Edwina Rogers on War in Iraq

10 Responses to Edwina Rogers on War in Iraq

1. slc1 says:

   May 4, 2012 at 9:12 am

   Of course, secular hero, the late Christopher Hitchens, was gung ho about the invasion of Iraq.

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2. R Johnston says:

   May 4, 2012 at 11:16 am

   And a lot of secular people were mystified by the widespread acceptance of the decidedly nonsecular Christopher Hitchens as a representative of secular values.

   Hitchens was most definitely a nonsecular atheist.

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3. John D says:

   May 4, 2012 at 12:28 pm

   More troops did work. Edwina is right on this one. Dems said this was “not winable” and they were wrong.

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4. Sivi says:

   May 4, 2012 at 12:50 pm

   @John D,

   Define “work”.

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5. John D says:

   May 4, 2012 at 1:00 pm

   Sivi – You are joking right? You might want to read about the end of the Iraq war. We added a “surge” of troops and also helped organize local groups to help secure the country more effectively. This ultimately allowed us to massively draw down our troops. Had we left before securing more territory there would have been a mess (at least this is the general consensus).

   From wikipedia “Both critics of the surge and independent news services have stated that the conventional wisdom in the United States media is that the surge ‘worked’.”

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War_troop_surge_of_2007

   Of course, one could argue that the surge was not the cause of the final stability in Iraq. Even so, the Democrat plan to quickly draw down does look like it would have been a poor option.

   and to be clear. I don’t think we should have gone to war to begin with… but… once we were in it was best to leave after establishing security.

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6. Sivi says:

   May 4, 2012 at 1:58 pm

   @John D

   Fair point. Once things were fucked up there wasn’t much option but to try not to keep screwing things up.

   On the other hand, the same wiki article quotes others as saying the reduction in violence around the time of the surge was largely correlation, not causation, and that ethnic cleansing of disputed regions and other factors were the cause.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War_troop_surge_of_2007#Opposition_2

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   • John D says:

     May 4, 2012 at 2:10 pm

     Yeah Sivi – It is hard to know for certain. It is possible that the surge was not the best option, but it looks like it was probably better than a more rapid troop reduction. So.. in this case at least… Rogers was probably on the correct side of the argument.

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7. Aratina Cage says:

   May 5, 2012 at 12:13 am

   If you’re interested in doing another one of these kind of posts, head over to Greta Christina’s and look in the comments to find out what Edwina Rogers had to say about Valerie Plame (spoiler: she lies about the facts and badmouths her).

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8. Pam Ellis says:

   May 7, 2012 at 5:48 pm

   @John D
   Or, you know, we could have NOT invaded Iraq.

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   • John D says:

     May 7, 2012 at 9:17 pm

     Pam – You are changing the subject. This post is about Roger’s comments in this video. Of course I know we could have not invaded. What is your fucking point!

     Oh wait… I know your point. You just wish every atheist had political opinions just like you. Well… we don’t!

     Reply