Friedman's new units: 10 months or 10 years

[ProSense]

TOM FRIEDMAN: SEND 150,000 MORE TROOPS TO IRAQ -- OR PULL OUT.

This blog has played this game before, with John McCain in the dancing clown role, but it's easy and fun, so what the heck -- let's play it again with Tom Friedman. In his column today http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/opinion/29friedman.html&OQ=_rQ3D1&OP=61e7980cQ2FQ51Q3E)Q7BQ5150vXX5Q51Q27EEqQ51--Q51Q27@Q51Xuw2wX2Q51Q27@Mvw)3gO2PT5gQ5D">Friedman writes:

Given this, we need to face our real choices in Iraq, which are: 10 months or 10 years. Either we just get out of Iraq in a phased withdrawal over 10 months, and try to stabilize it some other way, or we accept the fact that the only way it will not be a failed state is if we start over and rebuild it from the ground up, which would take 10 years. This would require reinvading Iraq, with at least 150,000 more troops, crushing the Sunni and Shiite militias, controlling borders, and building Iraq's institutions and political culture from scratch...

If we're not ready to do what is necessary to crush the dark forces in Iraq and properly rebuild it, then we need to leave -- because to just keep stumbling along as we have been makes no sense.

Our choices according to Friedman are: (a) send "at least" 150,000 more troops and spend "10 years" doing "what is necessary to crush the dark forces in Iraq"; or (b) leave, starting right now and completing the withdrawal over 10 months.

Putting aside the absurdly arbitrary nature of these numbers, here's the question: If President Bush says no go to an increase in troops, or if the increase is substantially less than the 150,000 that Friedman says are "necessary," will his following column call outright for withdrawal?

--Greg Sargent

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2927931&mesg_id=2927931">War games

[angstlessk]

1. Isn't he the 'we have 6 months to get this right'...which he repeats every

9 months or so? NOW he has a NEW prescription? Oh well, we ALL know how to win the war...except those who are in a position to win the war..and if they do what 'we' advise..they just did it too soon or too late or not enough...THIS IS TOO FUCKED UP TO EVER GET RIGHT...GET OVER IT!

[Semi_subversive]

2. If Mr. Friedman thinks 150,000 more are needed

perhaps he should pay a visit to his local recruiting office and sign up.

[Donnachaidh]

3. Can he take O'Reilly and Hannity with him?

All three should be put on latrine duty, in the middle of Baghdad. :sarcasm:

[maxsolomon]

4. we don't have 150k more troops

so lets leave & begin patching our hegemony back together.

[bronxiteforever]

5. Do you think the Friedman kids will fight the dark forces in Iraq?

"In November 1978, Friedman married economist Ann Bucksbaum, a native of Des Moines and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University.<9> The Bucksbaum family is reportedly one of the wealthiest in America: Ann's father, Matthew Bucksbaum, is chairman of the board for General Growth Properties, a real estate development group he and his late brother founded in 1954. The Bucksbaums helped pioneer the development of shopping centers in the United States.<10> Forbes estimates the family's assets at 2.7 billion dollars, including some 200 million square feet of mall space.<11>

Ann and Thomas Friedman live in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. The July 2006 issue of Washingtonian magazine reports that they own "a palatial 11,400-square-foot house, now valued at $9.3 million, on a 7½-acre parcel just blocks from I-495 and Bethesda Country Club." The Friedmans have two daughters: Orly Friedman (b. 1985) and Natalie Friedman (b. 1988)."-Wikipedia

[blm]

6. At this point a withdrawal could be handled in 8-10months

while shooting for that July target of Kerry-Feingold.

It would save a heck of a lot more lives than waiting to start some time in the future after waiting a few more months to see how things are going.....yet again.

[Beetwasher]

7. So, A Friedman=6mos

Then a Decafriedman=10mos and a Centifriedman=10yrs? Do I have that right?

[Dudley_DUright]

9. The official unit abbreviation for a Friedman is FU

A cFU would be 1/100 of 6 months (like 1 cm = 1/100 m).

[Beetwasher]

12. FU

How appropriate! :rofl: :thumbsup:

We can start a whole new field of mathematics.

[sendero]

8. Another sad loser..

.. who actually thinks that there is some magic formula that will "win" Iraq.

What a maroon.

[Benhurst]

10. Friedman: a mustache in search of a brain.

[Jack Rabbit]

11. Does anybody have a link to where Friedman's piece can be read?

I would like to see if the rest of it is as looney as that which Sargent quoted.

[hatrack]

13. "Dark Forces"? Who are we fighting, Barnabas Collins? Sauron?

Jesus, this is like putting a D&D club in charge of Foreign Affairs.

[Joe Bacon]

14. So, Friedman, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO FIGHT IN IRAQ?????

Go OR Shut Up, Tom.