Thomas Friedman is a dangerous man. His words are read by people in newspapers across the country, and heard by many more when he appears on 24/7 "news" channels as some kind of expert (on what, I do not know). What I don't understand is why he is taken seriously, given how wrong he has been.
After his latest appearance on the TV machine, I sent the following off to my local newspaper. I encourage you to contact your own local media about Friedman, or the always-wrong pundit of your choice. Perhaps we can get some positive changes in the media by letting them know that we don't think their BS is chocolate ice cream.
Recently in a television "news" interview, billionaire opinion columnist Thomas Friedman and Meredith Viera had the following exchange:
Friedman: To have a proper civil war you need to have two sides -- you have about thirty sides -- It's beyond a civil war there.
Vieira: So what does that mean in terms of our role there then, Thom?
Friedman: Um, Obviously when you're dealing now with something broken up into so many little pieces -- it's hard to believe that anything other than re-occupying the country -- um, and establishing the very coherent order we failed to do from the beginning is really the only serious option left.
Viera (stunned) But, is that really a serious option -- to reoccupy the country?
Friedman: Well, I'm simply saying if you actually want to actually bring order there -- the idea that you're going to train the Iraqi army and police to this kind of fragmented society is ludicrous. Who's training the insurgents? Nobody is training them and they seem to be doing just fine. This is not about the way -- it's about the will. Do you have a will to be a country? If you don't have that then there's not much training is going to do..
I may not have a syndicated newspaper column or have married into a billion-dollar fortune, but I know enough about current events to see that the idea of "re-occupying" a place that our forces never left is patently ridiculous. Also, the shifting of blame for the chaos in Iraq onto some sort of "lack of will" in the Iraqi people is part of a wholesale movement by the armchair cheerleaders of the US invasion. As one of the media commentators who helped run the US headlong into this quagmire by unquestioningly amplifying every lie and half-truth of the Bush administration, Friedman is dismayed to see every rosy prediction he made turned to ashes and as terrified as the White House that he will not be able to avoid his fair share of the blame for it.
Mr. Friedman, the people have spoken. We have rejected this deadly Middle Eastern misadventure that you so fervently and enthusiastically supported, and we aren't buying your song and dance anymore. Go back to your flat Earth society, or just buy yourself something nice with your wife's money. Either way, spare us your fantasies of "reoccupation"; Americans are still getting killed in the original one.