RSS« In the realm of distorted incentives | A commentary on Lewis: Washington Monthly art »
November 21, 2004
Friedman: Can he get any more clownish?
Postcards From Iraq
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/opinion/21friedman.html
These statements are just ... absurd in theirvacuousness:
We are not doing nation building in Iraq. That presumes that there was already a coherent nation there and all that is needed is a little time and security for it to be rebuilt. We are actually doing nation creating. We are trying to host the first attempt in the modern Arab world for the people of an Arab country to, on their own, forge a social contract with one another. Despite all the mistakes made, that is an incredibly noble thing. But for Iraqis to produce such a social contract, such a constitution, requires a minimum of tolerance and respect for majority rights and minority rights - and neither of those is the cultural norm here. They are not in the drinking water.
First, of course, it's bad, ignorant history, but that's Friedman's thing.
Second, "noble" or not, nobility is irrelevant to the issue, which is success. Noble failure is something poets can get all misty eyed about. Poets being expendable.
However this statement is just beyond clownish:
Readers regularly ask me when I will throw in the towel on Iraq. I will be guided by the U.S. Army and Marine grunts on the ground. They see Iraq close up. Most of those you talk to are so uncynical - so convinced that we are doing good and doing right, even though they too are unsure it will work. When a majority of those grunts tell us that they are no longer willing to risk their lives to go out and fix the sewers in Sadr City or teach democracy at a local school, then you can stick a fork in this one. But so far, we ain't there yet. The troops are still pretty positive.
No. No. No. The soldier on the ground is not the canary you ignorant git.
If possible, I am even more disgusted with Friedman's delusional nonsense than usual.
Posted by The Lounsbury at November 21, 2004 02:37 PM
Filed Under:
Aug-Dec 2004
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.aqoul.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/1416
