Restoring Our Honor, Thomas Friedman

[ihaveaquestion]

Thomas Friedman lays out a plan for 'fixing' Iraq....

Restoring Our Honor
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: May 6, 2004
"We are in danger of losing something much more important than just the war in Iraq. We are in danger of losing America as an instrument of moral authority and inspiration in the world. I have never known a time in my life when America and its president were more hated around the world than today.

"This administration needs to undertake a total overhaul of its Iraq policy; otherwise, it is courting a total disaster for us all.

"That overhaul needs to begin with President Bush firing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld — today, not tomorrow or next month, today. What happened in Abu Ghraib prison was, at best, a fundamental breakdown in the chain of command under Mr. Rumsfeld's authority, or, at worst, part of a deliberate policy somewhere in the military-intelligence command of sexually humiliating prisoners to soften them up for interrogation, a policy that ran amok.

"Mr. Bush needs to invite to Camp David the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the heads of both NATO and the U.N., and the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria. There, he needs to eat crow, apologize for his mistakes and make clear that he is turning a new page. Second, he needs to explain that we are losing in Iraq, and if we continue to lose the U.S. public will eventually demand that we quit Iraq, and it will then become Afghanistan-on-steroids, which will threaten everyone. Third, he needs to say he will be guided by the U.N. in forming the new caretaker government in Baghdad. And fourth, he needs to explain that he is ready to listen to everyone's ideas about how to expand our force in Iraq, and have it work under a new U.N. mandate, so it will have the legitimacy it needs to crush any uprisings against the interim Iraqi government and oversee elections — and then leave when appropriate. And he needs to urge them all to join in."

Restoring Our Honor

[sendero]

1. Oh great....

..... now we're going to see more and more of the fathers of this fiasco declaring that it is an orphan.

It will be fun to watch.

[Hornito]

2. FYI, this is not LBN, but an editorial.....

n/t

[ixion]

4. Indeed... should be moved to editorial section

n/t

[Wright Patman]

3. Not gonna happen

"Mr. Bush needs to invite to Camp David the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the heads of both NATO and the U.N., and the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria. There, he needs to eat crow, apologize for his mistakes and make clear that he is turning a new page. "

Not even when hell freezes over. The man is fundamentally incapable of accepting responsibility for anything in his miserable life, much less apologize for it.

[ugarte]

5. Like Friedman opposed the war

NOT. Still, better late than never.

[Corgigal]

6. Sounds good

and along those lines the NY Times can fire Thomas Friedman for not being a journalist for the past year or so.

[BlueEyedSon]

7. "We are in danger of losing America as an instrument of moral authority"

What a shithead. We lost that when we invaded.
Friedman was a fucking cheerleader back then!

[orwell]

8. Tokyo Tommy

Ah, Friedman "the enabler", is shocked, shocked I say.

Well Tokyo Tommy, you wanted your little war, now you're dismayed that Pandora's box has been opened.

But then, you knew this would happen didn't you? After all you are the all-seeing ME "expert."

Pardon me while I :puke:

O

[Cocoa]

9. Friedman's racism is part of the problem

one of his themes is that "Arabs only understand force."