THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: The Search for P.M.D.'s

[Robbien]

Unfortunately, such bizarre warnings could be the first of many, because while we have not found any W.M.D. in Iraq, we have found there a disturbing number of P.M.D.'s — people of mass destruction. Consider the car-bombing murder in Baghdad on Monday of Ezzedine Salim, the Shiite politician and president of the Iraqi Governing Council. According to news reports, Mr. Salim was in a five-car convoy of Nissan Patrols waiting in a line of cars to enter the Green Zone, the secure American complex in the heart of Baghdad. Suddenly, a Volkswagen Passat jumped out of the line of cars, raced toward Mr. Salim's vehicle and blew up next to it, incinerating everything in the area.

. . .

Whoever "they" are, they seem to be getting more and more sophisticated. What's worse is that these people are utter nihilists. At least Hamas has a stated political goal of ridding Palestine of all Jews and setting up an Islamic state there. It even offers social services. The people running the suicide operations in Iraq, whether they are working independently or are just one organization, don't even claim credit, let alone make any demands. They just want to ensure that America fails to produce anything decent in Iraq and they are ready to sacrifice all Iraqis for that end.

Extremely sophisticated nihilists, able to organize multiple suicide bombings right under our noses — for a year. It's another sign that we never had enough troops in Iraq, and have failed to train and equip a meaningful Iraqi police force to secure Iraq's borders or its interior — which is the necessary foundation for any decent outcome in Iraq.

But it's another reason we need to shift authority and security in Iraq to Iraqis as soon as they can handle it. Only they will have the ears needed to pick up the accents of P.M.D.'s, the eyes needed to know who doesn't belong and the smell for where these rotten apples are being stored to solve this P.M.D. mystery. And only they will have the words in Arabic to delegitimize this suicide trend.

We must shut this play down before it comes to a theater near us.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/opinion/23FRIE.html?ex=1085889600&en=08d97a3335062b8e&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

not a good article, but it is interesting as it is the first one he has published after his epiphany

[LittleApple81]

1. This guy is a complete idiot. n/t

[myopic4141]

2. A more revealling sign

How the insurgency is being conducted is a sign that Iraqis were not ready for a free and open democratic society. It was a question Bush should have asked before embarking on this folly. Democracy cannot be forced on a population at gun point nor can it be forced on a population not ready for it. Open societies require more than just building institutions. There must be a willingness to sacrifice (even making the ultimate of sacrifices) in maintenance once the institutions are installed. To date, there has been no willingness on the people of Iraq to make the sacrifice for either.

[nightperson]

10. I'll just note

that many Republicans these days are big fans of "you are a product of your environment" rather than "some people are born left-handed, some right-handed, some straight, some gay,". Where are the Iraqi Founding Fathers? Why are so many Arabs so into suicide? I don't know, and doesn't common sense dictate that we assume less and interfere less until we know more?

[myopic4141]

12. That is the problem with fanatics.

The bane of fanatics is that they do not use common sense because they believe in absolute truth. Instead, they plow ahead because of their absolute truth pre-notion of what is. Because of their adherence to absolute truth, rather that admitting error when things go wrong, they find excuses as to why things are not going as they should. As a result, relativism is introduced into their absolute truth (as exampled by the paraphrase of Sen Inhofe's "the imprisoned Iraqi's are glad they are not being tortured by Saddam Hussein" as if they prefer being tortured by Americans over being tortured by Saddam). Relativism in absolute truth creates a conundrum the fanatics refuse to address believing that if they ignore the contradictions, these contradictions will go away. Reality is that continuing on a path ignoring the contradictions only leads to a worsening of the circumstances; therefore, tending towards a greater disaster than that of admitting error and changing paths. However, to change paths is to admit that the absolute truth is not absolute which completes the circle; thus, defines the non-common sensical nature of the fanatic.
The adherence to absolute truth also limits the expansiveness covered by truth. Believers in absolute truth live in tiny boxes where local truth becomes absolute truth. An example would be planar geometry as a subset of spherical geometry. In plane geometry, triangles are limited to 1 90 degree angle per triangle where as spherical can have three per triangle. A fanatical believer in the absolute truth of planar geometry could never admit the greater truth about spherical geometry regarding triangles (something that I have already dealt with in discussions about absolute truth with fundamentalists in their approach of what is). By limiting the view of what can be, situations of "using aircraft as missiles" could be unknowable to "knowledge of what skyjackers will do with skyjacked aircraft"; therefore, a MIHOP where all possible consequences of allowing a skyjacking are not known. The same could be said of the war with Iraq where the narrow minded fanatic cannot conceive that Iraqis might not be ready for the self rule they deserve.
The Republicans are correct in that one is a product of their environment; but, the environment they envision is one that does not include the possibility that being born with certain characteristics inherent within it. Not a vision of reality; but, a vision of localized absolute truth.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. I'm afraid this person is in denial (at least partly)

"I don't think the P.M.D.'s are really a product of local Iraqi resentment against us," says Raymond Stock, an expert on Arabic literature and media based in Cairo. "They are mainly imported cookie-cutter killers, created by a combination of Arab mass media, certain extremist elements in Muslim culture, and some very shrewd recruiting by Al Qaeda and its ilk. When young, angry, futureless, sexually repressed people are taught that death is a permanent vacation of guilt-free pleasure, and they see it glorified in countless videos, all you need is a willing truck driver to ferry them over the border from Syria, Jordan, Turkey or Saudi Arabia and presto — a human bomb."

As if there isn't local Iraqi resentment of the US. This probably reflects Friedman's denial as much as Stockman's.

It may very well be "young, angry, futureless, sexually repressed people", but the anren't angry at thin air.

Yes, I think suicide bombing is ghoulish. Maybe that's just a cultural thing. Either way, I am certain that if that were not their way of attacking the enemy, it would be something else.

[Wright Patman]

13. "sexually repressed people"

Well, that puts our prison torture in a new and more favorable light, doesn't it?

We weren't torturing those naked men so much as introducing them to new sexual practices and acts they had not thought of before.

[Miss Authoritiva]

4. Suicide bombers as "extremely sophisticated nihilists?"

Maybe. Or just as likely they're fighting for something, rather than spitefully trying to ruin Bush's legacy as the Great White Administrator.

As for Iraqi insurgents being uniquely "young, angry, futureless, sexually repressed people (who believe) that death is a permanent vacation of guilt-free pleasure," Friedman should make a national tour of fundamentalist churches in America, especially those congregations waiting impatiently for the rapture.

[Jade Fox]

8. Yeah, fundamentalists are alike regardless of the religion.

[Barrett808]

5. Friedman had an epiphany? I'm waiting for Andrew Sullivan to flip. n/t

[Robbien]

6. Well, as a GOPer he said he was wrong

That is such an extraordinary event which could be labeled an epiphany. But this article does show how hard a time he is having. His arrogance shines through with every word.

[thebigidea]

7. I can't believe this man & his moustache are taken seriously

[Demeter]

9. All the Nihilists get to play together in Iraq

I'll see your suicide bomber, and raise you one Bush, one Cheney, one Rumsfeld, etc, etc,

You get the idea. If we give up our People of Mass Destruction (and Deception) then other nations will have to follow suit, or be rejected by their friends and neighbors.

[Martin Eden]

11. Friedman still doesn't get it

An indecent war cannot produce a decent result.

He still believes Bushco's motives in Iraq were honorable, and he fails to comprehend that the "nihilism" on display in Iraq is a product of our invasion.

Friedman's "epiphany" is that Bush has mismanaged the occupation, not that it was stupid and wrong to begin with.

[Cocoa]

14. this guy has NO CLUE what he's talking about

he has absolutely no insight to offer about the suicide bombers.]

I can't believe the NYT at one time actually charged a premium to read this fool's rantings.