Friedman: Hearts and Minds

(snip)

What prompts these thoughts is a series of conversations over the past month with a variety of officials involved in Iraq policy making — both Iraqis and Americans. Everyone agrees that the goal is some kind of democratic Iraq, but I have yet to come away from any of these conversations with a clear sense of how we are going to get from here to there, or even who exactly is the overall conductor of this diplomatic, financial and military symphony. I keep meeting with people, expecting to hear "The Plan," but I never quite hear it.

What I hear a lot of, though, are horror stories of Pentagon and White House red tape for anyone who wants to go to Baghdad to work in our mission there; continued guerrilla warfare between the State Department and the Pentagon and between the C.I.A. and the Pentagon, which borders on one quietly hoping for the other to fail; and a shocking lack of continuity in the U.S. team in Baghdad. I hear the U.S. civilians in Baghdad complaining that we need more troops and security — if we are going to set up a legitimate Iraqi political authority — and I hear the U.S. military complaining that the key to better security is setting up a legitimate Iraqi political authority, so Iraqis will know who and what they're fighting for. Local U.S. commanders in Iraq are running dangerously low of walking-around money to buy friends, and we've even managed to start a fight with Qatar (over news broadcasts), where we have our regional military headquarters.

I just arrived in Istanbul and a Turkish friend, Soli Ozel, an international relations professor, remarked to me that the U.S. had so badly mangled the postwar honeymoon in Iraq, even Turkish conspiracy theorists were baffled: "People simply can't believe that with all your human and financial capital you didn't think about the day after."

(snip)

What prompts this outburst? It was a picture on Thursday's front page of this paper of a U.S. soldier being hugged by his young kids as he left for Iraq, just before Christmas. That picture left a real lump in my throat. It prompted me to ask myself whether, given everything I knew, I could tell that soldier's kids that their government was doing everything it could to make sure their dad comes home both safe and successful. I could not tell his kids that right now — and that really bothers me.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2003/12/14/opinion/14FRIE.html

democratic Iraq = fundamentalist Shiite regime

That is what a majority of Iraqis would vote for. There is no way "democracy" in the sense of a popular franchise, can work in Iraq in a way that would please foreign policy hawks.

What about the kids of soldiers coming home to Dover AF base in "transfer tubes". What would Tom tell these kids?

badly (which has been often) George Sr. has to send in one
of his cronies to clean up. However, I think this one is so
monumental it can't be fixed.

This is what he wanted.
When does he admit he doesn't have a clue?

Especially that last paragraph.

My 23 year old nephew lies in Walter Reed, a bullet severed his spinal cord and he's a quadraplegic thanks to Friedman and his fellow fifth columnists.

But Friedman doesn't care, after all, my nephew can't fight for Likud, er, America anymore...

I smoked crack with Tom Friedman in a 132nd St. basement once back in the 1980s,

somehow, the people who accept friedman's bushit would also see his use of an illegal substance (thanks gad it's illegal; crack is TOO GOOD)as an indicator of unworthiness as one of 'bush's bitches'

Friends, we have a hearts-and-minds problem with Iraq: we've given them our hearts, and we've lost our minds. Our intentions are good in terms of what we wish for Iraq.

What good intentions?

Friedman, like any neoliberal, wouldn't know democracy if it bit him in the ass. It certainly isn't how quickly public services can be privatized and national assets sold to foreigners. He should have known better than to have believed Bush, whose very presense in the White House is an assault on democracy, wants any for Iraq.

The problem with US policy in Iraq isn't that Bush wants to do the right thing and doesn't know what he's doing. The problem is that he knows very well what he is doing and so do the Iraqi people. That is why they are resisting.

and he is now dumbfounded that the rosy scenario did not come true. What a jerk!

about that before he pushed so hard for this war. He wanted this war so badly he could taste it-thought it would be some sort of magical panacea for the problems of the Middle East. He had to have had some inkling of how incompetent the dubya regime is; he may be crazy but he's not stupid. Well, he's got his war, he should be happy now, and stop whining, but I'm not counting on it.

Very sorry about your nephew Zanti Regent.

yeah Tom, we 'shock & awe' them into loving us, but those bad/stupid/evil Iraqis didn't understand that when we kill, its with love in our hearts :eyes:

Lawyer Claims Friedman Fracas
‘HE HAD FIRE IN HIS EYES’
By JACOB GERSHMAN
Staff Reporter of the Sun


New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has been pushing Israel to make peace with the Palestinian Arabs. He may have taken things a bit far at a recent dinner in New York City.
A Manhattan lawyer says Mr. Friedman shoved him into a small crowd of people and cursed at him,apparently angry over comments the lawyer had made to the three-time Pulitzer Prize winner.
Mr. Friedman — a columnist for the Times since 1995, best-selling author, and more recently a documentary filmmaker for the Discovery Channel — did not respond to calls yesterday asking for comment.

...

Mr. Schwartz says Mr. Friedman shouted an expletive and then “thumped” him with the palm of his right hand against the shoulder of his double-breasted navy-blue suit. He said the columnist then delivered a more forceful blow against his shoulder, driving him backward about three feet and into the backs of several other people. The second shove, he said, had much more of a “follow-through.”

more here: http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=NYS/2003/12/10&ID=Ar00104


sounds like friedman is losing his shit

Useful for the neocon cabal in lending "liberal" support to their imperialist expedition.

But useless as a pundit because deep down he has no clue -- he's an idiot.

He may have heart, but he's lost his mind.

Noticed he ignored poor Abdul, the boy who lost both arms and legs!