FAIR's devastating list of Tom Friedman quotes

[Cocoa]

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/06/12/friedman-defends-prediction/

Since 2003, Tom Friedman has repeatedly predicted that “the next six months are crucial” in Iraq. (FAIR documents it here.) This weekend on CNN, Friedman defended his remarks, saying “the story’s evolving.” He also attacked those on the left and right who criticize him, saying they “want to be proven right.”

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2884

talk about a credibility killer...

"The next six months in Iraq—which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there—are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time."
(New York Times, 11/30/03)


"What I absolutely don't understand is just at the moment when we finally have a UN-approved Iraqi-caretaker government made up of—I know a lot of these guys—reasonably decent people and more than reasonably decent people, everyone wants to declare it's over. I don't get it. It might be over in a week, it might be over in a month, it might be over in six months, but what's the rush? Can we let this play out, please?"
(NPR's Fresh Air, 6/3/04)


"What we're gonna find out, Bob, in the next six to nine months is whether we have liberated a country or uncorked a civil war."
(CBS's Face the Nation, 10/3/04)


"Improv time is over. This is crunch time. Iraq will be won or lost in the next few months. But it won't be won with high rhetoric. It will be won on the ground in a war over the last mile."
(New York Times, 11/28/04)

much more...

[Cyrano]

1. Before the Bush's Iraq war, Friedman was a sane, knowledgeable columnist.

I used to read him twice weekly in the NY Times and his knowledge of the middle east was virtually unequaled.

When he started defending King George's war, I thought he'd run off the tracks a bit, but would soon recover. The year's passed and for some reason, Friedman's sanity seemed to be gone forever.

I don't know what happened to the man. Too much Kool-aid? Beats me. But somehow, somewhere along the way, he seemed to lose every bit of his common sense. And somewhere along the line, he may have even lost his soul.

[endarkenment]

4. uh he has always been a corporatist/globalist shill

always pushing the neoliberal line, now morphed into the neoliberal/neocon line.

[Downtown Hound]

2. It seems to me that Friedman has been very quiet since this list

was published. As far as I'm concerned, good riddance. The man is an arrogant bastard that talks down to everyone he considers to be his intellectual inferior (which is everyone that doesn't agree with him). And no matter how wrong he is proven to be, he still acts as if he has been right all along.

[AlCzervik]

3. he'll be on The daily show tonight. Blech.

[nashville_brook]

5. "THEY want to be proven right..." ?? maybe... but...

shouldn't he be interested in HIS credibility?

[leftchick]

6. why do they keep putting this warmongering clueless shithead on TV week

after week. :argh:

Excellent links Cocoa, thank you! What a shithead, I hate Friedman! I want his girls to sign up for bringing more freedom to the ME! :puke:

[Vogt]

7. He just did it again

not but a couple of days ago. He was on some show - maybe Wolf Blitzer - talking about the killing of Zarqawi and the installation of the three new cabinet members to the new Iraq "government" and he, of course, said those magical words: "the next six months are going to be critical as we..." He's a gimmick. A real jackass.

[Touchdown]

8. Sam Seder's FUBAR has a whole chapter on flat world Tom

Can't wait to read it.

[endarkenment]

9. You all misunderstand Mr Friedman (asshat, punditocracy)

The next six months are perpetually critical to the situation in Iraq. The critical moment is always six months away. Forever.

Friedman is a quagmirist: an advocate of policies designed to continue the conflict in Iraq forever. Of course one cannot just blurt out 'we're making billions on this war why would we want it to stop?' so like his intellectual ancestors from the 60's he is telescoping us down that endless tunnel, at the other end of which is the light we will never reach.

[Canuckistanian]

10. Is he getting a cut of that action?

If not, then it looks like he's truly gone insane.

[Douglas Carpenter]

11. please allow me to Plug FAIR's weekly radio program - Counterspin -

It's the absolute best of its kind

link to stream or download:

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=5

[Douglas Carpenter]

12. /

[quiet.american]

13. Never understood the mainstream respect for Friedman.

From day one of reading his opinions, it's been apparent to me this guy doesn't anything more than anyone else, and quite often is completely off-base.

[KoKo]

14. Kick