Discover and share the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.
McCain: Iraq War Was "Easy"
thinkprogress.org — Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) defended his statement from Oct. 2002 when he claimed, “I believe that the success [in Iraq] will be fairly easy.” - video. hmmm, maybe someone should tell him that the war is not over yet.....
e68895f- 30 diggs
- digg it
- flernk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Easy for who?
- mitchellk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6He was right. It was easy to defeat Iraq. What hasn't been easy is establishing a new government there while trying to avoid collateral injuries, offending any groups, and looking good on TV.
We should have cracked down three years ago, but were trying to be "nice". What we should do now is guard the borders to prevent more Syrians, Iranians, and arms from coming in, while telling the Iraqi government that we will watch the borders, you deal with your internal problems and deal with them now. - hambend, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2You know, I actually kind of agree with him. If the US had:
1) worked with the remainders of Saddam Hussein's government to create a democratic system, rather than dissolving the nation's infrastructure
2) taken a slow, deliberate approach to the invasion rather than the shock and awe tactic which killed so many of the people they were trying to free
3) actually gone into Iraq with some sensitivity to local culture and religions, rather than finding out only years later (as many politicians did) the difference between a Sunni and a Shi'ite
4) not had the horrible history of unilateral foreign policy which made it almost impossible for the Iraqi people to trust the new occupiers
5) shown some respect for the laws they were trying to enact in Iraq by allowing troops who murdered Iraqi civilians to be tried under Iraqi law
6) not built this war out of lies and injustices, i.e if their goals were actually in line with what they kept telling the world they are, and finally
7) as a public, actually held their politicians to account for their continuous *****, so that you can say with a straight face how well democracy is working for you
then yeah, I think this war could have been a fair bit easier on both America and Iraq.
- mitchellk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6He was right. It was easy to defeat Iraq. What hasn't been easy is establishing a new government there while trying to avoid collateral injuries, offending any groups, and looking good on TV.
- trm3446, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Republicans need to realize that they screwed up by rubber stamping anything Bush/Cheney/Rove/Rumsfeld wanted. If they have ANY chance at winning the next election, they need to realize the American public hates this war and hates this president and they need to distance themselves immediately.
That said, I don't see the American people trusting another Republican anytime soon. Especially anybody that's close to this administration, including McCain. As a registered Republican (currently), I'm switching sides and voting for Obama.
We can't get out of this fast enough.... - iam413x, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0He honestly was kind of right. Defeating Saddam and the Iraq Army was easy enough, and we did so rather promptly. Securing the nation and allowing it to have a stable government seems to be almost impossible.
- AriaStar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Easy for him because he sat in a nice comfy office and slept in a cozy bed. It's been hard for those fighting it and their families to receive death notices.
The Digg Toolbar for Firefox lets you Digg, submit content, and keep track of Digg even when you're not on the Digg site. Download the official 
© Digg Inc. 2008 —
Content posted by