Help remind me of why THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN is a JackAss?

[trumad]

My father told me he loves this guy and I told him that he's not what he appears to be... He's a war loving idiot who was gung ho about the war in Iraq...

Anybody got any good archived pieces Tommy wrote before the war and after that proves that he's a moron.

Thanks

[mgc1961]

1. Here's one from my files.

I hope it fits the bill. I sure like it.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0123-05.htm

[wuushew]

2. World Socialist Web Site blasts Friedman

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/frie-j22.shtml


The column is by no means the first effort by Friedman to provide a cover of legitimacy and even humaneness to Washington’s war drive. On December 1, for example, he authored a column in which he urged his readers to “pay no attention” to the inspections taking place in Iraq. Instead, to fabricate a pretext for war, he advocated that the United Nations, at the bidding of the US, kidnap Iraqi scientists, remove them and their families from Iraq, and allow American interrogators to extract “proof” of weapons of mass destruction from their captives.

[Taeger]

3. Free Trade Formula

1) Export all our jobs overseas
2) ??????
3) Profit

Both famous Friedmans are assholes for pushing IMF and WTO nonsense.

EVERYTHING these clowns say has turned out to be wrong. NOW, they say we haven't done ENOUGH of it. We have to send MORE jobs overseas before we see the benefits!!!!!

Fuck Friedman!!!!

[SoCalDem]

4. Tom Friedman is in love with the sound of his own voice

He is a self-appointed "expert" on the middle east, but he is incapable of being an "honest broker".. He has an inbred alliance with one of the aggrieved parties..

He is also a pontificator...He "always" has just the right idea to "make things better".. The only problem is that he's always WRONG..

The thing he and so many overlook, is that there IS NO solution to the "middle east problem".. Life is not a sitcom where everything winds up "happily-ever-after" at the end of the episode..

The middle east is a bubbling cauldron of hatred.. It's a hatred that has been bubbling just below the surface for centuries. Every so often someone puts a lid on it and turns the fire down, but it's still there , simmering..

To find more on him just google his name.. There are thousands of articles pro and con..

[shooga]

15. 2 reasons:

1.) he's a regular on Anus, I mean, Imus.


2.) like David Brooks, Bill Krystol, and Fred Barnes he probably has his head up Perle's ass:

[Supply Side Jesus]

5. I always like it when Palast slams him

Greg kills me.

[alcuno]

6. Tom's book, "From Beirut to Jerusalem" is incredible.

That said, he has a real blindness when it comes to Iraq. He got on board early and he got on board hard; took an absolute position and got stuck there. Many people saw supporting the Iraq war as supporting Israel. That's Tom.

[Stevendsmith]

7. He's an Iraq War Romantic and a Delusional Bush Hack

God, he drives me nuts. He still believes that the invasion and occupation of Iraq is a grand, noble, and, yes, liberal project for the democratization of the Middle East. A friggin' twelve-year-old can see that the invasion and occupation is a contracting bonanza for BushCo's cronies in the petroleum, defense, banking, and construction industries.

Duh!

Either he's just plain stupid or he is what another DUer called him in one of my Friedman-bashing posts: a paid propagandist. I tend to believe that he is the latter, since you don't attain a position of his influence (NYT editorial columnist) by being a complete idiot. Can he really think BushCo had a humanitarian goal in mind? It's downright laughable.

Here's his NYT page, which includes an archive--though I believe you have to pay, which would be a ridiculous waste of money.

http://www.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/thomaslfriedman/index.html

Just read his column when you can. You'll find plenty of evidence of his naive, Bush-suckling clowning.

[robcon]

8. Friedman is the most brilliant op-ed writer I know of

His analysis of the Israel-Palestine issues is superb - calls the current administration "insane."

[thebigidea]

9. which makes him even more insane for boosting the admin for 3 years

[Stephanie]

10. He is patently unable to admit he was wrong

He is going to enormous lengths to convince himself that he was right to advocate for the Iraq invasion, in the face of all evidence to the contrary. He will not let go.

[legin]

11. Feeling a bit dense at the moment

There was the "because we can" article (Iraq attack) and a viscious artcle slagging off the French (which was probably instigated by the White House (guessing again)).

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

12. T. Friedman was a guy who basically

supported the Iraq invasion from the preinvasion propaganda runup period. (If you DU'ers can remember that period the Faux RW'ers would even challenge people calling it an "invasion", it was "liberation", as if you can call sending your army across the oceans down someone's throat anything else) I would sum up his positions as the "Right War for the Wrong Reasons". (I think he even has a column with this title.)

Even during the prewar propaganda phase (and certainly since the invasion) he has basically acknowledged the falsity and emptiness of "WMD". But he did and still subscribes to the "Democracy Dominos in the Middle East" theory of conquering Iraq. But he has backed off his initial gung ho-ism a little, still supporting the war but acknowledging it hasn't gone particularly well and that we are at a critical point with high potential for a huge flameout.

Here's a pretty good page with a bunch of archived articles.

http://www.drumbeat.mlaterz.net/Op-Ed/Archives%20Op-Ed%20List%20Page%2002a.htm

[RichM]

13. Here's a great review of the time Tom declared war on France

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/sep2003/frie-s20.shtml

[BillZBubb]

14. Friedman's view of the Middle East is shaped

by what he believes to be in Israel's best interest. Period.

Since Iraq was the only possible military threat to Israel, taking Iraq off the board was something Friedman would support without question.

Of course, Friedman would never admit that.

[shooga]

16. PNACkers

like David Brooks, Bill Krystol, and Fred Barnes he probably has his head up Perle's ass:



don't forget Danile Pipes, David Frum, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz

[thebigidea]

17. he sounds like a candycoated neocon, anyway