Thomas L. Friedman: America vs. "The Narrative"

[Louisiana1976]

What should we make of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who apparently killed 13 innocent people at Fort Hood?

Here’s my take: Major Hasan may have been mentally unbalanced — I assume anyone who shoots up innocent people is. But the more you read about his support for Muslim suicide bombers, about how he showed up at a public-health seminar with a PowerPoint presentation titled “Why the War on Terror Is a War on Islam,” and about his contacts with Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni cleric famous for using the Web to support jihadist violence against America — the more it seems that Major Hasan was just another angry jihadist spurred to action by “The Narrative.”

snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/opinion/29friedman.html?em

[sudopod]

1. WHAAAAAAAAAT?

Yes, after two decades in which U.S. foreign policy has been largely dedicated to rescuing Muslims or trying to help free them from tyranny — in Bosnia, Darfur, Kuwait, Somalia, Lebanon, Kurdistan, post-earthquake Pakistan, post-tsunami Indonesia, Iraq and Afghanistan — a narrative that says America is dedicated to keeping Muslims down is thriving.

[laststeamtrain]

2. The crazy, irrational beliefs of Muslims

The crazy, irrational beliefs of Muslims
By Glenn Greenwald


Tom Friedman, The New York Times, today:

"Major Hasan may have been mentally unbalanced -- I assume anyone who shoots up innocent people is."

Tom Friedman, The Charlie Rose Show, May 30, 2003:

ROSE: Now that the war is over, and there's some difficulty with the peace, was it worth doing?

FRIEDMAN: I think it was unquestionably worth doing, Charlie. I think that, looking back, I now certainly feel I understand more what the war was about . . . . What we needed to do was go over to that part of the world, I'm afraid, and burst that bubble. We needed to go over there basically, and take out a very big stick, right in the heart of that world, and burst that bubble. . . .

And what they needed to see was American boys and girls going from house to house, from Basra to Baghdad, and basically saying: which part of this sentence do you understand? You don't think we care about our open society? . . . . Well, Suck. On. This. That, Charlie, was what this war was about.

We could have hit Saudi Arabia. It was part of that bubble. Could have hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could. That's the real truth.

Tom Friedman, NPR's Talk of the Nation, September 23, 2003 (via NEXIS):

That's what I believe ultimately this war was about. And guess what? People there got the message, OK, in the neighborhood. This is a rough neighborhood, and sometimes it takes a 2-by-4 across the side of the head to get that message.

* * * * *

Tom Friedman can declare with a straight face that "anyone who shoots up innocent people is ... mentally imbalanced" without seeing how clearly that applies to himself and those who think like he does. ... http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/11/29/friedman/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+salon%2Fgreenwald+%28Glenn+Greenwald%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo
*

There are few people as creepy as Tom Friedman.

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. Tom "Flat Earth" Friedman

Seriously, Friedman had better get down on his knees every night and thank a higher power that he makes money as a writer. He is ignorant, insulated, frequently dead wrong and stupid to boot! In fact, Friedman is wrong so often that it would be a good strategy to the exact opposite of whatever he is shoveling at any given moment.

[choie]

4. "I think it was unquestionably worth doing, Charlie"..

son of a bitch!

[Firstzar]

5. Friedman is a douche!

And he needs to wash his hair more than once a month!