The insurgency in Iraq was also a minority- most supported the US. I like to imagine that Russia will have a much more difficult time in Ukraine where they are almost universally despised.
Russians also think that most Ukrainians support Russia, it doesn't mean it's true. Same with believes that most Iraqis supported US.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/02/da...
> Petraeus: Ukraine is not only bigger but some 50 percent more populous than Iraq, and the Iraqi population included many millions—Kurds, Christians, Yezidis, Shabak, and many of the Shia—who broadly supported the coalition forces throughout our time there. Only a minority of the Iraqi population comprised or supported the Sunni extremists and insurgents and Iranian-supported Shia militia. Though they did, to be sure, prove to be very formidable enemies.
I'm not just posting this to be pedantic - there are strong comparisons between the US attitude that we would be welcomed as liberators in Iraq and the Russian attitude about Ukraine.
But Saddam Hussein's popularity doesn't even compare to Zelensky's.
is not supported by
> the Iraqi population included many millions ... who broadly supported the coalition forces
"Many millions" !- "most"
He is thinking about the pre-Tsarist Russian Empire. Which included a few countries that were not in the USSR.
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[1]: But, hey, don't despair: Belarus will join in any day now.