"The Chant Not Heard" by Phony Tom Friedman

[The Zanti Regent]

Read at your own risk...

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/30/opinion/30FRIE.html

[jab105]

1. Ok, I'm going to state the obvious...

Dear Mr. Friedman,

I'm sure, if Osama Bin Laden was the invited guest of the Prime Minister of Great Britian, there would indeed be protests in the streets of London. Not supporting Bush doesn't mean that you support the terrorists, in the same way, saying that something isn't black doesn't make it white, saying something isn't a square doesn't make it round, and saying something isn't good doesn't make it evil. I would assume that this would be obvious, however, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be.

There is way more to the left than "anti-Bushism", and there is way more to the opposition to the Iraq invasion than an opposition to Bush. Being so close to those crazy lefties on so many issues, I'm surprised that you didn't realize this. You can't just model a plan after the Marshall Plan six-months after an invasion and expect it to work in the same way. There was so much more to the Marshall Plan, and there is so much less to this invasion. The opposition is about not having a plan other than to invade Iraq, "shock and awe".

As George Soros himself said, Iraq is no a place that one should pick as a trial run model for democracy because the atmospere in the coutry, the warring factions, the fear by the west of fundamentalism, and the 30 years under a dictatorship that was perceived to be supported by the US for so many years is not one that will give way to democracy. We are seeing that now.

The left has a plan, the left has always had a plan in Iraq. The problem has been that the Bush administration has isolated so much of the world and has been so removed from the peace and security in Iraq itself, that we are becoming more and more limited in the plans that we can pursue in Iraq. This is a problem of the Bush administration, and the Republicans who are in control of every branch of the federal government, not the left.

thanks!

BLAH!

[wtmusic]

2. Friedman The Apologist comes up with another winner

:eyes:

[fizzana]

3. Why the hell should the left have to now come up with a

solution for Iraq. We had the solution all along - Don't go to war.

It's Bush's mess to fix.

Also there is absolutely nothing "noble" about what the U.S. has done in Iraq. Deciding that we're there to foster "Democracy" has no validity because 'Democracy" only became the reason for going into Iraq when all other reasons failed.

[T_i_B]

5. If Freidman wants solutions from the left

then may I invite him to suck on the gruaniad feature in this thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=22942

[bpilgrim]

4. "But it is one of the noblest things this country has ever attempted" lol

"But it is one of the noblest things this country has ever attempted abroad and it is a moral and strategic imperative that we give it our best shot."

yeah... sure it is Tom. I am sure our past history in the ME or the rest of the world has 0 bearing on your opinion, obviously, but lets just consider recent history like kuwait and even newer still afghanistan.

doesn't look like democracy from here.

"For my money, the right liberal approach to Iraq is to say: We can do it better. Which is why the sign I most hungered to see in London was, "Thanks, Mr. Bush. We'll take it from here." "

yeah... in your DREAMS - lol

in case you haven't noticed the radical neoCON admin at the helm doesn't take orders, let alone advice from ANYONE, yes, including our 'shoulder-to-shoulder' best buds, and ARE the primary reason there is so much hate and violence directed at the west currently on an ESCALATING path.

sounds like the UBL plan is superior to the bush doctrine up to this point - that might have something to do with UBL's plan DEPENDING upon harsh reprisals and unilaterial behavior by us which - unfortunately for us civilians - is aparantely a central doctrine of the neoCONs 'strategy'

folks around the world see BUSH as the greatest threat to world peace and they are concerned, since nobody seems to be listening to what they think, hello... and are taking it to the streets as usual.

yeah, well take it from here tom...

thank GORE he 'invented' the internet ;->

peace

[HuckleB]

6. This one is so bad, it's not worth criticizing seriously.

I'm shocked that the Times published this piece at all. Any good editor would have sent him back to the drawing board.

[Skittles]

7. I agree, Huckle

it is absolute garbage.

[teryang]

8. Endless iterations of garbage

Make lemons into lemonade in Bahgdad. What a pathetically infantile analogy. After you kill thousands of people and take their resources by force, you don't get lemonade. You reap what you sowed, death and destruction. This is the rule in the middle east.

This is what neo-cons, the Jewish lobby and the defense contractors had told their corporate allies, that Iraqi markets and resources would fall like ripe fruit. Tom Freidman's hypocritical advice is the neo con mantra, stay the course, it will bear fruit. Such a course only prolongs the inevitable military and political defeat. (Sunk costs are no costs- Defense Economics 101)("They'll keep killing us until we leave""You can't win a vendetta."-anonymous retired US Army Sergeant Major)

<It can't see anything else in the world today, other than the Bush-Blair original sin of launching the Iraq war, without U.N. approval or proof of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.> Good! That's keeping the eye on the ball. Forget the "get over it" nonsense.

First it was the first six months that were "dispositive" now its the next six months. No, the most important days were those in which you and your neo con allies beat the drums for senseless, elective, pre-emptive and illegal invasion and war.

Senator Joe Biden is the sychophantic mouthpiece for Delaware blue blood corporatists. The same aristocratic families that supported hitler before and during WWII. The enemies of pluralism are in the corporate boardrooms and lobbies of Washington D.C., and Tel Aviv.

Er. the war had nothing to do with terrorism. I know it's you job as a major propaganda outlet, so I guess we can't expect you to stop repeating the big lie.

[Cocoa]

9. Friedman must think the protestors are stupid

He thinks this paragraph is enough to make them forget the fact that he is one of the most virulent, racist, amoral warmongers out there:

Believe me, being a liberal on every issue other than this war, I have great sympathy for where the left is coming from. And if I didn't, my wife would remind me. It would be a lot easier for the left to engage in a little postwar reconsideration if it saw even an ounce of reflection, contrition or self-criticism coming from the conservatives, such as Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld, who drove this war, yet so bungled its aftermath and so misjudged the complexity of postwar Iraq. Moreover, the Bush team is such a partisan, ideological, nonhealing administration that many liberals just want to punch its lights out — which is what the Howard Dean phenomenon is all about.


Why on earth does Friedman not include himself in the list with Cheney and Rumsfeld? I'm sure the protestors do, despite the way he tries to distance himself from them.

[KG]

10. tom friedman - american moron

time to turn off his mic. :)

[Jack Rabbit]

11. The solution to Iraq's reconstruction

The solution begins with recognizing what the war was about in the first place; beyond that it lays in internationalizing the effort and making certain the Bushies have nothing to say about it.

Mr. Friedman could never get around to admitting that this little war he supported was a disaster and that it had nothing to do with bringing democracy to Iraq, as if a neo-liberal like Friedman would know democracy if it bit him in the ass.

This war was fought for the sake of war profiteers. It is the most grotesque political scandal in history. The war was about placing the Iraqi economy in Bush's hands long enough to sell the country from under the Iraqi people. Bush must be defeated in his efforts to that end.

First, the Bushies should leave and the UN should enter. Bush has no credibility with the Iraqi people, and never will. The UN should come in making it clear that the plan is to leave as soon as power can be turned over to an Iraqi government that is responsible to the Iraqi people. A constitutional convention should be convened with all parties respresented, including insurgents current resisting Bush's occupation; a constitution should be written and free elections held.

Next, the IGC, a creature of Bush's occupation, should be dissolved. A new interim government should take its place and open bidding for contracts for reconstruction of the country. The contracts awarded by the Bushies to their transnational cronies should be nullified and any sales of Iraqi assests to foreign concerns voided. Iraq's natural resources belong to the Iraqi people, not to foreign invaders.

If the Bushies conplain about being dealt out, they should just be reminded that they are lucky not to be hauled up in front of an international tribunal to stand trial for war crimes.