...on his assessments of the facts. Friedman seems to vacillate between kissing up to the Bush administration policies and pounding them into to ground with criticism. Now Friedman agrees that the Iraq war is good because it makes the enemy look good when America appears to be loosing on the enemy's own turf. Yet he claims that if we bring the troops home, or pound the crap out of them in their backyards, then the Jihadists will make one last spectacular suicidal statement against America on our soil. Please! Give me a break.
There has been no terrorist attack on American soil since
9-11 because.....it would not be convenient for the neo-con fanatics and BushCo who want to install a Christian Military Theocracy government in this country. Friedman is just another smoke-up-our-ass blower journalist who seems to be too lazy or incompetent to dig for the truth in this matter.
<snip>
April 13, 2005
OP-ED COLUMNIST
The Calm Before the Storm?
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
So here's a question that I've been wrestling with lately: With all these reports about the bungling of U.S. intelligence, and the C.I.A.'s relying on bogus informants with names like "Curveball" or "Knucklehead" or whatever, why have there been no terrorist attacks in the U.S. since 9/11? I've got my own pet theory about what's produced this period of calm - and, more important, why it may be coming to an end.
<snip>
Despite all of that, I fear that we may now be entering the most dangerous period since 9/11. Why? Because I've always believed that one of the most important reasons there has been no new terrorist attack in America has to do with the U.S. invasions of both Iraq and Afghanistan. It is not only that the Bush administration has taken the fight to the enemy, but that the enemy has welcomed that fight.
<snip>
I fear that when and if the Jihadists conclude that they have been defeated in the heart of their world, they will be sorely tempted to throw a Hail Mary pass. That is, they may want to launch a spectacular, headline-grabbing act of terrorism in America that tries to mask, and compensate for, just how defeated they have become at home.
In short, the more the Jihadists lose in Iraq, the more likely they are to use their rump forces to try something really crazy in America to make up for it. So let's stay the course in Iraq, but stay extra-vigilant at home.
<more>
<link>
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/opinion/13friedman.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print&position=