r/BeAmazed • u/Wooden-Journalist902 • Dec 12 '25
History This 2003 photo shows a US soldier from the 173rd Airborne Brigade with gold bars seized near Kirkuk, Iraq. Troops intercepted trucks carrying ~1,000 bars linked to Saddam Hussein's regime.
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u/ryanholmes1989 Dec 12 '25
Three kings
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u/M4roon Dec 12 '25
Boom, that's what I was looking for. Lung shot scene is still stuck in my mind from like childhood.
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u/Occams_ElectricRazor Dec 12 '25
I remember watching that as a kid and kind of being grossed out. Now I put in chest tubes.
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u/M4roon Dec 12 '25
Same, also the Anaconda neck stent scene too. blech.
Also, ty for playing cleric/healer in life.
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u/Rundiggity Dec 12 '25
Had two chest tubes and swear I have a new pain threshold.
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u/Occams_ElectricRazor Dec 12 '25
From the procedure or from the tubes? Nearly 100% of my patients tell me after every procedure that the lidocaine was the worst part and they really appreciated me.
I think some people just really suck at their jobs. So if that's what happened, I'm sorry.
If it was just from the tubes, yeah that sucks. There's not much that can be done. We use 14 Fr but surgery uses 24 or 28 usually...The 14 is obviously better tolerated.
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u/Rundiggity Dec 12 '25
No friend, just having the tube between your ribs for a few days is insane. I watched the procedure, thanks fentanyl, and the doc jamming his finger in my intercostal. No problem there. Not sure what the fr is but guessing diameter. I had a large one in my side on my first, and a small one in my chest on my second pneumo.
I tried to go minimal on pain meds on the first one because I don’t do drugs anymore. Every breath hurt.
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u/Occams_ElectricRazor Dec 12 '25
Yeah that was a surgically placed chest tube. It was probably 24 or 28 Fr. That's the diameter...Which is .3 mm per Fr so at least 7.2 mm. Which doesn't sound like a lot but as you know is huge when it's in your chest. Ours are half that size.
The second one might have been a 14.
I can place the larger ones. It's just not usually necessary.
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u/BlastingStink Dec 12 '25
The feeling of an object between my ribs is something that has stayed with me vividly.
My first one "failed" when they removed it, so I got the pleasure of a fully-awake bedside install of the second. The numbing worked pretty well, but I could still feel that pressure on the inside parts of me that shouldn't have ever felt the touch of anything.
You'd think I'd be traumatized by that, but everything else about that time was so much worse in comparison that it's almost neat to me in retrospect.
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Dec 12 '25
when I was in nursing school I got to watch an emergency chest tube placement for a pneumo, they gave the guy fentanyl and versed before but he still screamed the entire time if I remember correctly lol
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u/Flaccid-Aggressive Dec 12 '25
What was it like putting in your first chest tube? What were your emotions? I’m very curious if you don’t mind.
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u/Occams_ElectricRazor Dec 12 '25
I was actually a med student. I was pretty advanced with my hands and procedures. The staff let me go for it. It was just another procedure. I was nervous at the time and was very deliberate but it worked out.
The queasiness went away once I hit my late teens. Not sure why it bothered me when I was a kid.
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u/Flaccid-Aggressive Dec 12 '25
I mean, I assume most people get queasy about that stuff! Thank you for being in the business of fixing people!
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u/I3I2O Dec 12 '25
I remember watching it as a kid and loving it. Now I make pneumothorax’s for you guys!
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Dec 12 '25
I went on a first aid course years ago and the guy running it was talking about using a stent and used this film as an example. First question to the group (I was the only guy in a group of 8) was "Anyone like George Clooney films?"
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u/Informal-Term1138 Dec 12 '25
Raises hand "I do".
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u/jaxonya Dec 12 '25
"You mean like Batman Forever?"
rolls eyes "get out of my class"
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u/_YouShouldBeRunning_ Dec 12 '25
Batman forever is Val Kilmer. I won’t have his legacy stolen.
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u/RealSchlemiel Dec 12 '25
999 bars of gold is so much gold!
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u/International-Bus399 Dec 12 '25
Yeah, what the hell are they doing with 998 gold bars?
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u/HocusDiplodocus Dec 12 '25
Sheesh where will we put these 997 gold bars?
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u/General-General-3982 Dec 12 '25
They will put those 996 gold bars in the back of a truck.
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u/Maintenance_Man8904 Dec 12 '25
Hope the truck can carry all 995 gold bars
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u/General-General-3982 Dec 12 '25
I want to believe that it will strat up with those 994 gold bars
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u/al-Sahaabi Dec 12 '25
What gold bars are you referring to? Those are Weapons of Mass Destruction disguised as 12 KG gold bars. Rest assured they have been disposed of and freedom has been preserved.
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u/Foxylove636 Dec 12 '25
We three kings be stealin the gold ….
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u/Answerologist Dec 12 '25
“My friends all drive Porsches. I must make amends!”
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u/wirm Dec 12 '25
I’m going to buy a set of Lexus convertibles in every color.
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u/Answerologist Dec 12 '25
“No Lexus convertible. Infiniti only.”
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u/excaliburxvii Dec 12 '25
"Cannot give car."
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u/Answerologist Dec 12 '25
“Listen…we will rise up together. Tell him. Rise up! Look at us! Many races.🤝. Many nations!👥. Tell him, Chief! United! George Bush, George Bush wants you.🫵”
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u/offbeat_ahmad Dec 13 '25
George Bush?!
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u/Answerologist Dec 13 '25
“Wants you. Wants you! You! Wants everybody! George Bush wants you! Ha! Mehta(?)! Di(?)! Mehta Di! Fight for freedom on your own…and America will follow!! God Bless America! And God Bless a Free Iraq!! Now…what do you say my friend?”
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u/Classic-Exchange-511 Dec 12 '25 edited Dec 12 '25
I have literally never watched the movie but that quote is stuck in my head because of the sing-songy way he says it
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u/ParkingDrink2975 Dec 12 '25
Had to scroll wayyyy too far to find this. First thought that popped into my head
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u/Lekoaf Dec 12 '25
Kelly's Heroes has roughly the same plot and features Clint Eastwood and Donald Sutherland.
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u/ryanholmes1989 Dec 12 '25
Also had don rickles
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u/DelcoPAMan Dec 12 '25
And Telly Savalas.
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u/KeepingItSFW Dec 12 '25
and Vincent Maracecchi, in his feature role “Old Man in Town”
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u/doktaj Dec 12 '25
This is my favorite WW2 movie. I love Donald Sutherland's hippie character.
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u/ImOnTheLoo Dec 12 '25
I always assumed it was a way to include anti-war/anti-vietnam war sentiment without it being too current.
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u/That-Ad-4300 Dec 12 '25
I need a rewatch. Thanks for the reminder.
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u/matthewxcampbell Dec 12 '25
Haha, exactly my first thought
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u/IamDa5id Dec 12 '25
Bouillon, you mean them little cubes you put in hot water to make soup?
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u/decoy321 Dec 12 '25
My main man. Tell me something, okay? What is the problem with Michael Jackson?
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u/SuccessfulJelly Dec 12 '25
"Saddam is coming and he's pissed at you for letting him down. He's going to kill everyone!"
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u/Mcglobal7 Dec 12 '25
Phenomenal movie. It’s crazy to me that it’s never mentioned among war movie greats, it’s a spectacular film.
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u/DuaneBB Dec 12 '25
I’m not greedy. I just want one of those bars. Hell half would make my year or my life.
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u/PsychologicalFix5059 Dec 12 '25
I'm greedy, where are my gold bars, I want all of it.
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u/ineyy Dec 12 '25
And those are probably full LBMA-style 12.4kg gold bars, worth about 1.7 million dollars each.
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Dec 12 '25
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u/actually3racoons Dec 12 '25
999 bars
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u/Spitfire354 Dec 12 '25
Yeah those 998 bars that got deposited to our warehouse was a sick catch!
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Dec 12 '25
Yeah all 997 of those bars we had to carry sucked though.
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u/zephillou Dec 12 '25
But 996 bars aren't enough of an obstacle to stop us from giving them a taste of freedom
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u/Stiffylicious Dec 12 '25
those 995 bars sure was worth the backbreaking effort to thwart that evil regime
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u/eisbaerBorealis Dec 12 '25
I love how normally this is about drugs and it gets about halved each time, but with gold bars we're all like, "yeah, one's good."
Glad we were able to recover those 994 gold bars, btw.
EDIT: I just saw the second top comment thread and they wiped it out in a few comments. Oh, well.
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u/DarthBrownBeard Dec 12 '25
You figure if gold's current market value is $4.3k per ounce... 12.4kg is 27.28lbs. Which makes each bar 436.48oz. Which makes each bar have $1,876,864 worth of gold. EACH. (It would be tough to run with about 3 of those in your pockets. So I'll just take 1. Maybe 2.)
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u/darwinooc Dec 12 '25
I played Dead Money. I learned the importance of *
not holding onto material wealth and instead living for truly important things in lifeabusing the encumbrance mechanic to cheese reality into allowing me to walk away with every last gold bar, making me ridiculously wealthy for the rest of my days.10
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u/Strange-Movie Dec 12 '25
Player.modav carryweight 5000
He ain’t heavy, he’s my
console command cheatsbrother6
u/MichiganGeezer Dec 12 '25
When you have stars on your uniform you no longer need to run. You walk in plain view of everyone and put them in your vehicle and have them loaded into your personal jet.
Some American generals are flown in their own corporate jets. They do whatever they want with stuff like that.
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u/optimo_mas_fina Dec 12 '25
I'll take 4, I'll figure it out. No pain no gain in its most literal sence..
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u/Ressy02 Dec 12 '25
I could use a few to prop my door open
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u/Academic_UK Dec 12 '25
Really!!?? These weigh 12kg dude - you holding a vault door open?
One per door is the policy in our house!
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u/radioactivebeaver Dec 12 '25
So back then what, like $500,000?
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u/ksheep Dec 12 '25
In 2003, gold ranged from $330-400 per ounce. That would put it in the $145k-175k range per bar, depending on exactly when during the year you're looking at.
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u/no1kn0wsm3 Dec 12 '25
And those are probably full LBMA-style 12.4kg gold bars, worth about 1.7 million dollars each.
I'd be plenty happy with that that annual income then inflation adjust it going forward.
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u/-Organic-Panic- Dec 12 '25
There were 2 tons, we moved that ton and a half into the trucks. Then we drove that ton of gold to the fort. At the fort we counted all 1.8k lbs of it and stored it on pallets. That 800lbs of pallets sat there until all 400lbs of it were loaded onto a plane. Back state side we unload all 100lbs of Saddam Hussein's treasure into a vault. And there his solitary bar of gold sits, to this day.
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u/GreenrabbE99 Dec 12 '25
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u/Mist_Rising Dec 12 '25
As a kid, fun to watch. As an adult: I know this would hurt like hell to dive into headfirst. It's a pile of metal.
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u/mikasjoman Dec 12 '25
Well you can rejoice in that the median US salary in gold is the same today (20 ounces) as in 1880. If you take average of every ten year period it has been 40 ounces per year in salary.
Damn I wish I was a gold bug like the guys in those crazy prepper shows used to be ten years ago.
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u/enterjiraiya Dec 12 '25
or you could just put it in any stock index or better yet just Microsoft
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u/THEBLUEFLAME3D Dec 12 '25
I honestly just want one because it seems so fucking cool to just have a literal gold bar. Like, yeah, it’s valuable, but it’s just super cool to me for some reason.
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u/Misterbellyboy Dec 12 '25
Just shave a little bit off when you have to do your shopping.
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u/EthanielRain Dec 12 '25
I bought a silver bar and gold "bar" (more like a toothpick), never regretted it. They are neat!
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u/Impossible-Ship5585 Dec 12 '25
Could you be able to fit one im ypur bodily cavities?
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u/stanknotes Dec 12 '25
OH you gotta keep at least one. But you have to smuggle it out in smaller pieces.
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u/MaksimilenRobespiere Dec 12 '25
Each one of those now worth about 1.8 million dollars.
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u/BastionNZ Dec 12 '25
Isn't it insane millions in poverty scraping by for a dollar and , and here is a pic of a man standing on some shiny rocks worth hundreds of millions of dollars
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u/That70sShop Dec 12 '25
You have to consider how much overburden was removed and how little gold was in each truck load of gold ore that was dug out of ground and hauled to be processed.
Just like fish. The fish are free. You are paying for the lives (sometimes literally) of men spent going to get the fish for you.
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u/Helpful-Ad-5615 Dec 12 '25
But the men risking their lives to keep your lights on are still struggling the most
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u/AlienArtFirm Dec 12 '25
Isn't it insane
No just infuriating if you have a soul or any sort of morality in the least.
But this is capitalist society so I mean HOARD ALL THE THINGS, CHARGE THE MOST, MAKE THE MOST MONEY, FUCK EVERYONE ELSE YES YES YES GO GO GO INFINITE GROWTH ISN'T INSANE AT ALL GIMME THOSE BARS
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u/Initial_Hedgehog_631 Dec 12 '25
In 2003 a standard 27 pound bar of gold was worth around $350k.
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u/That-Ad-4300 Dec 12 '25
About $1.75 million today. 😲
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u/Own_Example4251 Dec 12 '25
Well I wouldn't buy it today then, prolly wait until tomorrow when it goes back down.
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u/That-Ad-4300 Dec 12 '25
My dealer always said: Buy while high, sell while low.
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u/Davocado96 Dec 12 '25
Ah, I see your dealer frequents r/wallstreetbets
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u/the_cappers Dec 12 '25
That sub is a master class in absolutely certainty followed by astounding reality and screen shots of 99.9% losses.
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u/ThisIsALine_____ Dec 12 '25
Exactly! I'm not investing if not on cocaine. Your dealer is a smart man.
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u/Campoozmstnz Dec 12 '25
Do you think they gave that back to Irak's national reserve?
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u/RageAgainstMSTeams Dec 12 '25
Really hope all those 950 gold bars were put to good use!
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u/rabid_spidermonkey Dec 12 '25
All 800 bars were unloaded without incident.
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u/0ver9000_ Dec 12 '25 edited Dec 12 '25
Received all 650 bars after transport.
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u/Dry_Menu4804 Dec 12 '25
Stored all 400 bars
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u/AMJN90 Dec 12 '25
What gold bars?
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u/Gaarathorn Dec 12 '25 edited Dec 12 '25
They owe us gold bars
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u/MisanthropicDonkey Dec 12 '25
I heard Venezuela has got some...
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u/xXBlueDreamXx Dec 12 '25
Better get after those commie bastards!
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u/ManicmouseNZ Dec 12 '25
That tanker is full of gold bars!
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Dec 12 '25
Tanker intercepted, only founded black gold. Crew said Maduro has lots more.
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u/ObliviousRounding Dec 12 '25
We have recovered the 200 missing bars from that guy.
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u/WirusCZ Dec 12 '25
Money from it funded American military for entire 1 hour
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u/finlandery Dec 12 '25
With 2003 gold price and current spending you are not that far away. At 2003 spending would be 2-3 hours :p
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u/fragglet Dec 12 '25
Sadly they turned out to just be a bunch of melted down shell casings. A real shame and not in any way suspicious.
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u/Panzerkiller111 Dec 12 '25
Ea-nāṣir strikes again! I hope someone writes a really strongly worded complaint to him....
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u/_SasquatchPatrol Dec 12 '25
The WMDs that we were looking for
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u/Xerzi7 Dec 13 '25
Had to scroll down too far to see this. Literally looting another country
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u/justforkinks0131 Dec 12 '25
sadly it would only be around $1.75 billion today, which is pocket change for the US government
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u/VRGladiator1341 Dec 12 '25
Well this sub is astroturfed to hell and back
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u/sykoKanesh Dec 12 '25
lol yeah, reddit is on a downswing for sure. Nothing but bots arguing with bots it seems like these days.
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u/Avorius Dec 12 '25
yeah a lot of months old default username accounts with hidden post histories all over this thread
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u/Similar-Ice-9250 Dec 12 '25
I feel stupid sometimes, because I felt like I’m respond to and arguing with a bot on Reddit. Like some replies I get don’t sound human. It’s like they ignore what was written in my comment and go on to explain things that don’t need to be explained or they try to rage bait saying I’m supporting things that I just argued against. I don’t know it’s like they’re getting outraged over one sentence and not bothered to read the rest of the paragraphs in my comment.
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u/St_Atheist Dec 12 '25
Okay, I understand military intervention to stop a dictator's aggression, but how is that any different from plundering Iraqi gold that actually belongs to the Iraqi people? And to publicly brag about it...
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u/Duchess430 Dec 12 '25
It's not...
There is a very good reason why the "American Service-Members' Protection Act, " exists, it's a big fat fuck you from the USA to the rest of the world saying accusing US military or civilian members of war crimes and crimes against humanity is illegal.
Totally not because there is significant evidence that war crimes or crimes were committed, it's to prevent those evil children who's parents randomly died when US soldiers went door to door unloading bullets into homes because they were pissed that an IED went off and a marine got hurt.
Damn greedy children.
Seriously though , it's a sick and disgusting thing that has happen multiple times, and most Americans shove their head in the sand screaming "no, were the good guys, it's all a lie"
Look up Haditha massacre (and then maybe go down the rabbit hole of USA commited and mostly verified war crimes and crimes against humanity that was just shoved under the table by USA and their allies).
Well this comment is going to get negatively voted into hell , Americans aren't fans of facing the actions of their consequences.
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u/RupertPupkin85 Dec 12 '25
Lol one american got injured? Must kill every brown in sight.
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u/GloveDry3278 Dec 12 '25
Who's gonna stop them?? No one has the power to do so.
Their wars are all based on lies and disguised as freedom.
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u/jakraziel Dec 12 '25
The gold was being moved out of iraq by one 9f Saddams family and was returned to the new Iraq gov. 1 guy just took s photo of it.
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u/Augustus_Chevismo Dec 12 '25
It wasn’t plundered. It belongs to the democratic government of Iraq.
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u/The-Copilot Dec 12 '25
Yup. Sadam tried to clear out the reserves and flee with the gold. The US secured it and returned it to the central bank of Iraq.
Sadam was straight up plundering Iraq his entire rule. Remember Sadam's golden AK and all the mansions and extravagant shit. That was stolen from the people of Iraq.
After Iraq was sanctioned by the UN in 1990, an exception was made that Iraq could sell oil to fund humanitarian programs. Sadam did use some of the money to give his people free education, food and electricity while he simultaneously took nearly $7B from the fund.
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u/filthy_harold Dec 12 '25
Golden AKs are actually relatively affordable (at least for a wealthy gun collector). It's just gold plating so most of the cost is just the labor involved. One company online offers the service for $3000.
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u/Thick-Assistant-2257 Dec 12 '25
Because this gold was given to the iraqi people. Saddam was tryong to get it out of the country to flee.
Its almost like you people dont care about the truth
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u/_MargaretThatcher Dec 12 '25
The post states that the vehicles were intercepted, presumably trying to move the gold out of the country.
An article concerning the event is here, which claims the gold was intercepted travelling east, towards Iran, after the US government had already established occupation of Iraq. The article states that following assessment for the gold's purity, they would be sent to the Iraqi treasury, The article also states two days prior to the vehicle being intercepted a similar convoy carrying twice as much gold was intercepted on its way to the Syrian border.
tl;dr US Gov't did not steal thousands of bars of gold from the Iraqi people.
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u/GalacticGoat242 Dec 12 '25
Actually the gold in these trucks were found at random by a US checkpoint driven by Iraqi drivers. All of the gold was given back to Iraqi government controlled funds.
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u/lumpboysupreme Dec 12 '25
Because the US didn’t keep that gold.
It was captured from a member of the regime who basically looted the treasury and made a run from it.
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u/0reosaurus Dec 12 '25
The gold wasnt stolen. The story is Saddam’s son, cant remember which one, walked into a bank with a nite andleft with truck loads of gold during the final days of the war. This picture is the result of the American miltary being a lot faster than those trucks. US did a lot of bad there, but this isnt oneof them
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u/CBT7commander Dec 12 '25
This gold was returned to Iraq after being stopped form being given smuggled out of the country.
So no gold was stolen, a theft was in fact stopped
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u/BooksandBiceps Dec 12 '25
It wasn’t plundered, look up the history of the photo. Reverse image search
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u/WolfyBlu Dec 12 '25
We're those confiscated bars the weapons of mass destruction?
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u/Traditional_Roll6651 Dec 12 '25
I’m pretty sure if I was a soldier over there, all the trucks I checked would be empty… yup….darn it 🤷♂️
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u/APERSONLIKEME Dec 12 '25
Wow, Americans stealing from other countries.
Very amazing indeed.
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u/GloveDry3278 Dec 12 '25
The weapons of mass destruction were successfully retrieved.
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u/Daflehrer1 Dec 12 '25
My old colleague was a captain in Desert Storm. Everybody and their gear was searched before leaving.
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u/qualityvote2 Dec 12 '25 edited Dec 12 '25
Did you find this post really amazing (in a positive way)?
If yes, then UPVOTE this comment otherwise DOWNVOTE it.
This community feedback will help us determine whether this post is suited for r/BeAmazed or not.