Thomas Friedman shouldn't be so modest. The opening line of his column today proclaims his inability, based on his current trip to Iraq, to see the big picture there. But buried in his description of three experiences from his journey is a conclusion as unequivocal as it is harrowing.
In the first anecdote in [subscription-required] "Letter from Baghdad" Friedman describes his experience visiting a U.S. Army platoon based in Baghdad's Ameriya neighborhood. As the author explains, this had been an affluent Sunni area that had first been ravaged by Shia militias and then by pro-Al Qaedi Sunnis who had 'imposed a reign of Islamist terror" on the neighborhood. Secular Sunnis from the area banded to together to form the “Ameriya Knights" and fight alongside the Americans to expel the Al-Qaeda terrorists.
While Friedman takes some encouragement from this development, he also observes that "peace in Iraq has to be built on a Shiite-Sunni consensus" not merely from "a Sunni-Sunni war that has pushed mainstream Iraqi Sunnis into our camp to fight the jihadist Sunnis."
That's when the columnist flatly warns:
[T]he surge has created nothing that is self-sustaining. That is, pull us out and this whole place still blows in 10 minutes.
On the center-left, Friedman is perhaps the most respected observer of foreign affairs. Here he issues a dire and unambiguous warning of the result of a U.S. pullout. Yet that is precisely what every Dem presidential candidate is proposing, along with virtually all the deep thinkers of the MSM punditocracy.
The next time Hillary, Obama & Co. get together for a debate and offer their withdrawal plans, wouldn't you like to see the moderator confront them with Friedman's admonition? Imagine:
Candidate: Under my proposal, virtually all U.S. combat troops will be out of Iraq by March.
Moderator: Thomas Friedman recently visited Iraq and has concluded that if we leave, the country "blows in 10 minutes." Is he wrong? If so, based on what? If not, how can America abandon millions of Iraqis?
It would be epic. What are the odds we'll see it happen?
—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.
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Oh that wacky Tom!
September 5, 2007 - 07:04 ET by JnobleWhile his conclusion is correct, how much do you want to bet he'll suggest raising taxes as part of a long term solution? This guy is a one trick pony at least when it comes to economics...tax tax tax tax tax......
He does seem to have this
September 5, 2007 - 07:18 ET by Mark FinkelsteinHe does seem to have this fixation on vastly raising the price of oil as the solution to our problems. I say he should stick to foreign affairs and leave the bad economics to Paul Krugman ;-)
Mark: Friedman probably
September 5, 2007 - 14:45 ET by stratmanMark:
Friedman probably learned his economic policies from Krug.
Regardless, excellent suggestion.
Killing them with kindness isn't working. Time to get scrappy with the Donkeys.
Must be a rare syzygy!
September 5, 2007 - 08:28 ET by HelenSNot only do we have an article that is sympathetic to the Israelis, we have this one that warns of dire consequences if/when we leave Iraq.
And today on Drudge was this headline: Couric: 'Real Progress' In Iraq.
What is going on with the planets!
"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war" - Shakespeare
Wait for Petraeus
September 5, 2007 - 09:19 ET by KC MulvilleRight now, the only report that matters is from General Petraeus. I freely admit that I don't know anything about what's going on in Iraq. I can only judge by what others tell me. The question is, which others am I going to listen to? For me, that's Petraeus. Unless he says something that offends logic, then he's the guy I listen to - either way. If he says go, we go. If he says stay, we stay. I won't be upset either way.
Odds
September 5, 2007 - 09:39 ET by mattmThe odds any Democrat will hear that question are about 1000 to 1. The odds that Ms. Sir Edmund Hillary will hear it are about 1000 to zero.
But, even if she does get a real question one of these days, she'll be able to dance out of it and say everything that Bush has been saying for years, while also saying everything Cindy Sheehan has been saying, and sounding like she means it....