Tommy Friedman sees need for Regime Change here

[RamboLiberal]

Bushie now has lost whore Friedman as well. Tommy finally figures out that Roveian politics rules this WH over his dream of a democratic ME.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/13/opinion/13FRIE.html?hp

It is time to ask this question: Do we have any chance of succeeding at regime change in Iraq without regime change here at home?

"Hey, Friedman, why are you bringing politics into this all of a sudden? You're the guy who always said that producing a decent outcome in Iraq was of such overriding importance to the country that it had to be kept above politics."

Yes, that's true. I still believe that. My mistake was thinking that the Bush team believed it, too. I thought the administration would have to do the right things in Iraq — from prewar planning and putting in enough troops to dismissing the secretary of defense for incompetence — because surely this was the most important thing for the president and the country. But I was wrong. There is something even more important to the Bush crowd than getting Iraq right, and that's getting re-elected and staying loyal to the conservative base to do so. It has always been more important for the Bush folks to defeat liberals at home than Baathists abroad. That's why they spent more time studying U.S. polls than Iraqi history. That is why, I'll bet, Karl Rove has had more sway over this war than Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Bill Burns. Mr. Burns knew only what would play in the Middle East. Mr. Rove knew what would play in the Middle West.

I admit, I'm a little slow. Because I tried to think about something as deadly serious as Iraq, and the post- 9/11 world, in a nonpartisan fashion — as Joe Biden, John McCain and Dick Lugar did — I assumed the Bush officials were doing the same. I was wrong. They were always so slow to change course because confronting their mistakes didn't just involve confronting reality, but their own politics.

[madmax]

1. If condi reads this to bush he'll have fit.

Sound like he's lost Friedman. :bounce:

[rumguy]

2. You're a day late and a dollar short Tommy-baby

[bpilgrim]

3. wow

he sounds like a DU'er :evilgrin:

peace

[NWHarkness]

4. What a putz

He just now figured out what we've all been saying for years.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

5. I welcome all RW wingnuts coming off that reservation. Even if I doubt

the sincerity.

Each one makes it easier for the next one, as well as for the wingnut voters who may not have been paying close attention, but have a "vague sense that things aren't going that well."

Addressing the responsibility of the people like Friedman in getting us all into this mess can wait until after November.

Tucker Carlson apparently saying Iraq war a mistake today (I didn't see it).

George Will just hanging by a thread, implying that shrubco might not deserve to govern, but not coming out and saying exactly that.

Friedman off the reservation. Let the beat go on.

[barbaraann]

6. Jesus.

IT ISN'T POLITICS YOU IDIOT TOM FRIEDMAN; IT'S FASCISM!

[Eric J in MN]

7. I dislike Friedman as much as the next person, but why

I dislike Friedman as much as the next person, but why demean Thomas by calling him "Tommy?"

It's unnecessary.

[Miss Authoritiva]

8. The unbearable lightness of being wrong

Okay, is Friedman displaying real balls or fake balls? Only time will tell. He admits that he's "a little slow." Well, now he's resorting to understatement.

"There is something even more important to the Bush crowd than getting Iraq right, and that's getting re-elected and staying loyal to the conservative base to do so."

If Friedman -- a featured columnist in one of the world's leading newspapers -- really just figured that out he should seriously reconsider his job options.

[wtmusic]

9. The Unbearableness of Being Tom Friedman (Rall)

[gratuitous]

10. A thousand dead soldiers, tens of thousands dead civilians

And Friedman apparently thinks "Oops, my bad" covers it. What sort of infantile intellect do you have to have to think that the Bush administration is "above" politics? Everything this corrupt administration has done, from day one, has been with one eye on the polls.

In my mind's eye, I see Friedman clapping so that Tinkerbell won't die.

[charlie]

11. Weak fucking tea Tommy

Your own paper told the story about Rumsfeld sending Tommy Franks back to the drawing board time and again because his troops and logistic projections were outside the bounds of "lean and mean." You saw what happened to Shinseki for daring to hold fast to real world assessments. Josh Marshall interviewed the core neocons in the summer of 92 and revealed that they neither planned for outcomes other than flowers and hossanahs, or cared a whit if Iraq sunk into chaos. You tried to elbow yourself some latitude in case the venture headed south with your idiotic "real reason", "right reason", "moral reason", and "stated reason" buffet of excuses for the war (on the days when your high dudgeon wasn't making you declare France our enemy -- enemy! -- for having the temerity to pass on the Bushco koolaid).

Your "I was fooled!" tripe is a stinking pile of shit. No one fooled you, and you ain't fooling no one. Asshole.

[submerged99]

12. Maybe we'll see a battle of Neo-con "pundits"

Brooks and Sullivan are teetering on the edge and now Friedman has went overboard. It's good to see these smug, arrogant, "pundits" having to deal with the consequences of their war mongering. I hope that we see a internecine battle of neo-con pundits as the "true believers" denounce their allies as traitors. Entertaining fireworks to come, I believe.

[Old and In the Way]

13. Will the last media whore please turn on the lights on the way out.

Thank you.

[kaitykaity]

14. It takes a set to admit you're wrong in public.

Glad to see Friedman has had the Kool Aid antidote. Hopefully
he's the first of many.

This is good news.

[Eric J in MN]

19. yes, Friedman deserves some credit

Friedman shouldn't be praised to the sky for finally figuring the Bush isn't moral (so long after the rest of us).


However, at least he admitted he'd been wrong.

[kaitykaity]

24. I can't wait for his next NewsHour

appearance. All the other ones have made me want
to gag. (That is if he isn't barred from the show
for falling of the Bush bandwagon.)

[minkyboodle]

15. like rats fleeing a sinking ship

these guys never cease to amaze me.
Scott

[stopbush]

16. What a pathetic dunderbutt!

He's just like bush! He shares no blame! Bush led him astray...Tommy was dead serious, how could he know they weren't?...etc.

You were a willing and KNOWING Likudnik enabler, Friedman.

Fuck you.

[orwell]

17. I'm Sure

Why don't you tell the tens of thousands of families who have had their lives blown apart at the end of your terrible swift sword that you "made a mistake."

I'm sure they would understand. I'm sure.

O

[Eric J in MN]

18. That essay raised my opinion of Thomas Friedman.

That essay raised my opinion of Thomas Friedman.

At least temporarily.

I still don't like him.

[Robbien]

22. Yes, he hit all the big points

He took all the major activities and pointed out the correct political reasons Bush did what he did.

If Tom could only have used this gift when it mattered, before we got into the mess we are in.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

20. I'm holding out for Tommy Franks

But I think he is a little too christianity pleated.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

21. Fuck you MR Give War a Chance Freidman...really fuck you

too little too late..at least 20,000 lives too late if not more. We all knew he was a completely political incompetent ass prior to the first bomb dropping...how could your vision from inside the beltway have been more clouded than ours?

[I_like_chicken]

23. Friedman is a douche

but if he wants to come to our side, ill take him. Its better late then never, right??:eyes:

[FlemingsGhost]

25. Tom, you're a whore. And we will not forget...

That goes for all of the cheerleading presstitutes.

(on edit: typo)