Dear Reverend Tom Friedman:

Your New York Times Op/Ed column today, “Brave, Young and Muslim”, is like a sermon from a right-wing preacher. You tout an unrealized rosy future that the Bush administration’s presence in Iraq may bring about but you conveniently forget why there is a Bush administration presence in Iraq. We illegally, unnecessarily and by telling the world huge lies, invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003. As of this morning, 1500 American soldiers have died in that criminal enterprise. You find no problem with buying into the White House rewrite of history. When the BushMen mounted their unnecessary war they lied and said Saddam Hussein had slammed two planes into the World Trade Center. Little Georgie Bush said Saddam had threatened his daddy and Saddam had to go. Now they are saying they invaded Iraq to bring freedom to the Middle East. And you, Reverend Friedman, have sat in the Amen corner through all the White House spinning morphs from the actual reason for invading Iraq--protecting our oil interests--to bringing freedom to the Muslims, and you have praised this unholy enterprise. On March 26, 2003 you set out the six criteria which will prove whether the war had been righteous: 1. Have we occupied Baghdad without leveling the whole city? 2. Have we killed, captured, or expelled Saddam? 3. Have we won this war and preserved the territorial integrity of Iraq? 4. Is the Iraqi state that emerges from this war accepted as legitimate by Iraq's Arab and Muslim neighbors? 5. Have we been able to explain why some Iraqi forces are putting up such a fierce fight? 6. Has an authentic Iraqi liberal nationalist emerged from the U.S. occupation to lead the country? It’s two years later and we’ve leveled huge portions of Iraq. We have not won this war or preserved the territorial integrity of Iraq. Iraq’s neighbors are now preparing for us to invade them. Who would the authentic nationalist be who is leading the country? And the only explanation for why Iraqi forces are putting up such a fierce fight is that they think we are in Iraq on false pretenses. And yes. Saddam was captured. You keep preaching that the end justifies the means. Pastor Friedman, it may come as a terrible shock to you, but the end NEVER justifies the means. That little fascist phrase translates as: We can lie, cheat, steal, deceive, maraud, oppress and make war as long as we claim our aims are just. Our aims in Iraq never have been just. They were not just on March 20, 2003 and they are not just now.