Ted Rall on Friedman! As always, right to the point

[LittleApple81]

[KG]

1. tom friedman - proud to be an american moron!

:)

[samsingh]

2. humor is the best way to highlight stupidity.

[HPLeft]

3. I know that this will get me some heat...

...but I actually feel quite sorry for Friedman. He can be much better than he's been the last few years. And it is clear that he sincerely cares about the world. Maybe he cares too much, I don't know - and he lets his heart overwhelm his head. He may be lost, but he doesn't reside in the same sewer as the neo-cons.

[KG]

5. no, he doesn't care.

just before the invasion i heard him interviewed on 'fresh air' parroting chimpys 'they thought we would just sue them, but we're going over there and kick their ass' remark. so much for caring.

he may not be a neo-con, but he has serious dellusion about the ME's need for american style 'democracy' and for someone that i've heard characterized as a ME 'expert' he show how little he knows with each attempt to cover his ass in his columns.

[kodi]

6. he needs to go back and work in the rice paddies like deng did in china

tommy boy is now so far removed from the visceral human impact of what he writes about that its like he's morphed into high lord and prince henry kissinger farting on about real politik.

having him write recently about how well he understood iraq because he had talked to iraqis at the baghdad airport and with his cab driver was a hoot.


clearly, he is a giant. tommy 's ability to feel the pulse of a nation puts de tocqueville to shame.

[Brucey]

4. Very funny, and dead-on.

[RichM]

7. I admire Rall, & greatly detest Friedman. But in all honesty,

I don't think he quite got this one right. It's a funny cartoon-likeness of TF (the drawing itself, I mean). But he sort of missed the essence of Tom. Just my 2 cents.

[Hamlette]

8. I agree, Rall missed the point

Friedman has been consistent throughout. He said we should invade Iraq but we should not "go to war on the wings of a lie." He wanted the US to be honest about why we were going and what might happen when we got there. (He talked about Pandora's box etc.) As for his understanding of Iraq, he lived in the middle east for 20 years as a journalist.

Liberals are stuck on this one. If you believe in using US might and money to advance humanitarian causes throughtout the world, how can you be against going into Iraq? Somalia? Rawanda? Liberia?

The issue for me is, if Bush had been honest about why we should go into Iraq (Friedman's reasons) the rest of the world would have joined us and it wouldn't be America vs the World.

Of course, that assumes Friedman is right which I don't see BUT we never got to discuss it. The war was shoved down our throats and we are now forced to find a solution that does not leave Iraq worse off than it was when we went in.

Friedman's argument is a nuanced one. Rall missed it.