Tom Friedman, Sir, You Are a Stiff-necked Fool

It took New York Times Op/Ed columnist Tom Friedman over a year to decide that the war in Iraq had been mishandled and mismanaged. He keeps making trips back to convince himself that all of the wrongs committed in Iraq by the US will eventually add up to a right somewhere down the line. Friedman has made a career of writing about the Middle East. He lived in the Middle East. One of his daughters was born in Jerusalem. If there is any American who has the ability to understand the mindset and culture of the people in the Middle East, it’s Tom Friedman. He knows better than anyone that the men who sent our soldiers to Iraq haven’t the vaguest idea about Iraq culture, nor do they care to learn. I can only assume that Tom Friedman’s insistence that the USA invasion of Iraq was righteous is because it’s as difficult for him to admit he’s wrong as it is for the BushMen to admit they are wrong. This past Sunday, Friedman’s drumbeating for the war was particularly offensive. (December 12, New York Times Op/Ed section, "Iraq, Ballots and Pistachios”.) He says all NATO countries, all Arab countries and all European countries should contribute soldiers to help train the Iraqi army and to help the security of the polling stations in January. “Yes,” he says, “the Bush team’s incompetence in securing Iraq is a travesty. But even with all that said, is it such a hard call for Arabs and Europeans to figure out on whose side they should be?” Each NATO country could contribute 100 soldiers for a long weekend, he says. No, it’s not difficult to figure out whose side to be on. I am on the side of every mother’s son who has been sent to Iraq to be killed in an unnecessary war. Is Friedman out of his mind when he talks about countries contributing soldiers for “a long weekend”? Iraq is not a lark. It’s not a place where you play soldier for the weekend. Countries who send soldiers to Iraq are sending men to be killed. And the consensus in most countries of the world is that it’s a damn shame Iraq is in the pickle it’s in, but the USA decided unilaterally to force democracy on Iraq, let the USA solve the problem it has made. The leaders of most countries in the world thought our invasion of Iraq was a horrendous mistake. Apparently Friedman believes that no matter how wrong we were to invade Iraq, it now is the world’s duty to back us up. No it isn’t. Every country in the world has a duty to its own people first before meddling in other countries’ affairs. And in this particular instance, any country sending soldiers to Iraq is saying, We support the USA in its plan to rule the world by force. We were wrong, wrong, wrong to invade Iraq under the pretext of bringing the gift of democracy to the people. There are groups of people in the United States who know and understand democracy. But the group that decided to invade Iraq hasn’t the foggiest notion what democracy is about. Right here, right now, a bunch of fascists are in the White House. They are the same fascists who lied us into a war with Iraq. Fascists are incapable of bringing democracy to any country...and certainly not to their own. Mr. Friedman, democracy needs to be fixed in the United States. How can we presume to set up a democracy anywhere else when it’s not working here?