Friedman: Because We Could

The New York Times ^ | 06/04/03 | THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

[jpl]

This piece contains a lot of truth in it (especially by New York Times standards), and makes a heck of a lot more sense than his piece the other day where he claimed that the Seattle WTO riots were primarily because of "American cultural hegemony".

[alnick]

To many people read who the author is and discount the entire article. I thought it was a good article. I never thought Saddam would use WMD's but he would give them to someone in Al Qadea to use them.

The fact that he refuses to see that is what makes it not a good article. He tries to have it both ways. He understands that the war was the right thing to do, but he still tries to smear Bush. If he could just put his hatred of the president aside and be honest throughout the entire article, then it would be a good article. :-)

[Cathryn Crawford]

I would if I knew what that was! I'm nineteen...not my generation...;-)

[Helms]

http://home.ddc.net/ygg/ms/ms-50.htm

Harken to the message of Michael Kinsley, inner party editor of Slate Magazine and graduate of Harvard, as rendered in the Washington Post of July 6, 2001:

"At the Harvard admissions office they used to have an alleged philosophy they called "the happy bottom quarter." The idea was that Harvard could fill each class, if it wanted to, with nothing but the very top high school students, but that this might be traumatic to those who didn't make it to the top at Harvard. So the admissions office supposedly reserved about 25 percent of each class for those who could handle the notion of not being a star student.

"In practice, this did not mean searching for young folks with a zen-like acceptance of life's fate, or a profound sense of universal human equality, or enough mathematical wit to appreciated the joke that even at Harvard - unlike Lake Wobegon - everyone cannot be above average. No, " the happy bottom quarter" was a fancy way to make room for alumni sons and athletes and rich kids whose families might give money. These were people who didn't need top grades in order to feel above average. They would be happy with a "Gentleman's C" - meaning both that gentlemen were entitled to no less and that gentlemen strove for no more.

"Nicholas Lemann's book "The Big Test" describes how the cozy elite of the Gentleman's C was replaced, in universities and society, by a more rigorous meritocracy of grades and test scores. By the time George W. was in college, that transformation was almost over. "The happy bottom quarter" was just a way to preserve some room for the old America in the new one."

[Steel Wolf]

This article started out with a shocking amount of common sense and candor, and midway through sank into the mire of liberal wishful thinking.

The point about WMD damaging Bush's credibility is a fools hope: That we haven't found them yet only indicates that they were either very well hidden or they are no longer in Iraq. If they were destroyed, it would be in the interstes of many Iraqis still living there to show us where and how. Bush may well know where the weapons are, but the answer may be politically less appealing than pretending to still look for them.

The point about WMD may matter to some some talking heads, but the Arab world is thunderstruck by the gentle display of unstoppable force. They don't care one iota about Bush's 'stated reason', because his credibility in the Arab world now towers above that of any other American president ever.

[Rummyfan]

THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE......

Didn't enjoy it very much. When I read Friedman lately, I can't believe he has won a couple of Pulitzers - for what, by virtue of living in Beirut for awhile? When he wrote that column where he proposed an Israeli-Palestinian solution to Prince Abdullah, and voila, the Prince had an identical plan in his desk, he lost all credibility (no other witnesses of course). And never mind that 'the plan', which involved Israel going back to its pre-1967 borders, was totally unacceptable. He better be careful or he will wind up on the Dowd road.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Well...

I loved "From Beirut To Jerusalem". I read it when I was fifteen; it engulfed me in its simplicity and washed me away with its story. I couldn't put it down. It was fascinating. Friedman is an expressive and excellent writer - I can say that despite the fact that I don't always agree with him.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Friedman ping - I think you'll like this...

[ValenB4]

I'll check it out later. Thanks.

[Eric Esot]

Was a great read until the last paragraph - the whole “Bush fabricated evidence of WMD propaganda”

Kind of suspicious; imagine Tom turns in this article to the editors desk and then gets a call from the DNC – “Tom, did you not get our memo? Um, yea we are going with the whole Bush is an evil mastermind that fooled the entire world campaign.”