Legal Commentary

6 Years Later, Friedman Still Does Not Get It

By Big Tent Democrat

In 2004, Tom Friedman was interviewed by Charlie Rose. He famously said "The Iraq War was the United States saying "suck on this." Friedman said the Iraq Debacle was "unquestionably" the right thing to do.

Today he writes:

I have never bought the argument that Iraq was the bad war, Afghanistan the good war and Pakistan the necessary war. Folks, they’re all one war with different fronts.

This is, of course, nonsense. All one war? Sheesh. Moreover it is nonsense Friedman cannot even sustain through this very column:

Rightly or wrongly, we stepped into the middle of this war of ideas in the Arab-Muslim world in 2003 when we decapitated the Iraqi regime, wiped away its authoritarian political structure and went about clumsily midwifing something that the modern Arab world has never seen before — a horizontal dialogue between the constituent communities of an Arab state.

Rightly or wrongly? Excuse me, this is just unbelievable. For Friedman's claim was that the Iraq War was a strike against Islamic extremism and terrorism. But here's the "news" - Iraq was not where the Islamic extremism against the US came from. It was Afghanistan and Pakistan from where Al Qaida operated and still mainly operates.

Indeed, if you are opposed to the US Af/Pak policies, Tom Friedman is your useful idiot - he says the engagement in Afghanistan and Pakistan is "just like Iraq." In my view it is not. But if ever I became convinced it was - I would be the first one in line leading the charge for immediate withdrawal.

The Iraq Adventure has been a disaster from start to finish with no strategic objective. We will be leaving it a mess no matter when we leave or what we do. That is simply a fact and no one can do a thing about it.

If Friedman is right, if Af/Pak is just the "same war" as the Iraq Debacle, then we need to be out of it right now. I believe that in this, as in all things, Tom Friedman is wrong again.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on June 07, 2009 (boomark / email).