THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: The Hail Mary Pass

[kevinmc]

On Thursday there will be a regional conference in Egypt to discuss stabilizing Iraq, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will represent the U.S. President Bush should go instead and give this speech:

I want to take this opportunity to speak to the Arab and Muslim nations gathered here today and to the world at large. I begin with a simple message: I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I rushed into the invasion of Iraq. I honestly believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. I was wrong, and I now realize that in unilaterally launching the war the way I did, you all feel that I breached a bond of trust between America and the world. Not only did that alienate you from us, it made us less effective in Iraq. We had too few allies and too little legitimacy. I apologize — sincerely.

I’m most sorry, though, because my bungling of the war has prompted all of us to take our eye off the ball. I messed up the treatment so badly that people have forgotten the patient really does have a disease. Now that I’ve apologized, I hope you will stop fixating on me and look closely at what is happening in your backyard: the forces and pathologies that brought us 9/11 are still there and multiplying.

Friends, we are losing in Iraq. But whom are we losing to? Is it to the Iraqi “Vietcong” — the authentic carriers of Iraqi nationalism? No, it is not. We are being defeated by nihilistic Islamist suicide bombers, who are proliferating across the Muslim world. We are losing to people who blow up mosques, markets, hospital emergency wards and girls’ schools. They don’t even tell us their names, let alone offer a future........

http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/05/thomas-l-friedman-hail-mary-pass.html

[Captain Hilts]

1. He should include himself as someone who owes the world an apology for supporting the war. nt

[roguevalley]

2. Thomas Friedman is worse than Bush. He can never make it all right.

[Tom Joad]

3. Warmonger Tom deserves our contempt.

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. 'ol Flat Earth Friedman ain't apologizing to nobody

I might also add that radical Islam is being financed by the gulf Arabs including the Saudi's, the Emirates etc. That little morsel of fact rarely gets seriously debated by the MSM. The there is Pakistan.

[Tempest]

5. Sounds like Friedman started a new 6 month window

He starts a new one every six months.

[quiet.american]

6. He STILL gets it wrong - no surprise. Bushco knew the "facts were fixed around the policy."

Friedman wants us to believe that Bushco "...honestly believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction..."

It continues to confound me as to how Friedman ever won a Pulitzer; his writing consistently offers up such complete and utter bullshite, e.g.., "....the forces and pathologies that brought us 9/11 are still there and multiplying...." There WERE no "forces and pathologies that brought us 9/11" in Iraq before Bush invaded - that has been well-documented.

How does the Tom "Catapult-the-Propaganda" Friedman live with himself? (rhetorical question)

[EVDebs]

7. Friedman = "Emboldened stupidity"

Both Milton and Thomas

[aquart]

8. Aww, he's still pretending Bush believed in the WMD.

Here's a clue: Bullies NEVER attack the strong. Only the weak. We ain't touching Korea (Don't ask me to remember which one). Bush attacked Iraq BECAUSE he knew it was easy pickin's.

[Crunchy Frog]

9. He's so full of shit.

He never believed Saddam had WMDs. Does he honestly think B*sh did? Does he honestly think anyone in the Arab world would buy that B*sh did?

Just because your little scheme goes sour doesn't mean that you get to pretend you were mistaken.

Oh well. Give it a Friedman or two, and maybe it will work. :eyes:

[TwilightGardener]

10. Yep, it's no longer an "insurgency", now it's Islamists. Just like

Rush and Hannity and Beck talk about, every day. Islamofascists. Islamic Jihad. Not "authentic carriers" of Iraqi nationalism, whatever the fuck that means--apparently the people of Iraq are on the sidelines of the violence. Watch how the buzzwords morph as time goes by.

[Old and In the Way]

11. Here's a big FU for ya Tom.

And that ain't no Friedman Unit.

[bemildred]

12. Just one more Friedman unit, that's all we need ... nt