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Comment by dutch3000 | Hacker News Reader

a million? really?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War

Americans might have conveniently forgot what was happening in the world between the years 2001-2011, but the world hasn't.

There is one estimate at 1 million, one estimate at 400 thousand, and multiple estimates at 100 thousand.

The 1 million estimate seems to be a major outlier. Yes 100 thousand is still very terrible, but that's probably a more accurate number.

i’m not questioning the existence of the conflict, yet your propagation of exaggerated figures.

Just to address the comment above (it has been flagged and I can no longer reply directly). This is not a debate of America vs China. This is a debate of morality. We should not reserve judgement only for "bad guys". The reason China gets a free pass on this is because they are economically valuable to other countries. Chaining up pregnant women is bad, by all nations at all times.

I spot this demagogic argument from pro-Chinese position all the time: "they committed some crimes, so we have a right to do the same". Following that logic, they easily can justify their genocide with providing Holocaust as an example: "we just imprison and torture people, we do not burn them".

I think it's useful to directly use the word which describes this strategy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

This makes it faster for you to refute their point, especially in front of other people who might be convinced by this argument at first.

I think that regarding free pass the US get it all the time. Look at the Iraq war, I think that only western country that had to suffer consequences was France with the Freedom Fry silliness. Moreover in the US almost everybody is proud to have fight this war...

We in Europe should be more vocal about what US and China think they can do to the rest of the world without consequences. China is an awful country, we just have to look at what they did in Tibet, for the last 40 years... there is nothing new.

European country are currently doing nothing and this is despicable, my country being the worst, we just discovered that Chinese police officer are invited here to identify potential Chinese to send back to China... the moral standpoint is very weak, and only facts matter.

> European country are currently doing nothing and this is despicable, my country being the worst, we just discovered that Chinese police officer are invited here to identify potential Chinese to send back to China... the moral standpoint is very weak, and only facts matter.

Switzerland, for those wondering: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/swiss-explore-renewal-...

> we just discovered that Chinese police officer are invited here to identify potential Chinese to send back to China

What country is this?

Sounds like they are probably talking about Hong Kong.

Switzerland. According to the comment above yours. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24304179

Yes, also impoverished and displaced several million people.

Consider the impact of all the regime change operations undertaken under the patronage of the United States in countries like Iraq, Lybia, Syria and Yemen, as well as devastating effects of economic sanctions on Iran, Syria and other nations.

Probably correct estimate considering all the American wars in the middle east.

Still annoying comparison and whataboutism.

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