Tom Friedman: The insurgents basically been defeating the U.S. military for the last four years

[sabra]

http://newsbusters.org/node/9487

<snip>



Thomas Friedman: "...I don't believe myself that there's a two to three year solution where we just train a few more troops. The issue isn't training, Diane. After all, who's training the insurgents? Nobody. They're doing just fine. They've basically been defeating the U.S. military for the last four years."

Friedman also seemed to indicate that the reason Saddam Hussein was an "iron-fisted dictator," was not necessarily because of who Hussein is as a person, but because of "the way Iraq is":

Friedman: "You know, before the war began, Diane, I, I wrote a column in which I said, you know, the big question about Iraq is that, is Iraq the way it is because Saddam was the way Saddam was or was Saddam the way Saddam was, this, you know, iron-fisted dictator, because Iraq was the way Iraq is? You know, I was hopeful that it was the former, but it's turning out to be a lot closer to the latter.

[hlthe2b]

1. Yeah... he is "all knowing" now....

after cheerleading for this debacle for years...:eyes:

[QuestionAll...]

2. !

so he's saying Saddam had the right idea because those crazy iraqi's are just... well, crazy?

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. That's exactly what he's saying

This is really the most insipid nonsense I have ever seen. That this imbecile - and let's be clear, Friedman is an imbecile - is still considered some sort of seer is remarkable. This is a vicious and unconscionable statement, and - of course - utterly false. Friedman is so furious at the Iraqis for ruining his little ridiculous globalization thesis that he's now projecting some savagery on to them, in classic imperialist fashion. Tom Friedman on the Iraqis sounds like Prospero cursing Caliban at the close of Shakespeare's Tempest:

"A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;
And as with age his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers. I will plague them all,
Even to roaring." Exit.

I will plague them all. Even to roaring. This is what has become of the Pultizer prize winning "journalist," Tom Friedman. Cursing the Iraqis for not taking his lessons in neo-liberalism to heart, for not appreciating Friedman's "pains, humanely taken."

I will plague them all, Tom Friedman mutters bitterly. And then, ominously, even to roaring...

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

3. Fuck fiendman & the horse he rode in on.

Very immature of me, I know, but every time I see that guy I want to hurl.

[sabra]

4. you are not alone :-)

[lapfog_1]

5. Iraq/saddam is Yugoslavia/Tito

writ large.

And we are now seeing the same partitioning and ethnic cleansing that we saw in the former Yugoslavia.

only more violent and we are in the middle of it.

[trumad]

6. Here's a piece that nails Friedman perfectly

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/12/tom-friedman-disease-consumes.html

[MasonJar]

7. Friedman was one of the loudest media war-mongers!

[Homer Wells]

8. All we are doing is postponing the inevitable!

By removing the Iron Fist of Saddam, we did indeed unleash the whirlwind which is the Iraqi social chaos, and at the cost of American lives we are just postponing the inevitable.

As ugly as the Sunni-Shiite-Kurd rivalry is, it has been going on for centuries, and our efforts to stop what WE have unleashed is like pissing on a forest fire.

I frankly see no end to this but for them to slug it out among themselves and bring the whole thing to a conclusion.

All we are doing is acting as interventionists in a three way divorce battle. Maybe the best thing is to just let them have their divorce, and get our people out of the line of fire.

I imagine the insurgents from all sides will have their hands pretty full with their own struggles to take the time to follow us home and try to terrorize this country.

Bring them home NOW!!!!!

[trumad]

10. I swore I read stuff like that on DU before the war...

and I did....

[Ms. Clio]

11. It would be very good if people would educate themselves about this so-called intractable "rivalry"

As Juan Cole points out in an interview this past Sunday, there has been little conflict between them in Iraq during the 19th and 20th centuries. And one has to go all the way back to the 11th century to find sectarian violence in Baghdad like that of today.

Listen here:
Early Divisions at Root of Sunni-Shia Conflict
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6572670


And Friedman is a disgusting racist pig.

[originalpckelly]

12. The soldiers in Iraq are not responsible for that mess...

the chickenfucker(s) at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are. If this was winnable via the military, our brave soldiers would have won. The problem is that Iraq does not have clear military objectives, the problem is that there aren't organized armies, but random people killing each other because of political/ethnic/religious hatreds. The only way to stop the violence is to solve or cool off the political/ethnic/religious problems.

[FrenchieCat]

13. Amazing at what 20/20 hindsight will reveal to a person.......

At least, unlike Bush, Friedman's eyes are now wide open.....too bad they were tightly shut when his voice and his written words could have made a difference. :eyes:

[Jacobin]

14. THIS, from the biggest cheerleader for the invasion

Friedman is an insufferable hack, and why he has a job as pundit and columnist just shows that we have NO RESPONSIBLE MEDIA in this country in the MSM. None whatsoever, Zip, Nada, NONE

[acmejack]

15. 200 MIllion sq ft of retail mall space in the US.

Worth 2.7 Billion Dollars! The view is different from his "palatial 11,400-square-foot house, now valued at $9.3 million, on a parcel of more than seven acres near Bethesda Country Club and the Beltway."

http://www.counterpunch.org/solomon10302006.html

[Crunchy Frog]

16. Expensive little experiment you ran there Mr Friedman.

So glad you got a chance to satisfy your curiosity.