Despite what some might think, I don’t particularly enjoy ragging on other writers (politicians, publishers, sure, but not writers). It’s depressing and bad karma. But I couldn’t let this column by Tom Friedman go by without some comment - and not about his silly proposal of George H. W. Bush for UN Ambassador. That’s just grandstanding and everyone knows it. I’m talking about this paragraph, which is indicative of a larger mindset.
“Reforming the U.N.” is without question one of the most tired, vacuous conservative mantras ever invented. It is right up there with squeezing “waste, fraud and abuse” out of the Pentagon’s budget. If the White House is concerned about waste, fraud and abuse, let’s start with Tom DeLay and our own House.
The phony partisan reductionism of calling UN reform a “conservative mantra” is insulting and stupid and the idea of equating it with Tom DeLay et al ludicrous. Much as Mr. DeLay makes my skin crawl and I am willing to believe many of the accusations against him and his cronies in the House on both sides of the aisle, those accusations are nowhere near as important on a global scale as the Oil-for-Food scandal, which has subverted the stated goals of our most important international organization and turned them on their head.
The kind of sleazy self-justification being engaged in here by Friedman is of a piece with the outright lie in the Times’ editorial pointed out earlier today by Glenn Reynolds: The only plausible reason for keeping American troops in Iraq is to protect the democratic transformation that President Bush seized upon as a rationale for the invasion after his claims about weapons of mass destruction turned out to be fictitious. If that transformation is now allowed to run off the rails, the new rationale could prove to be as hollow as the original one.
This is an especially weird comment since the Times’ own executive editor wrote a long, positive profile in their magazine (before the war) of Paul Wolfowitz, in which the Deputy Defense Secretary speaks ad infinitum about the democracy argument. What I think is really going on here is liberal embarrassment. They have been caught on the wrong side of history. Worse, the anti-idealistic side.
Meanwhile, in the realm of news that is fit to print, a real reporter continues her work.
UPDATE: The all-time record for preaching to the choir has been broken. [Should we alert Guinness?-ed. They already read Drudge.]
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66 Comments
1. thibaud:Friedman is one of the biggest blowhards in the MSM. He’s lazy, his insights are stale, and his prose is beyond embarrassing; it screams for an editor. One can find more insightful, better-researched and far better-written analysis from any number of foreign affairs bloggers.
The Times would greatly improve the quality of its OpEd page by simply making it a Daily Catch, instapundit-style selection from the likes of Wretchard and Djerejian. Or the Diplomad, wherever he may be.
Apr 27, 2005 - 12:48 pm 2. JenLArt:Roger, hon, is there any rhyme or reason behind “Delay makes my skin crawl?”
It seems you’ve bought into the Lib Dem demonization of Mr. DeLay….
Tom DeLay is a good man and he’s not guilty of any wrongdoing except helping redistrict Texas to accurately reflect its increasingly GOP population for which the Left will never forgive him.
(Dems had been gerrymandering Texas for themselves since the Civil War.)
Israel has no greater friend in Congress than Mr. Delay and if you don’t believe me, Google it and see.
In fact, both DeLay and Bolton are being targeted by the Left because they’re both “neo-cons”–they stand up for Israel and they stand with President Bush.
Why Friedman can’t appreciate this as a Jew is beyond me, but then he’s not all that bright.
Apr 27, 2005 - 1:11 pm 3. Mr. Davis:Interesting. I read Friedman as saying the UN was inherently unreformable so why waste time on it.
Apr 27, 2005 - 1:12 pm 4. Kyda Sylvester:If we had engineered more of a U.N. seal of approval before going into Iraq, we would have had more allies to share the $300 billion price tag, and more legitimacy, which translates into more time and space to accomplish our goals there.
With that sentence alone, Friedman puts his utter cluelessness on display. He ranks right up there with the people who believe that we’d have OBL in custody now if only we’d shown up at Mullah Omar’s door with the properly executed arrest warrants.
You really have to wonder about the selection process for columnists at the NYT, what kind of critical thinking skills they have to demonstrate. Can’t be much.
Glad to see Rosett (and Rohrabacher) hot on the money trail.
Apr 27, 2005 - 1:25 pm 5. WedgeHead:Perhaps Friedman would like to turn his talents to a story about the Maurice Strong, Power Corp and the Desmarais network, OECD, and the UN.
Here’s a place he can start.
Apr 27, 2005 - 1:26 pm 6. reel cobra:Friedman is the worst kind of moron - the kind who takes your side and then argues poorly in favor of your position.
When he suddenly became in favor of the war in Iraq (as long as it went smoothly, we learned when he waffled) I tried to trade him back to my liberal friend’s team.
Just look at what he writes in the cited piece…
“The U.N. still represents the closest thing we have to a global Good Housekeeping seal of approval for any international action. Whenever the U.S. is able to enlist that U.N. seal on its side, America’s actions abroad have more legitimacy, more supporters and more paying partners.
“If we had engineered more of a U.N. seal of approval before going into Iraq, we would have had more allies to share the $300 billion price tag, and more legitimacy, which translates into more time and space to accomplish our goals there. It’s not a disaster that we went into Iraq without the U.N., but life would probably have been a lot easier (and cheaper) had we been escorted by a real U.N. coalition.
“In short, I don’t much care how the U.N. works as a bureaucracy; I care about how often it can be enlisted to support, endorse and amplify U.S. power. That is what serves our national interest. And because that is what I want most from the U.N., I want at the U.N. an ambassador who can be a real coalition builder, a superdiplomat who can more often than not persuade the U.N.’s member states to act in support of U.S. interests.”
Huh? Wasn’t Colin Powell Bush 1’s guy? How could we have built more of a UN coalition when France announced they’d veto any move we made that involved actually doing something about Saddam & Sons, Inc?
We need Bolton to clean house and for Friedman to get out of the way and stop pretending to be in favor of our foreign policy objectives.
http://reelcobra.blogspot.com/
Apr 27, 2005 - 1:33 pm 7. Kevin P:Roger:
This is all part of the left wing denial syndrome, they will say anything to try to get everyone to ignore the 21 billion graft machine of the UN. These are the same people who are self-rightously slaming Bolton for , now everyone take your seats, yelling at a subordinate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They wail about the evils of such sub human behaviour and how our country will be sullied for life if we put him into the UN slot. Then after wiping the tears away and getting a hug they turn around and say, 21 billion stolen from Iraq, blue helmeted rapists, massive waste and fecklessness, “Oh wpould you lighten up and get over it, this is SOP and the sooner you grow up and let us tell what is important things will be OK” And then he makes the brilliant comparison of Tom Delay taking a golf vacation from K-street, possibly, and a UN Iraq kickback scheme that helped keep a murderous tyrant in power and killed innocent Iraqi’s who ddin’t get the food and medicine that they needed. Roger, of course they are similar and you are just stupid if you don’t follow TF’s brilliant chain of logic. Keep this up and you will never get on the Charlie Rose show.
Apr 27, 2005 - 1:40 pm 8. bdog57:Too funny. I just got through reading about half of this article from another site -realclearpolitics- and turned away in disgust (I actually ended at the paragraph you quoted). My thought: “Why haven’t I seen a takedown of this today?”. Then I came here.
From everything I’ve gathered about DeLay, he hasn’t done anything illegal -just a lot of stuff in poor taste. I wouldn’t be so quick to jump on him (yet). He’s not exactly my favorite as he strikes me as self-important, but I don’t have enough information yet to say he’s done something illegal.
Frankly, I think this is the reason Hastert is considering rolling back the new rule and allowing an investigation: He doesn’t think DeLay has anything to hide and so they’ll let them investigate. They put the rule in place to avoid all the trouble involved with a baseless investigation. Rolling it back, the Dems are going to be forced to conduct that investigation and (hopefully) get some egg on their face for all their trouble. Not that the MSM will report the results of the investigation.
Apr 27, 2005 - 1:40 pm 9. Bruce W.:To me, the most annoying clause of Friedman’s piece was: “If we had engineered more of a U.N. seal of approval before going into Iraq…”
Does he really still believe any amount of diplomacy could have pulled that O.F.F.?
Apr 27, 2005 - 1:45 pm 10. Skookumchuk:In short, I don’t much care how the U.N. works as a bureaucracy . . .
Ahhh, yes. So that explains it.
Apr 27, 2005 - 1:53 pm 11. John Anderson:“The U.N. still represents the closest thing we have to a global Good Housekeeping seal of approval for any international action.”
Which is a shame, since it puts that seal on almost nothing, and doesn’t do much in the way of housekeeping either.
“I want at the U.N. an ambassador who can be a real coalition builder, a superdiplomat who can more often than not persuade the U.N.’s member states to act in support of U.S. interests.”
That would be nice if it were practical, but since it is not let’s get someone who will argue, and even confront, problems from the US standpoint rather than being overly “diplomatic” and trying for good poll numbers regardless of our own interests.
The “41″ might do that - and I’d certainly prefer him to Jimmy or Bill - but it’s a bit late (or early, depending) to be making the suggestion.
Apr 27, 2005 - 1:57 pm 12. Rick Ballard:Hey Thibaud,
Why no applause for the Paribas angle? This is really what we want and where we (or I at least) want it. It could be that Spitzer was aware of the coming House investigation and is holding off NY State action pending looking at what the House uncovers. It’s great to see Rohrabacher in charge with a nice House sized ego rather than one of the Senators with a stadium sized ego.
Roger,
Too much ink to the second rate NYT and not enough to the first rate NY Sun. Who cares what a DNC parrot like Friedman says. He and the NYT editorial board are on the S/B/L pad and will remain as predictable as sunrise ’til George stops signing DNC checks.
Apr 27, 2005 - 2:17 pm 13. exmaple:–If we had engineered more of a U.N. seal of approval before going into Iraq, we would have had more allies to share the $300 billion price tag, and more legitimacy, which translates into more time and space to accomplish our goals there. It’s not a disaster that we went into Iraq without the U.N., but life would probably have been a lot easier (and cheaper) had we been escorted by a real U.N. coalition.–
This was John Kerry’s position - he would convince Paris to pitch in with money. That is not how Paris works.
Apr 27, 2005 - 2:21 pm 14. Kevin P:Roger:
You have got to figure out away to get an interview with Friedman and pin him down on how anyone would have got the UN to militarily invade Iraq and remove Saddam. Half of the Security council was negotiating post embargo reconstrution deals with Saddam. France promised a veto. Colin Powell, someone I am sure would be Tommy’s idea of a diplomat, tried for a year to do exactly what TF wanted and the UN hung him out to dry and gave him the diplomatic middle finger. No doubt he will bring up Bush 1’s coalition in the first Gulf War. But one of the ways he got major UN participation was by promising that he would not invade Iraq and remove Saddam! For him to give the idea that with just a little more effort we could have had a huge UN coalition to remove that thug is such a bold faced lie. Someone has got to get him and explain how this fantasy would come true.
Apr 27, 2005 - 2:38 pm 15. Buddy Larsen:(wonder how many John Andersons there are?)
Let me get this straight: The NYTimes’ foreign affairs editor is the same Tom Friedman who said today that the bid/selling of official support for slave cultures and genocide–by the highest levels of sovereign governments within a racketeer’s paradise UN–is small soap compared to John Bolton’s abrasive demeanor?
Apr 27, 2005 - 2:39 pm 16. neo-neocon:Kyda Sylvester writes: “You really have to wonder about the selection process for columnists at the NYT, what kind of critical thinking skills they have to demonstrate. Can’t be much.”
Well, they probably only have to demonstrate the same kind of critical thinking skills as the editors. Which, unfortunately, oftimes appears to be “none at all.”
Critical thinking is simply not valued; it would lead to some unpopular conclusions, and we can’t have that. What is needed is credentials, writing skills (although I’ve found many bloggers who write far better than NY Times columnists), and the proper point of view. And, once in, it’s like the Supreme Court or a tenured faculty position–you just keep going, unless convicted of some sort of relevant crime (plagarism, for example).
Apr 27, 2005 - 2:50 pm 17. Joe Schmoe:Friedman is right on.
Doesn’t anyone remember Al Zarquawi’s fatwa, the one in which he instructed the jihadists not to interfere the UN or harm its personnell in any way? Oh, wait, his people blew up the UN embassy in Baghdad and killed the UN’s top envoy. Guess someone didn’t get the word.
Remember when Al Sadr was occupying the Golden Mosque and his Mahdi Army was attacking Americans? After informing Muslims that they could take captured female Coalition soldiers as sexual slaves, he proclaimed that it is the holy duty of the children of Mohammed to follow all UN resolutions and to defer to the commands of the Secertary General.
And I’ve head that the Ba’athist dead-enders, like “Chemical” Ali, are all ready to submit to the authority of the UN and only continue their resistance because they are outraged at the US’s violation of international law.
And when Al Quaeda sawed off Nick Berg’s head, the guys in the background were chanting “death to infidels who flaunt the authority of the United Nations.”
Based on the foregoing, Friedman is clearly right. If only we’d gone into Iraq with UN approval, the reconstruction would not be so difficult. There would be no car bombings, no IED’s, no Mahdi Army, etc.
And with regard to allies, remember how De Villipen held up a check for $25 billion, representing France’s contribution to the reconstruction, during the debate at the Security Council?
Remember how the German army sent 50,000 troops, who were actually sailing into the Mediterranian and ready to deploy when Bush decided to invade unilaterally? The Germans turned around and went home. And they had volunteered to lead the assault into Baghdad!
Face it: thanks to Bush’s hamfisted blumdering and cowboy diplomacy, we forefited legitmacy and a great deal of support. Friedman is right and you conservatives are wrong.
Apr 27, 2005 - 2:54 pm 18. David Thomson:George H. W. Bush is an Old Republican who long held that the United States should shy away from liberating the Arab people from their authoritarian rulers. He regretfully listened to Colin Powell and let Saddam Hussein continue to threaten the region. No, George W. Bush had to overcome the fact that he is his fatherís son. Daddy was a very bad influence. The odds have increased significantly in the last day that John Boltonís nomination will be approved. The Leftist Democrats are really going to feel frustrated. They put enormous time and effort in sliming Bolton, and it appears that they have failed.
Tom DeLay is essentially a victim of a slander campaign. However, even if all the allegations against him were true—they donít begin to add up to Food for Oil scam. It is stupid to even mention DeLay in the same sentence with the latter culprits. Thatís something like comparing a jay walker with a mass murderer.
Apr 27, 2005 - 3:02 pm 19. charlotte:Excellent satire, Joe Schmoe! You had us going there for a minute–
Apr 27, 2005 - 3:15 pm 20. Rick Ballard:NNC,
NYT standards are much higher than that. Consider the time spent in critical dialectical self-examination under the rigorous control of your section’s commis - HRD person. No one is hired at the Times without verification of his/her ability to maintain the highest adherence to the Party Li - journalistic ethos. They don’t let just anyone in to work toward that most vaunted of journalistic awards -”Hero of the Sov - Pulitzer Prize.
You have no right to criticize the actions of the Polit- er, editorial board and further remarks on your part will result in exe - um, assignment to a reeduc - no, that’s not it - cancellation of your subscription.
Apr 27, 2005 - 3:18 pm 21. Pat Curley:Remember that before and during the war, Democrats continually claimed that George HW Bush’s war had been handled the right way, that his son had done it all wrong (and Friedman’s still engaging in that nonsense). Never mind that far more Democrats voted for the son’s war than did for 41’s.
That’s the problem with the institutional left; they have no memory for when they were on the wrong side of history.
BTW, I agree with the comment by JenLArt about Delay. The left drums on him because he’s effective, not because he’s something that should make our skins crawl.
Apr 27, 2005 - 3:20 pm 22. byrd:And Friedman’s one of the Times’ best columnists.
Apr 27, 2005 - 3:31 pm 23. Buddy Larsen:Well, I can’t believe Roger’s drunk the Delay Koolaid. To me, the cast of characters that is after his scalp is all by itself a strong reason that he should stay in place. But what do I know.
Apr 27, 2005 - 3:35 pm 24. Kyda Sylvester:Isn’t it funny how everyone is zeroing in on the same point.
Hey, Rick, if you’re still around, this is really OT, but remember the discussion about ‘net ads earlier this month (sorry, I don’t know how to land in the middle of a page–it starts late morning). This morning I came across this at kausfiles (1st item). Are you prescient or are you prescient?
Apr 27, 2005 - 3:46 pm 25. PeterUK:“a superdiplomat who can more often than not persuade the U.N.’s member states to act in support of U.S. interests.”
It was my understanding that to do this you either had to threaten to publish the pictures,apply a short plank to the side of the head,or buy them a football team,persuasion has a high price.
Apr 27, 2005 - 3:58 pm 26. Buddy Larsen:Consarn it, Kyda! Now it’s back to the damn lemonaide stand for me. Summertime’s comin’ on tho, I can usually raise prices up into that dime a glass area.
Apr 27, 2005 - 4:11 pm 27. Rick Ballard:Kyda,
Hardly prescient. I didn’t know it was in the works but the accretion of eyeballs always has an economic value. I think that they should take the product behind a modestly priced subscription door, collect the demographic info necessary to charge the advertisers correctly during the subscription process and buy islands in the Bahamas with the proceeds.
These guys are earning their dough through the constant provision of product on a daily basis. Roger and Glenn kick something out seven days a week and have done so for more than two years. Their determination and persistence have built brand value and they deserve to be compensated on more than a Paypal/Googlead basis.
Personally, I’d like to see $12 annual fee to a portal behind which one would access the top blogs. The portal would be the primary ad space for the “Name” advertisers and each blog would carry the panel ads on their own sites.
Of course, commenter of proven value should be justly compensated for value added. I need to stop now so I can prepare my bill.
Apr 27, 2005 - 4:28 pm 28. Buddy Larsen:yeh, like the duck buying chapstick asked the druggist to please put it on his bill.
Apr 27, 2005 - 4:52 pm 29. Kyda Sylvester:(keeping in mind that you’re under no obligation to answer personal questions)Are you in this business?
Apr 27, 2005 - 5:00 pm 30. marky48:This wrong side of history cliche is tiresome. The only ones on the wrong side are those who shilled up this debacle in the first place. The outcome is iffy. The price is high, and oil for food rag is only good for so big a bandwagon.
Of course there was abuse of it. Some of it with our knowledge. Duh. But there’s inflation on one side. Practically evrything that was said about the war a priori was wrong. Every frickin thing and yet everyoe gets promoted. What a magical mystery tour.
Apr 27, 2005 - 5:10 pm 31. Rick Ballard:Buddy,
I got friends in Mississippi. There may not be a legal theory of “enhancement of value” today but tomorrow is another day. I do know that you gotta bill it first and then send demand letters for a couple of months and then take a folder to a dumb attorney willing to work for a cut but anything is possible in America.
You’ve just been screwed by the regulatory side of the government, so far, you need to go through a few frivolous lawsuits in order to understand the full force and majesty of the justice system. Why, I can gen up a theory of implied contract in the blink of an eye. Which reminds me, do you ship goats milk to CA?
Apr 27, 2005 - 5:10 pm 32. Rick Ballard:Buddy,
I got friends in Mississippi. There may not be a legal theory of “enhancement of value” today but tomorrow is another day. I do know that you gotta bill it first and then send demand letters for a couple of months and then take a folder to a dumb attorney willing to work for a cut, but anything is possible in America.
So far, you’ve just been screwed by the regulatory side of the government, you need to go through a few frivolous lawsuits in order to understand the full force and majesty of the justice system. Why, I can gin up a theory of implied contract in the blink of an eye. Which reminds me, do you ship goats milk to CA?
Apr 27, 2005 - 5:13 pm 33. Rick Ballard:Sorry for the double post.
Kyda,
If by “this business” you mean marketing, no, not currently, although I’ve done it in the past. I do small business (less than $5mil) consulting on a free lance basis. Marketing is a good chunk of it but B-plan evaluation and strategic planning predominate.
Apr 27, 2005 - 5:20 pm 34. Charlie (Colorado):“Are you prescient or are you prescient?”
I knew you were gonna say that.
(Oh, come on. Someone had to.)
Apr 27, 2005 - 5:24 pm 35. Kyda Sylvester:Practically evrything that was said about the war a priori was wrong.
Well, that’s certainly true. We were told that it would be a Vietnam-style quagmire; that there would be thousands of casualties, tens, perhaps, hundreds, of thousands of civilian deaths, millions of refugees and mass starvation; that the Iraqis would fight to the death to defend Baghdad and Saddam Hussein; and, my personal favorite, that the Iraqi people were neither desirous of nor suited for self-rule. And that’s just for starters.
You’re absolutely right–every frickin’ thing was wrong.
Apr 27, 2005 - 5:28 pm 36. Kyda Sylvester:Yes, Charlie, someone had to, but did it have to be you?!
Interesting, Rick; I bet you do very well.
Apr 27, 2005 - 5:33 pm 37. Kyda Sylvester:I got friends in Mississippi.
Didn’t some bill or other that made it into law in the last term take care of that little problem in Jefferson County?
Apr 27, 2005 - 5:37 pm 38. Ron Wrght:Roger,
I’m sorry, the MSM is no longer a relevant provider of objective news/information of the day.
The Internet and the Blogos for all their flaws get the stories right. They have a built in self-correcting ability when you take an average of the points of view expressed.
Further the communications medium is almost free. It’s the content that drives hits and not any pandering that most MSM outlets do out of necessity, “If it bleeds. It leads.” I for one am tired of the daily “boom boom” reports filed by the MSM foreign correspondents from their posh hotel rooms. The MSM reports are out of proportion and perspective with reality. Perhaps compare the killings in Iraq with the daily body count in So Central LA.
Tell me about the massive demonstrations and riots occuring in Iran by the people seeking a regime change. If it wasn’t for Dr. Zin and Regime Change Iran, you would think this was a “top secret.”
Give me the reports from the true foreign correspondents and heros of the GWOT, like Zayad, Omar and other bloggers that risk life and limb to post to the outside world.
While we’re on the subject of bashing the “Gray Lady” for what she’s become, here’s a story of some merit the MSM is still not covering.
Follow this thread on our site on a related story that’s bouncing around in the Blogos today. See this comment posted at Captain’s Quarters we’ve linked to on our site:
Link Here
Apr 27, 2005 - 6:07 pm 39. photoncourier.blogspot.com:“Reforming the UN” is a completely different order of thing from squeezing “fraud, waste, and abuse” out of the Pentagon. Organizations such as the Pentagon will always have a certain level of inefficiency, just as engines will always waste a certain amount of energy…we should minimize the waste in both cases. But these are matters of organizational and mechanical engineering, totally different from the moral corruption at the U.N.
Apr 27, 2005 - 6:23 pm 40. Charlie (Colorado):“Yes, Charlie, someone had to, but did it have to be you?!”
Your recognition of my self-sacrifice is much appreciated.
Apr 27, 2005 - 6:34 pm 41. marky48:Well Kyda, up is down baby, in your neighborhood at least. Tell that to the mothers of the dead soldiers. Never mind the thousands of civilans. Such cavalierism with other people’s lives.
Apr 27, 2005 - 7:54 pm 42. JenLArt:Ah, marky…trolling for dollars?
Good Americans, like myself, President Bush and Kyda regret the loss of every soldier in Iraq and mourn them.
I wish we didn’t have to send troops to these Islamist hellholes, but after 9/11 it became clear that we did have to.
Our casualties have been at a minimum, thank God and yet at 1,500 or so, still are only half the number of American civilians that were slaughtered on 9/11.
As for Iraqi civilians killed, we regret and mourn those lives lost, also, which we’ve also tried to keep at a minimum.
We haven’t killed “thousands” of Iraqis, but SADDAM HUSSEIN DID and we’ve found the mass graves to prove it.
War is hell and it means the deaths of good people–civilians and soldiers.
Islamist killers started this war, we didn’t.
Blame them, not your fine country for responding to a direct attack on our soil and the murder of 3,000 civilians and our fellow citizens in peacetime.
Ward Churchill-think or not, all they did that fine September morning was go to work and try to live their lives, unaware that to their jihadi enemies, they were “little Eichmans.”
(How you square them being “little Eichmans” who were “justly” killed by jihadis who also want to kill Jews is a feat of logic that escapes me, Adolph Eichman being the head of the Final Solution in Hitler’s Reich.
And contrary to the conspiracy theories of the Left, many Jews did go to work at the WTC and the Pentagon on 9/11 and were killed along with the other Catholics, Protestants, atheists, Buddhists and even Muslims. )
Apr 27, 2005 - 8:10 pm 43. Rick Ballard:JenLArt,
We have certainly killed thousands of Iraqis, perhaps tens of thousands. We will kill thousnads more if that is requisite to our task.
We will not dispatch innocents nor will we act recklessly in a manner that causes the death of innocents.
Our soldiers have conducted warfare honorably under the microscope of a hostile press. I am very proud of them and I would hope that all Americans are just as proud as I am.
Marky and his friends are a herpes virus on the body politic. We can not be rid of them but exposure to sunshine ameliorates the symptoms of the disease. They were chancres that truly infested the body during Viet Nam but today we have learned to deal with the symptoms knowing that the disease is incurable. They pop up from time to time but that’s the price of freedom. They are a pimple on the posterior of the pachyderm that is the polis.
Apr 27, 2005 - 8:37 pm 44. Buddy Larsen:I imagine that Kyda understands that there’s no need for her to tell it to the mothers…all the way back to 1776 American mothers have understood the sacrifices their soldier boys have made. The mothers of the soldiers who created this nation, ended slavery, and are still fighting against murderous tyrannies have always known everything they need to know about sacrifice. The families, the comrades-in arms, the military units, the neighborhoods and churches, the entire nation, has always let them know whatever they didn’t already know the day Johnny shipped out.
Surely, Marky, surely you don’t really want Kyda or anyone else to be so cheap and crass as to jostle forward ahead of the honored families, proud units, and heartbroken friends merely in order to take advantage of the emotion, in order to trumpet their own partisan political points?
But, sentiments noted; I’m sure everyone here (not to mention the mothers and all who hurt) well understands and appreciates your sympathies.
Apr 27, 2005 - 8:40 pm 45. Buddy Larsen:Naw, Rick, Laura Chenel had Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck during the high-growth phase–nobody could break that keiretsu.
Apr 27, 2005 - 8:45 pm 46. Sandy P:The dems get to try and take down DeLay, and we get to take down Baghdad Jim McDermott.
That’s one reason the dems stalled the ethics committee.
Apr 27, 2005 - 8:49 pm 47. Sandy P:Marky and his ilk don’t have a problem w/treating my and mine lives cavalierly.
Apr 27, 2005 - 8:52 pm 48. Buddy Larsen:Point well made, on the loss of life, JenLArt, on 911 vs OEF & OIF.
Dollar cost comparison vs 911, GWoT has cost to date somewhere between a quarter and an eighth–depending on whether or not, and how measured, are the business text ‘opportunity costs’ factors.
Not too much blue sky in the observation that knock on wood there have been no further 911 attacks.
Few CPAs would argue expensing GWoT as preventative maintenance. Preventative maintenance diverts that part of cash flow, but any CPA will tell you that deferred maintenance–while not affecting current cash-flow, surely should be carried on the books as a liability which will *either* be someday debited, *or* result in a mark-down of the value of the enterprise measured.
History is pretty clear on the direct linkage here of blood and treasure. But to understand this, one does have to know a little ‘history’.
Apr 27, 2005 - 9:06 pm 49. Buddy Larsen:Sandy, I had to laugh at the news this eve, that the Dem refusal to actually have a hearing on the Delay charges, on the grounds that they didn’t like the Ethics Committee rules, got dumped right back in their faces today when Dennis Hastert said, “OK, let’s let the Dems have their rules however they want ‘em…but, let’s investigate the charges.”
Now what, Dems, you’re gonna have to either put or shut up (and of course they’ll have to shut up, and stuff another few months of taxpayer-funded idiocy back down their endlessly-expanding Memory Hole).
Apr 27, 2005 - 9:22 pm 50. Steve J.:JENLART:”Good Americans, like myself, President Bush and Kyda regret the loss of every soldier in Iraq and mourn them.”
Is this guy a “good American”?
“It’s approximately 500, of which - I can get the exact numbers - approximately 350 are combat deaths,” Wolfowitz said. (Actual numbers: 722, 521) AP, 4/29/04
Apr 27, 2005 - 10:23 pm 51. Buddy Larsen:Here’s a little something by a lefty, with a lefty organization, writing for a lefty audience, Steve. If you can read it, when you’re finished you’ll understand that your post above is pretty insubstantial. As well, you might even learn something about not only Paul Wolfowitz but also about your benefactor George Soros.
Apr 27, 2005 - 11:03 pm 52. PeterUK:“Such cavalierism with other people’s lives.”
The good people here do not see themselves as supporters of Charles the First or as English Civil War re-enactors,nor do they wear swords, hats with plumes and lace collars.Well at least publicly.
The correct usage of the word cavalier can be seen in Sandy P’s 8:52 post
Apr 28, 2005 - 4:33 am 53. Michael B:Without at all desiring to impugn the entirety of Tom Friedman’s career, can there conceivably be a more striking contrast between Friedman’s vacuously informed exhortation and Claudia Rosett’s substantively informed, thoughtful and cogently rendered update on yet another aspect of this massive U.N. financial and moral debauchery? Where Rosett incisively imparts additional information to further support the seriousness of this scandal, Friedman’s missive is, quite literally, nothing more than an embarrassingly obvious laxative for the conformist, affective, Left/Dem mind which readily kowtows to these types of demagogic blandishments.
(The above is a mouthful, I know, but I’d strongly suggest it’s descriptively accurate nonetheless. Too, this mind-emptying style among the Left/Dem’s “intelligentsia,” their affective clerisy, has become ubiquitous, if that even needs to be said.)
Apr 28, 2005 - 6:40 am 54. Neo:Equating the UN with “ legitimacy” is like equating chasity with a Shakespearean nunnery.
Apr 28, 2005 - 7:06 am 55. Michael B:OT - though this does continue with the contrasting themes of that which is cogent, which appeals to the mind, vs. an ideological conformity which voids the mind and appeals to the affective, readily kowtowing mindset.
Via Todd Zywicki at Volokh, the IHS is beginning to offer independent study guides (independent, that is, of the ideological church cum college/university) in the humanities and the social sciences in the classical liberal (i.e., the genuinely liberal) tradition.
Apr 28, 2005 - 7:09 am 56. Neo:More properly,
Equating “legitimacy” with the UN is like equating “chasity” with a Shakespearean nunnery.
On further thought, the UN is a Shakespearean nunnery (whore house).
Apr 28, 2005 - 7:11 am 57. Snippet:Friedman likes to breezily spout about 10 or 20 solutions to every problem with a degree of assurance and “infallibility” that would make George W blush, then, when someone actually takes his advice, and the going gets rough (as it will when one follows such advice as, “We need to partner with a Middle Eastern country to create a model of democracy blah, blah…..”), he blames the decision makers for not doing it the right way, the bloodless, nobody gets angry, everybody’s happy way.
Twit
Apr 28, 2005 - 8:26 am 58. ElMondo:Whoa, whoa, whoa. I think we’re being unnecessarily harsh on Tom Friedman here. Look, for starters, I don’t always agree with the NYTimes ed columns either; they’re definitely in their own world at times. And I was surprised at Friedman’s latest article about the UN. Tom, no offense, man, but there’s nothing “vacuous” about reforming the UN.
But…
Look, everyone, I’d hardly lump him in with the rest of the featherhead leftanistas at the NYTimes (*cough*MaureenDowdPaulKrugman*cough*). Yeah, he’s a bit more lefty and big government than I’m normally comfortable with, but if there’s a Democratic-Party-inclined columnist out there I can live with, it’s him. Folks, read his columns right after 9/11. He gets it. He really gets what the conflict with Islamic terrorists is all about. No, I admit, that’s a different topic than the “Who should be UN ambassador” article we’re all talking about here, but my point is that we’re demonizing him as just another clueless lefty columnist at the Times, and as far as I’m concerned, he’s anything but.
Just read the following:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/02/opinion/02FRIE.html?ex=1114833600&en=6ab279bbc4247f62&ei=5070
Quote:
“As I took in the scene (of grade school students singing in a performance), it occurred to me how much the Islamic terrorists who just hit America do not understand about America.
Their constant refrain is that America is a country with wealth and power but “no values.” The Islamic terrorists think our wealth and power is unrelated to anything in the soul of this country ó that we are basically a godless nation, indeed the enemies of God. And if you are an enemy of God you deserve to die. These terrorists believe that wealth and power can be achieved only by giving up your values, because they look at places such as Saudi Arabia and see that many of the wealthy and powerful there lead lives disconnected from their faith.
Of course, what this view of America completely misses is that American power and wealth flow directly from a deep spiritual source ó a spirit of respect for the individual, a spirit of tolerance for differences of faith or politics, a respect for freedom of thought as the necessary foundation for all creativity and a spirit of unity that encompasses all kinds of differences. Only a society with a deep spiritual energy, that welcomes immigrants and worships freedom, could constantly renew itself and its sources of power and wealth.
A society that will dig until it has found every body in the World Trade Center rubble ó because at some level it believes every individual is created in the image of God ó a society that raises $600 million for the victims in two weeks, is a godless, spiritless place? Guess again.
These terrorists so misread America.”
Again, I don’t defend his comments about UN Reform. Yes, he missed the mark on that one. But he’s a far cry from being just another one of the lefty’s at the Times. He actually thinks most of the time, IMHO.
Apr 28, 2005 - 8:31 am 59. Michael B:A fittingly humorous Friedman parody.
Apr 28, 2005 - 9:04 am 60. Kyda Sylvester:Hey, marky48, who you callin’ “baby”?! As for anything else, the rest of these fine folks pretty much have it covered.
ElMondo, points well made and taken. However, I just can’t help harkening back to reel cobra’s comment: Friedman is the worst kind of moron - the kind who takes your side and then argues poorly in favor of your position.
Apr 28, 2005 - 10:07 am 61. marky48:Moron is the keyword for you. Here’s the mirror. I mean if, even when disagreeing think that Tom Friedman is a moron then really, this one’s for you.
“We haven’t killed “thousands” of Iraqis.”
Unfortunately you have. That’s just a fact. The exact number of course they hide a way quite nicely. Untold thousands. As for the rest of it, we know the timeline and who was in office when the acts were done. It’s called the ’80s,
Wink wink.
As for my “ilk” Sir. I’m eligible to join the Sons of the American Revolution. I’ve had war veteran relatives in my family from King Philip’s War to WWII. Try to show a little respect.
Major Reuben Colburn House
Let me tell you something about liberals. Jefferson was liberal. Madison was a liberal. My ancestors were liberals and they drove the Tories into the sea.
Apr 28, 2005 - 7:07 pm 62. Bostonian:marky48, Saddam Hussein was in office in the 80s. So what’s your point?
Apr 28, 2005 - 7:26 pm 63. marky48:Along with Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. They didn’t have a problem with his massacres.
Apr 28, 2005 - 8:28 pm 64. Buddy Larsen:The Founding Fathers and marky…ha ha ha!
Apr 28, 2005 - 9:56 pm 65. Bostonian:Marky48,
I don’t see what the actions of past administrations has to do with the current one.
As for not minding Saddam’s massacres, the same applies to the American Left.
I seem to recall that when SH invaded a neighboring nation–an ally of ours, the Left refused to have anything to do with helping that ally.
When Bush Sr promised the Iraqis he’d support an overthrow of SH and then FAILED to do so, I didn’t hear the Left calling him on it either. It plainly did not matter one bit to them.
So excuse me if I don’t take you seriously.
Apr 29, 2005 - 6:33 am 66. Buddy Larsen:Right Bostonian…trying to co-opt the Founders is pitiful…today’s Liberals ARE the Tories…hanging onto the deals they have, the status quos, at any cost. The people that “drove the Tories into the sea” are the pro-Liberation people, then as now. If he was on fire and screaming for help, the Founders wouldn’t cross the street to pee on marky.
Apr 29, 2005 - 6:54 am