Tom Friedman Doesn’t Understand Why America Is Unpopular In The World

[depakid]

Tom Friedman is befuddled. He cannot understand “the decline in American popularity around the world under President Bush” and is specifically upset about the fact that “China is now more popular in Asia than America and how few Europeans say they identify with the United States.” Friedman generously allows that “n America that presides over Abu Ghraib, torture and Guantánamo Bay deserves a thumbs-down” — a “thumbs-down”: what a playful movie critic says about a boring film. In listing America’s small imperfections that have caused this worldwide unpopularity, Friedman forgot to mention America’s invasion and occupation of Iraq, which Friedman himself cheered on.

Despite that list of America’s “mistakes” (”Abu Ghraib, torture and Guantánamo Bay”), Friedman nonetheless pronounces that worldwide disapproval of America is “self-indulgent, knee-jerk and borderline silly.” Why? Because Zimbabwe is worse (its dictator stole the last election and represses the country’s citizens), as is China and Russia (they vetoed U.N. sanctions against Zimbabwe this week). Friedman thus lectures the world as follows:

Perfect we are not, but America still has some moral backbone. There are travesties we will not tolerate. . . . So, yes, we’re not so popular in Europe and Asia anymore. I guess they would prefer a world in which America was weaker, where leaders with the values of Vladimir Putin and Thabo Mbeki had a greater say, and where the desperate voices for change in Zimbabwe would, well, just shut up.

Friedman pronounces Russia and China’s opposition to anti-Mugabe sanctions as “truly filthy,” and says that “when it comes to pure, rancid moral corruption, no one can top South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki.” There’s no question that Robert Mugabe is a brutal and murderous tyrant, a true menace to those within his limited reach. And there are ample grounds for disputing Russia and China’s claim that international sanctions — by derailing South-African-led negotiations with conflicting Zimbabwean factions — would inflame rather than improve Mugabe’s repression (though the track record of U.N. sanctions in relieving repression and suffering isn’t exactly inspiring).

But whatever else is true, when it comes to morally reprehensible and threatening behavior — to use Friedman’s righteous terms: “pure, rancid moral corruption” that is “truly filthy” — is there anything that remotely compares with what Tom Friedman and his like-minded comrades have said and done over the last seven years?

If you’re a citizen of just about any country in the world, what would you find more threatening — the repressive dictator of a small African country, or the world’s sole military superpower that continues to listen to and honor a Foreign Policy Expert who utters disgusting sentiments such as this, to justify a war that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people and the displacement of millions more:

(video at link).

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/16/10397/

[XemaSab]

1. Tom Friedman doesn't understand a lot of things

:P

[Karenina]

15. Gasbags rarely do.

[navarth]

2. To put it in a nutshell...

FUCK Tom Friedman and his 'free-market' bullshit. Easy for a billionaire to talk.

[trungpa ricochet]

14. I believe everybody's mixing up their Friedmans

Tom Friedman is a columnist for the New York Times. Milton Friedman (1912-2006) is your bogeyman. Even though he was awarded the Nobel Prize, I believe his flavor of Kool-Aid is pernicious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman

[mikita]

3. the video alone made me want to puke n/t

[Donnachaidh]

4. They are using Friedman's book in the local schools

My son had to learn not to projectile vomit when Friedman's BS was being taught as almost sacred scrit. I spent quite a bit of time giving him information to counter most all of it. His teacher, an avowed Reaganite, probably hated to see my kid coming. My kid regularly blew his *economics* out of the water.

[brentspeak]

8. What subject is Friedman's book being taught in?

It's scary to think that any of Friedman's books could make it into a school's curriculum.

[On the Road]

5. Friedman is So in Touch

how globalization has changed third world countries that I can't believe he can be this blind.

[Joe Bacon]

6. Tom needs to get another pie in the face

One wasn't enough. He sure does need something to come down from the Laissez Fairyland® he floats around in!

[choie]

7. but why do they hate us?

[Locrian]

9. World is Flat? (the OTHER book)

Donnachaidh - please have your kid look at this site. PLENTY of ammunition to combat the Friedman idiots. Good video overview too. Very good book.



In The World is Flat? Aronica and Ramdoo show that the world isn't flat; it's tilted in favor of unfettered global corporations that go the ends of the earth to exploit cheap labor, lax environmental regulations and tax breaks. This concise monograph brings clarity to many of Friedman's misconceptions, and explores nine key issues that Friedman largely ignores. To create a fair and balanced exploration of globalization, the authors cite the work of experts that Friedman fails to incorporate, including Nobel laureate and former Chief Economist at the World Bank, Dr. Joseph Stiglitz. Refreshingly, you can now gain new insights into globalization without weeding through Friedman's almost 600 pages of ill-informed, grandiloquent prose and bafflegab.


http://www.mkpress.com/Flat/

http://www.mkpress.com/FlatOverview.html

http://www.amazon.com/World-Flat-Critical-Analysis-Bestseller/dp/0929652045/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216384659&sr=8-4

[rooboy]

10. I think he crashed his Lexus a little too hard into the olive tree. n/t

[Locrian]

11. dont get me started

Friedmans use of metaphors drives me up the fucking wall.

" the (berlin) wall fell and the window opened (on capitalism) ..."

I mean WTF?!!!

[sourmilk]

12. Here's a SHORT list, Tom:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_interventions_of_the_United_States

[BB1]

13. Netherlands here.

We'd rather sell out to China than opening an another McDonalds's in town.

By the way, we still have some 25 nukes lying around, can you guys send this Friedman dude over to come and pick them up?

The USA foreign policy sucks bigtime. Handfull of greedy, morale-drydripped granny-sellers. there's not one good christian amongst them, although they claim to be.

Do you know how hard all of this is to a Dutch liberal potsmoking ahteïst?

(I'm só glad I sold my car...)

[MasonJar]

16. The Iraq Genocidal War that Friedman advocated so loudly is the main reason.

I do NOT imagine the world is too fond of you either, Tom! I know I am not!!!!!!!!!