My 2 cents to Mr. Friedman's article today!

[OETKB]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/27/opinion/27friedman.html?hp>

In the Times today and on c-span this am, a new neo-con phrase has been introduced, i.e. The Iraqi election is a "tipping point." This is another coverup that needs to be debunked by using our own frame of reference.

My answer to Mr. Friedman's logic on this "sound bite" philosophy.


February 27, 2005 (#21091 of 21092)

What is a tipping point?<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/27/opinion/27friedman.html?hp>

Using a popular phrase to explain a complex situation is the usual black and white approach to human problems served up by the right. They opine, if only there is some basic trapping of representative government, then democracy should suddenly blossom full-blown from somebody's head. However, look at the means used to bring Iraq to this point and the means it will take to preserve it. Is this truly a prescription for desirable survival? In Mr. F's world, the majority must rule(no attention to minority rights), kill off the opposition("insurgents"), and keep our military handy in someone else's soverign territory. This sounds more like a recipe for continued conflict, not a "roadmap to peace."

Remember it was the Iraqis who called for this election over the US's objections. Further it was the UN who provided the technical assistance to carry out this election under very difficult circumstances. In the meantime with continued violence prompted by US military, people and infrastructure continue to be destroyed. Which do you want to achieve a working society--neanderthal tactics or representative reasoning? Which do you truly believe Mr. Bush and Co. represents?

[democrank]

1. Want to win in America?

Don`t annoy the citizens with facts. They`ll lap up this "tipping point" stuff and go shopping.

[meegbear]

2. But didn't we "turn the corner" there already?

[scarletlib]

5. we've turned the corner there so many times we have now

created a square--and boxed ourselves into it.

[farmbo]

3. Friedman was on the wrong side of history, so he's helping to re-write it.

Remember his relentless drum-beating and jingoism in the Spring of 2003? Next to Judith Miller, his was the most strident voice at the NYT in support of the invasion. "Iraq has WMDs...they would cheerfully share them with terrorists...maybe there was a 9/11 Saddam connection...blah blah blah."

He swallowed the Administration's clumsy disinformation campaign hook, line and stinker (sic).

Like the Bush administration, Thomas Friedman will never admit a mistake owing to his own hubris.

[scarletlib]

6. friedman, novak -- they all make me sick.

[OETKB]

4. Where do I sign up?

I am already a member of my Democratic Town Committee, but I am still looking for a group that understands what we are up against. I attended a Kennedy School forum with Frank Rich and he basically send there is bad news coming out, but we are doing the best we can. What groups are helping the media to "do better?"

[The Zanti Regent]

7. It's the same old #2 from the King of Poo, Tommy of Finland Friedman.

If Tommy believes the universe revolves around Israel, why doesn't he just pull up and move there?

[Jack Rabbit]

8. Mr. Friedman is still blind to what is really happening

Thanks to eight million Iraqis defying "you vote, you die" terrorist threats, Iraq has been reframed from a story about Iraqi "insurgents" trying to liberate their country from American occupiers and their Iraqi "stooges" to a story of the overwhelming Iraqi majority trying to build a democracy, with U.S. help, against the wishes of Iraqi Baathist-fascists and jihadists.

Horsepucky. If Bush and his pals had their way, these elections would not have been held. It was Ayatollah Sistani who insisted that they be held, knowing that his people would win them. Sistani had the power to send millions of Shias out into the streets for mass demonstrations to support his demand.

What did the Iraqi people vote for? Apart from establishment of Sharia as the basis of civil law, they voted for demanding that the US set a timetable for withdrawal of troops and the repeal of former Governor General Bremer's decrees. That is for what the program of the United Iraqi Alliance, the slate that won a majority in Iraq's calls.

The Bushies aren't helping to build democracy in Iraq. The Iraqis don't want their help.

The Sunnis have their insurgency. It is violent and too often vile. The Shias also had their insurgency. It was called an election. If there's one thing on which Sunnis and Shias agree, it is that Bush, his troops and his war profiteering pals should leave their country.

[Cocoa]

9. when I saw that "Nightline" was going to apply the Tipping Point to Iraq

I thought, this inane idea is tailor-made for David Brooks to peddle.

Then I saw Koppel introduce Friedman, and I thought, "even better."

[acmavm]

10. Friedman is of the journalistic school of thought that says no matter how

many times it's shown that the writer is a delusional and gullible hack, continual and never-ending assertions to the contrary will ensure a following, that is as long as the followers are even more delusional and gullible then said writer.

It's an amazing time in America. People who have been shown to be wrong (a nice way of saying bat-shit crazy and dumb as a box of rocks) still have a following and their employment as journalists (???) is secure. They can carry on with their lies and ignorance and it's not a liability whatsoever. Dare to hint at the truth and you're unpatriotic, probably a traitor, and some crazy idiot fundie will start demanding that you be tried and then lined up against a wall and shot.

You know what? I remember the Viet Nam debacle and the horrible divide that caused in this country. But I swear it seems to me that people weren't this damn stupid and blind. After someone's credibility factor was shown to hover somewhere in the minus numbers, the lost their partisan followers. People used to have an objection to looking stupid and evil. Now, it sort of seem fashionable to support ideals that have no relation to humanity and morality, that intelligence and credibility are almost a liability, and that blanket accusations of 'unpatriotic behavior'are soon to follow if you don't swallow the propaganda of the busholini's hook, line, and sinker.

Friedman has used up his margin of error. Many times over. He needs to find another line of work. I just can't imagine what that would be.