know, either the end of elementary school,

14:57

like, sixth grade or, like,

14:59

the beginning of junior high. We

15:01

went to the same junior high. So for sure,

15:03

we became friends

15:04

there, but then kind of continued

15:06

on through high school, and then

15:09

he

15:09

ended up joining the Marines out

15:11

of high school and relatively

15:14

early on. Unfortunately, from

15:17

joining the Marines ended up

15:19

dying

15:19

here. And, of course, Kevin remembered

15:21

Ricky differently than my friends and I did. Like,

15:24

Ricky's premature baldness, for example,

15:26

the meathead, skinhead thing, it

15:28

maybe wasn't as black and white as

15:30

we had

15:31

thought. I think it was honestly

15:33

more a point. I don't even want that he even came,

15:36

like, dressed up as a school

15:38

more, like, very, like, chicano choloz

15:40

style, you know, even though he's like

15:42

white and not Mexican. But, yeah, definitely

15:45

had the he had had the like

15:47

flannel shirt button at top. He had, like,

15:49

just taped his head, he had some, like,

15:51

real dark looks on with, like,

15:54

had the bandana across the

15:55

forehead, like, real broad though, you know?

15:57

And while Kevin acknowledged Ricky could be something

16:00

of a bully, he also told me about times

16:02

when he saw Ricky as a protector.

16:04

We were walking through the mall to meet him and

16:07

a couple other friends in high school,

16:09

probably like fourteen, fifteen, and

16:12

there were some kids there

16:14

who were, I don't

16:15

know, had somehow started like talking

16:18

and got into like some, like, verbal altercation

16:20

with some other kids who I think

16:22

went

16:22

to another high

16:23

school. And you, like, in that instance,

16:25

like, physically, like, fought with

16:27

these other kids, like, for these other

16:29

kids who

16:29

were, like, getting picked on, you know?

16:33

And and he had no idea who they were.

16:35

They were, like, complete strangers, you

16:36

know? Maybe that's why Ricky wanted

16:38

to enlist. As infantry in the

16:40

Marines, you get to kick some ass and

16:42

do some protecting too. But

16:45

the story I heard was that Ricky didn't die

16:47

doing either of those things in Iraq. He

16:49

died in what was reported as a non

16:51

combat related vehicle accident.

16:54

Apparently, his humvee overturned

16:57

while maneuvering through barricades one

16:59

night near Abu Geb. He was in

17:01

the turret on top of the humvee and

17:03

he was ejected. His internal organs

17:06

were crushed by his own fifty caliber

17:08

machine

17:08

gun. He traveled

17:10

halfway around the world to serve in Iraq,

17:13

and he died in a car accident. To

17:16

this day, I don't know what he died for.

17:30

I think some of it was due to

17:33

nine eleven the whole

17:35

towers coming

17:36

down, and I'm

17:38

not told one hundred percent

17:40

sure. We were gonna get somebody, and

17:43

it was the wrong place to go. I mean,

17:45

it's just president Bush at the time

17:47

was they they were out for

17:48

blood. Actually, Dick Cheney was out for

17:50

blood, and they wanted to go after somebody.

17:53

What we were doing, we invaded, but what we're

17:55

going for. Right? It was a whole talk still to this day.

17:57

Right? We imagined the actual

17:58

talk. Like, we invaded because they had weapons,

18:00

mass weapons, destruction. But did that.

18:03

And Yeah.

18:03

Weapon's mass destruction. And just how it like,

18:06

none of it really made sense and it all kinda

18:08

felt like bullshit. You're

18:14

listening to today explained live

18:16

from south by southwest this past week

18:18

in Austin, Texas We're gonna pause

18:20

for a moment and be right back with

18:22

why this war happened or at least

18:24

why we were told it needed to happen

18:27

and what happened after that.

18:41

Most of the time we talk about tech in terms of

18:43

handful of gigantic companies like Google

18:46

meta and apple. But some of the most interesting

18:48

stuff we find online is the product of

18:50

a single person. When you're working on your own,

18:52

I think there's this beauty of being

18:54

able to come up with an idea and

18:56

then implement it. Then in that moment,

18:58

you don't have to have permission from someone else. There's

19:00

no red tape In the vergecast series,

19:02

Solo X, we'll get to know these people.

19:05

The tech they use to get stuff done and the obstacles

19:07

they face trying to compete with the giants. Some

19:10

people that I talk to and my friends are like,

19:12

you know, your competitors are Zuckerberg and

19:14

Musk. Like, aren't you kinda, like, afraid

19:16

of that? Every Monday, are friend Ashley

19:18

Escada will be curating and hosting these

19:20

interviews and sharing with us what

19:22

she's learned. I can't believe the

19:24

McRib locator who was originally a tour

19:26

NATO locator.

19:27

Rice. Pretty wild. Listen to our

19:29

Solo X mini series now in the vergecast

19:31

feed. Anywhere you find podcasts.

19:39

Hello. I'm Neil Patel, the editor in chief

19:41

of the Virgin and host of Dakota, a

19:43

business podcast where I interview CEOs

19:45

who big ideas, the problems that come

19:47

from those ideas, and how they make decisions.

19:50

It is also surprisingly about

19:52

org charts. It comes up a lot

19:54

We're launching a new limited series that we're

19:56

calling the Centennial series, where I

19:58

talk to CEOs of companies that are over

20:00

one hundred years old. Like Xerox,

20:03

Barnes and

20:03

Noble, and

20:04

more. There's no hundred year old

20:06

company that's without its struggles, and it's been fascinating

20:08

to talk to these CEOs about which

20:10

parts of these company's history are important

20:13

and which parts they can let go. A

20:15

little spoiler for you. If a company is over a

20:17

hundred years old, There's a lot of drama

20:20

to talk about. It's been a good time. You can

20:22

listen to the Centennial series right in the decoder

20:24

feed. New episodes of decoder are

20:26

out on Tuesday and the Centennial series

20:28

is out on

20:29

Thursdays. Check it out. We think you're really

20:31

gonna like it. You can get it wherever you get in podcasts.

20:33

What do

20:35

you think today explain this? I don't

20:40

know.

20:43

Here's what happened in Iraq. Twenty

20:45

years ago, almost to the day, George

20:47

w Bush, who I believe lives not too far from here,

20:50

got on all the big channels and announced the United

20:52

States would be invading Iraq. This was

20:54

not Afghanistan. This was not the place

20:56

where Osama bin Laden and Al

20:58

Qaeda were hanging out. When George

21:00

W. Butch told the American people we were at war in

21:02

Afghanistan Dan. In two thousand one,

21:04

he said this to armed forces.

21:07

To all the men and women in our military, every

21:09

sailor, every soldier, every airman, every

21:12

coast guardsman, every marine. I

21:14

say this, your mission is defined,

21:17

your objectives are

21:18

clear, your goal is

21:20

just with a rock a couple

21:22

years

21:23

later, he made no such pledge. Instead,

21:25

he said the invasion was

21:27

necessary

21:29

to free its people. And

21:32

and

21:32

to defend the world from grave danger.

21:35

Bush said Saddam Hussein was threatening the peace

21:37

of the world with weapons and mass murder. And

21:39

from the jump, People whose business

21:41

it was to be all up in Iraq's weapons

21:43

business had a hard time believing that.

21:46

Six months before the war started, an intelligence

21:48

document that since been declassified stated

21:50

that the United States was mostly relying on,

21:52

quote, assumptions and judgment

21:55

rather than, quote, hard evidence

21:58

when making the case that Saddam Hussein had

22:00

weapons that threatened the western world.

22:03

Despite that, In February two thousand three,

22:05

one month before the war began, secretary's

22:07

state, Colin

22:08

Powell, appeared before the United Nations

22:10

and said, My colleagues,

22:12

every statement I make today is backed up by

22:15

sources, solid sources. These

22:17

are not

22:17

assertions. What we're giving you are

22:19

facts and conclusions based on

22:21

solid intelligence. That

22:24

same month, Saddam Hussein allowed United

22:27

Nations inspectors into his country to

22:29

investigate his weapons programs. The UN

22:31

found no evidence of weapons of

22:33

mass destruction. Around this time,

22:36

British intelligence agencies We're

22:38

talking about the case for war in Iraq. We know

22:40

now that behind closed doors, they said

22:42

Iraq posed no threat to the west and

22:44

that, quote, regime change was

22:46

inexcusable, primarily on the grounds

22:48

that Iraq would collapse into chaos,

22:51

which, of course, it

22:54

did. In May of two thousand

22:56

three, just two months after the war began,

22:58

George W. Bush, board an aircraft

23:00

carrier off the coast of San Diego to declare

23:02

mission accomplished in

23:04

Iraq. He said, major

23:07

combat operations in Iraq have ended

23:10

in the battle of Iraq the

23:12

United States and our allies have

23:16

prevailed. But

23:22

he added. The transition

23:24

from dictatorship to democracy will take

23:26

time, but it is worth

23:29

every effort. Our

23:31

coalition will stay until

23:34

our work is done.

23:35

A writer in Rolling Stone recently wrote that

23:38

these early months were the fuck around stage

23:40

of the Iraq

23:41

War, and the United States was about to spend

23:43

the next decade or so finding out.

23:46

A

23:46

few months after Bush's declaration of victory as

23:48

suicide bomber drove a cement truck

23:50

into the UN headquarters in Iraq, destroying

23:53

the building and killing twenty two people

23:55

That was sign of what was to come. In

23:58

the following months and years, insurgents would

24:00

target US forces who were trying to maintain

24:02

control over country that was descending into

24:04

terian violence. Saddam

24:06

Hussein held Iraq together

24:09

with brutal tactics and repression. Now

24:11

he was gone and it was on people

24:13

like Ricky Slokem to hold Iraq together.

24:16

The instability, spread resentment

24:18

toward US forces. Bad

24:20

tanks, and humbeez and

24:23

air support. The growing insurgency had

24:25

suicide attacks, car bombs,

24:28

surface to air missiles, guns, and a

24:30

shitload. Of homemade bombs.

24:32

In early two thousand four, the Bush administration

24:35

conceded there were no weapons of mass destruction

24:37

to be found. Intelligence officer

24:40

named David Kate testified before Congress.

24:43

Let me begin by saying we were almost all

24:45

wrong. But that same year,

24:47

the fighting intensified. The

24:49

first battle of Volusia, the second battle of

24:51

Volusia, American soldiers are dying, and

24:53

surgeons are dying, Iraqi civilians are

24:56

dying. Two thousand four was

24:58

also the year the world found out about

25:00

prisoner torture at Abu Grey,

25:02

not far from where Ricky died that year.

25:05

Pictures began to leak of United States Armed

25:07

Forces engaged in physical abuse, torture,

25:10

and rape of Iraqi prisoners. Abigabe

25:13

would later be cited as inspiration for the beheadings

25:16

of American civilians taken by Iraqi

25:18

insurgents. In his book about

25:20

the war titled Fiasco, The

25:22

Washington Post former Pentagon correspondent

25:24

Thomas Ricks claimed there are more than thirty

25:26

four thousand insurgent attacks in

25:29

two thousand five. At this point, the

25:31

war was causing the American taxpayer about five

25:33

billion dollars a month. By

25:35

two thousand six, there was a new

25:37

war, a civil war, US and

25:39

Iraqi forces versus various sectarian

25:42

groups. By two thousand seven,

25:44

it was clear the United States would need to escalate

25:46

to hold Iraq. So George W. Bush

25:49

sent an additional twenty thousand armed forces

25:51

in the first troop search. In

25:53

two thousand eight, You'll all recall we had little

25:56

regime change of our own. Barack Obama was

25:58

elected the forty fourth president of the United

26:00

States of America. He ran on campaign

26:03

to end the combat mission in Iraq.

26:05

Most of you know that I uphold this war from

26:07

the start.

26:09

I thought it was a tragic mistake. Today,

26:12

we grieve for the families who have lost

26:14

loved

26:14

ones, the hearts that have been

26:16

broken,

26:17

and the young lives that could have been. America,

26:21

it is time to start bringing our

26:23

troops home.

26:26

Obama delivered kinda He

26:28

starts drawing down troops once he enters

26:31

office. And by the end of two thousand eleven, he

26:33

declares the end of the United States combat mission in

26:35

Iraq. Mission accomplished again.

26:38

But by twenty fourteen, the Islamic

26:40

State had seized control of large swathes

26:42

of the country, and president Obama had to send

26:44

troops back to Iraq to fight them.

26:46

Is a third war within a war,

26:49

and it lasts into the presidency of

26:51

Obama's successor and then his successor.

26:54

In twenty twenty one, United

26:56

States military announces the end to its

26:58

combat mission in Iraq. Again,

27:01

but the military will not leave the

27:03

country. Twenty five hundred troops

27:05

will remain and transition to, quote,

27:08

advise, assist, and enable

27:10

Iraqi forces who are battling the

27:12

Islamic State. Today, Right

27:14

now, those two thousand five hundred US

27:16

troops remain in Iraq. Some of them

27:19

are younger than the congressional authorization

27:21

that put them there. So

27:23

far the war in Iraq has cost the United

27:26

States nearly two trillion dollars.

27:30

To date, Forty four hundred and eighteen

27:32

American service members have died there.

27:34

Tens of thousands have been injured. At

27:37

the outset of the war, George W. Bush said coalition

27:39

forces would make every effort to

27:41

spare innocent civilians from harm.

27:44

Brown University's cost of war project estimates

27:46

around three hundred thousand Iraqi

27:48

civilians were killed by direct violence

27:50

since the US invasion. They say

27:53

the actual number of civilians killed by direct

27:55

and indirect war violence is unknown but

27:57

likely much higher. According to

27:59

the Center for Public Integrity, the Bush

28:01

White House made nine hundred and thirty five

28:03

false statements about Iraq in the two years following

28:06

nine eleven. When asked to take

28:08

stock of the war by Wolf Blitzer

28:10

in twenty eleven, former vice president

28:13

Dick Cheney said,

28:15

I don't think you can make a case that

28:17

the world would be better off today if

28:19

Saddam was saying we're still in

28:20

power. So no regrets about Iraq. And I think

28:23

we made the exactly right decisions.

28:26

Chinese former boss, George W. Bush, might

28:28

disagree with him. The

28:31

result is an absence of checks and

28:33

balances in Russia, and

28:36

the decision of one man to

28:39

launch a wholly unjustified and

28:42

brutal invasion of Iraq I

28:44

mean, up in Ukraine. Correct.

28:47

Anyway,

28:51

don't you hate it when you say what you think? People

28:55

laugh. Right? This isn't the guy who encouraged an insurrection

28:58

after

28:58

all. This is the guy who paints Iraqi war veterans.

29:01

Let's talk about the veterans. In

29:04

twenty twenty two, president Biden signed a pact

29:06

act to help treat veterans with toxic exposures

29:09

including those who were exposed to burned pits

29:11

in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are sites

29:13

where the United States Armed Forces burned

29:15

uniforms, equipment, computers, poop,

29:18

and were in turn exposed to toxic

29:20

smoke and air. Conditions range

29:23

from shortness of breath to bronchitis

29:25

to cancer. President Biden believes his

29:27

own son Bo died of cancer that can be

29:29

traced back to his own exposure to burn

29:32

pits in Iraq. Cancer,

29:34

bronchitis, and all the rest got nothing

29:36

on suicides though. Brown University

29:39

says over thirty thousand service

29:41

members from the nine eleven wars have

29:43

ended their own lives. Back

29:45

in January, my mom sent me a

29:47

story from the town where she still lives Santa

29:49

Clarita, the city where Ricky Slokem

29:51

and I, went to high school at Saugus

29:54

is about shooting at a bar, not

29:56

a frequent occurrence in this

29:58

cookie cutter southern California suburb.

30:01

Turns out It was an off duty

30:03

deputy sheriff who pulled the trigger. He

30:05

was an Afghanistan veteran named

30:08

Jonathan Duken. And

30:10

Jonathan Buchen was the victim.

30:13

He shot himself that night

30:15

at the bar and died. Another

30:18

veteran, another suicide, another

30:21

statistic, and because

30:24

Jonathan's suicide was so close to home he made me

30:26

think of Ricky. I started

30:28

to wonder what Ricky would be doing if he had made

30:30

it home. Maybe he would be a cop. Maybe

30:33

he'd have come around to hot pink. It

30:36

makes me mad that we'll never know, which

30:39

is weird because I hardly knew him.

30:41

And the people who are closest to him

30:44

They aren't mad at all. In

30:46

the

30:46

twenty years since you found out,

30:48

have you ever felt mad?

30:50

No. I

30:52

felt proud of what he

30:54

did.

30:56

He was doing what he wanted to

30:58

do. Two days ago, I spoke

31:00

with Ricky's father. I'm Bob

31:02

Slokam. I'm a gold star

31:04

dad because my son, Ricky Slokam,

31:06

was

31:08

killed in Iraq. On October

31:10

twenty fourth two thousand

31:12

and four. The

31:13

first thing I told Bob was that I was gonna tell

31:16

lot of people his late son, Ricky,

31:18

like to beat people up when we were in high school.

31:20

And Bob Slogan was like,

31:23

yeah. I just know

31:25

they started a big of

31:27

the bike club here in Santa Clarita, which

31:31

was a little social gathering. And

31:36

he would come home a little bit, you know,

31:39

marked up a little little bit. And I said, what

31:41

happened? He says, well, we hit the fight club

31:43

last night. So I was like, okay.

31:46

Whatever that is.

31:49

It was not news to Bob that his son, Ricky,

31:52

like to fight. Ricky,

31:54

was the protector. He

31:56

had a good social network

32:00

where if somebody felt threatened,

32:03

they would call him and he

32:05

would come in

32:07

and figure things out, you

32:09

know, and help out

32:11

with protecting his

32:13

friends. After

32:15

nine eleven, Ricky decided he wanna protect his

32:17

country. That was

32:19

in the eleventh

32:21

grade back in two thousand

32:23

and two. That's

32:25

when he he enlisted for the marines.

32:28

He just wanted to fight and project

32:30

and

32:31

you know, that's that's the way he was. He was no

32:34

fighter. Did you have any qualms

32:36

or or did your wife, Ricky's mom,

32:38

Kay, have any qualms with him

32:41

enlisting? Were you? Of course.

32:43

Of course. We did. I mean, we

32:46

didn't stop him because he was eighteen.

32:51

But it

32:53

was his idea, and at

32:57

the time, we were in a full fledged

32:59

war. And

33:02

I was just doing the math like,

33:04

okay. Well, how many people in list?

33:06

How many people don't come home? And

33:10

he on the list was very low

33:12

as far as people that don't come home.

33:16

So you just try

33:19

not to think about it as parents?

33:22

And just help your son stay

33:24

safe. Mhmm. And

33:28

Today, those three marines came knocking

33:31

on my door? Yes. At

33:33

six o'clock in the

33:34

morning? It's

33:37

in shore lights. They

33:41

would ask, are you mister Slokum? And I said

33:44

yes? Can

33:48

we come in?

33:54

When the Iraq War started, Americans didn't have

33:56

a lot of information. We were told there

33:58

were weapons that Saddam was bad,

34:01

and that there should be democracy in

34:03

Iraq. Twenty years

34:05

later, we know there were no weapons.

34:08

Saddam is gone. The Islamic

34:10

state is still a threat, and

34:12

democracy is fragile as fuck.

34:16

And hundreds and hundreds of thousands

34:18

of people died to get us here, including

34:20

Ricky Slokam. So I asked

34:22

Bob what he thinks of the war

34:25

twenty years later. Well,

34:32

can we add another Tariffs

34:35

attack the United States? No.

34:40

So I'm thinking they

34:42

went in. They got what they need to get done.

34:45

They got to the domicying. And

34:49

I think we need a presence in Iraq

34:52

just to keep the peace.

34:56

And I know we can bring more troops in if we

34:58

need to. But I

35:00

just hope our presence there is

35:03

a positive for the people

35:05

in Iraq. Mhmm. I

35:07

think it's a very impressed entry.

35:15

Bob doesn't have a choice but to remember Iraq.

35:18

He mentioned the date Ricky died over

35:20

and over when we

35:21

talked. October twenty four

35:23

two thousand four.

35:25

October twenty four two thousand

35:27

and four. But he told me his community

35:29

hasn't forgotten Ricky either. Every

35:32

October twenty fourth, friends and family come

35:34

over to his house for a vigil. They

35:36

remember Ricky together. He

35:39

invited me to the next one.

35:49

Sorry you had a bad experience with him.

35:53

You know, He

35:57

was not anti anti gay.

36:00

He he had

36:02

gay friends too. So I

36:05

I don't know what happened on that night where

36:10

he chastised you for warm

36:12

pink, but, yeah, I I got

36:15

a grandson wearing

36:16

pink, you know. So

36:19

I say in the piece that if Ricky were

36:22

still here, he'd probably be wearing a pig polo.

36:25

He probably would. Yeah.

36:35

Sean Ramos firm, that was today

36:37

explained live from South by Southwest

36:39

twenty twenty three recorded in Austin,

36:41

Texas last week. The show was produced

36:43

by me and Hadi Mawagdi. It was

36:45

edited by Jolie Myers, and fact checked by

36:48

Laura Bullard. Thanks to Paul Robert Moundsy,

36:50

Noel king nominal Saudi Matthew

36:52

Colette, Jonathan Guyer, and Victoria Chamberlain

36:55

for their help with this show. And thanks to

36:57

Darren Archer, and Zachary Hunsaker

36:59

for helping me remember.

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