# Is Washington, DC a quagmire? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 14, 2003, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153 "2003-08-14T15:30:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ShoNuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@ShoNuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShoNuff)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/21 "2003-08-14T17:13:52Z")
I asked you to make your point, which you did while I was writing. thanks ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/22 "2003-08-14T17:14:37Z")
I’ll pass on any response at all for the moment. If this gets sent to the Pit, I may reconsider. ---
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/23 "2003-08-14T17:20:42Z")
Well the fact that Bush should be helping these neigborhoods instead of giving tax breaks and waging war seems a direct connection. ---
**Author:** ![tramp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@tramp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tramp)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/24 "2003-08-14T18:24:37Z")
**december** , what is your point? Is your point that parts of DC are bad places to live? You’ll get no argument from me on that one. ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/25 "2003-08-14T18:30:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tramp \* > \*\ ***december** , what is your point? \*\* See my post of 08-14-2003 12:08 PM for clarification. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/26 "2003-08-14T18:32:09Z")
Nor I. But it’s so much better than it was 15 years ago. And I’m not joking. ---
**Author:** ![tramp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@tramp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tramp)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/27 "2003-08-14T18:56:35Z")
So your point is… Baghdad is a nicer place to live than DC? Bush should worry about tyding his own backyard before blowing up someone else’s? Ok look, parts of DC, chunks of it actually, are shitholes. You’ll never catch me in Anacostia but a LARGE part of downtown is undergoing a major urban renewal. Housing is so expensive downtown, I couldn’t live in DC if I wanted too… Crime is high in parts of DC too. This is not a problem that can be solved by throwing money at it. This is also not a problem that can be solved by waving the magic Bush wand and chanting “Anacostia, the next Georgetown, Anacostia, the next Georgetown…” ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/28 "2003-08-14T20:27:04Z")
I think DC is worse than Baghdad. Not too long ago they found WWI chemical weapons buried under a neighborhood here and as we all know: There are NO weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/29 "2003-08-14T21:35:53Z")
Hmm, I have thinking that Anacostia will start gentrifying soon too. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/30 "2003-08-14T21:37:38Z")
BEEN thinking rather. ---
**Author:** ![DeadJesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/35a633/32.png) [@DeadJesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadJesus)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/31 "2003-08-14T22:25:22Z")
> [@](#): > > The intended assertion is that some people are exaggerating the problems in Iraq in order to criticize Bush and his Iraq policy. Although the problems in Iraq are serious, they are not that much greater than the problems in our nation’s capital. Iraq presents challenges we can deal with, not reasons to surrender all hope and simply look for scapegoats. So if we hear our that our solidiers are getting killed, dying of heatstroke, or becoming increasingly demoralized in a war that was based on falsehoods, we should smile and have a Coke because hey, it could be worse! :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > I wasn’t aware that Washington D.C. was occupied by a foreign military force! I think december is loosely qualifying the [Latino gangs](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42046-2003Aug10.html) in DC as a foreign military force, **El Mariachi**. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_Heart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Angel\_Heart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_Heart)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/32 "2003-08-15T02:40:13Z")
Look, Wahington has its good neighborhoods and bad. Even some parts of Southeast are liveable. > [@](#): > > Housing is so expensive downtown, I couldn’t live in DC if I wanted too… My family moved to the suburbs 14 years ago because we couldn’t find a house big and nice enough that we could afford. Gentrification is both solving and causing problems: there is conflict with the “native” residents, who are often being driven out. ---
**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/33 "2003-08-15T03:04:55Z")
I live in DC. I think the conception of my city as a hell spawned war zone is drastically off base. Like all cities there are parts best avoided. That being said the improvement in livability has been striking over the past decade. At the rate things are going Anacostia will be the next hot place to live in the coming decade. In some of what used to be the worst neighborhoods median home prices are now over 200k. Housing is now expensive everywhere, not just downtown. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/34 "2003-08-15T19:00:15Z")
In light of december addressing supposed parallels between Iraq and Washington, DC, could one find any irony in the fact that this Administration makes such a big deal about trying to create a representative government in Iraq, and at the same time staunchly opposing voting representation in Congress for the people of Washington DC? Any irony there? No, of course not. None at all. I’m starting to think that Washington, DC should declare war on the United States, a la “The Mouse That Roared.” We’d get peacekeepers, reconstruction aid, and democracy. Sounds like a good deal. ---
**Author:** ![tramp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@tramp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tramp)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/35 "2003-08-15T19:20:07Z")
DC declare war on the US? Oh brother, I can see all the crack addicts, the prostitutes and Marion Berry attempting to storm the Capitol… At least they’d all have guns… ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/36 "2003-08-15T22:01:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Squink \* > \*\*No. > Only parts of the city were [built on a swamp.](http://www.geocities.com/bobarnebeck/swamp.html) \*\* Reminds me of the joke: “You know, (politician’s name) is so dumb, he thinks ‘Wade Boggs’ is what you have to do in order to cross the Potomac.” ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/37 "2003-08-16T00:09:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Garlic Press > Dateline: Washington, D.C. August 15, 2003 > > The weary Texan National Guard troops who have been called in to pacify Washington grow increasingly discouraged. In the last three months, they have suffered numerous caualties, including nearly 60 deaths. Their frustration has grown as they find themelves playing a police roll for which they have not been trained. This has played out, in recent weeks, as they have, on several occasions, fired on suspected opponents, only to discover that they have killed or wounded innocent bystanders. The death toll from these actions now excedes 20. > > Meanwhile, a coalition of pastors of the neighborhood Baptist and A.M.E. churches, joined by representatives of the nearby Episcopalian and Catholic diocese have called on Texas to remove the Guards, saying that the death toll is too high. If this is not the text to which **december** linked, then his “analogy” is merely dishonest posturing. ---
**Author:** ![leander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bcef8e/32.png) [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/38 "2003-08-16T00:34:53Z")
What’s the debate here? ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/39 "2003-08-16T00:37:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by leander \* > \*\*What’s the debate here? \*\* Repeating from above: The intended assertion is that some people are exaggerating the problems in Iraq in order to criticize Bush and his Iraq policy. Although the problems in Iraq are serious, they are not that much greater than the problems in our nation’s capital. Iraq presents challenges we can deal with, not reasons to surrender all hope and simply look for scapegoats. ---
**Author:** ![leander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bcef8e/32.png) [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153/40 "2003-08-16T00:50:33Z")
I read that – and again I ask, What’s the debate? You’ve _asserted_ that things in Iraq ain’t so bad. You’ve done this several times, and each time you’ve been thoroughly rebuked. You’re last sentence says it all: you’re not “debating” anything, you’re declaring something using a silly analogy which (as others have shown) doesn’t hold up. Please, think of the poor hamsters! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-washington-dc-a-quagmire/195153.md?page=3)