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[Tatiana]

1. A good one, but Friedman's "Addicted to 9/11" was simply devastating, IMO

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/opinion/14friedman.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists%2fThomas%20L%20Friedman&pagewanted=print&position=

I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I hear the president and vice president slamming John Kerry for saying that he hopes America can eventually get back to a place where "terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance." The idea that President Bush and Mr. Cheney would declare such a statement to be proof that Mr. Kerry is unfit to lead actually says more about them than Mr. Kerry. Excuse me, I don't know about you, but I dream of going back to the days when terrorism was just a nuisance in our lives.

If I have a choice, I prefer not to live the rest of my life with the difference between a good day and bad day being whether Homeland Security tells me it is "code red" or "code orange" outside. To get inside the Washington office of the International Monetary Fund the other day, I had to show my ID, wait for an escort and fill out a one-page form about myself and my visit. I told my host: "Look, I don't want a loan. I just want an interview." Somewhere along the way we've gone over the top and lost our balance.

That's why Mr. Kerry was actually touching something many Americans are worried about - that this war on terrorism is transforming us and our society, when it was supposed to be about uprooting the terrorists and transforming their societies.

The Bush team's responses to Mr. Kerry's musings are revealing because they go to the very heart of how much this administration has become addicted to 9/11. The president has exploited the terrorism issue for political ends - trying to make it into another wedge issue like abortion, guns or gay rights - to rally the Republican base and push his own political agenda. But it is precisely this exploitation of 9/11 that has gotten him and the country off-track, because it has not only created a wedge between Republicans and Democrats, it's also created a wedge between America and the rest of the world, between America and its own historical identity, and between the president and common sense.

more...

[popstalin]

2. Don't forget

Bush likes wedgies!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

3. Has Friedman no shame over his previous shilling for this war and pres?

I mean, I guess I'm glad he wrote this, but, isn't it a bit little/late?

[Tatiana]

5. Better late than never?

Yes, I'm majorly pissed, because if you read this column (and his latest as well), you will see him articulating the same damn things we've been saying for, what, more than a YEAR now?

At the same time, I'd rather have Friedman jump ship than still be singing the praises of Bush and the invasion of Iraq. There are a lot of conservatives who read his column and realize that voting for Bush is the wrong way to go.

[MADem]

6. I'm with you

...it's like collaborators in France, deciding, at the last minute, to throw flowers, wine and sweets at the Allied armies, in the hopes that their neighbors won't remember what disloyal bastards they were. Too little, too late--time for a shaved head and a bit of tar and feathers!

Now, if they had been FAIR, I would not have a problem with them. You can disagree on specific issues without being disagreeable, and all that. But these guys drank the koolaid in a single gulp and berated anyone who refused to partake. Screw them!

[Crunchy Frog]

7. I think Friedman is just upset

that the war has been so badly mismanaged. I don't think he has or will come around to the view that the war was just plain wrong. He was and is a strong believer in the neocon vision of democratic transformation of the Middle East through military force. That was the reason he always gave for supporting the invasion, he never bought into the WMD arguement. He explicitly supported the unprovoked invasion and occupation of a sovereign country for purposes of imposing change on the society. He put foreward the fact that "we wanted to and we could" as justifications.

In short, he is in favor of what Bush did, and why in principle, he is just enough of a realist to understand that Bush is totally screwing it up. Just because he criticises Bush, even scathingly, he does not get a pass from me.

Maureen Dowd, as far as I know, has never hesitated in issueing scathing criticisms of the Bush administration.

[pacalo]

4. This is very disturbing.

This says it all:

America is awash in selective piety, situational moralists and cherry-picking absolutists.

They're "pro-life" but they'll accept a candidate whose hare-brained war caused thousands of needless deaths/life-altering injuries and who endorses the unscreened purchases of automatic assault weapons.

Cherry-picker/situational moralists. And hyprocrites.

[realcountrymusic]

8. Noy, she is one lady

I would not want mad at ME!

Not to mention being fine in a way that only a brilliant Irish woman can be.

RCM