Friedman snaps, tells caller he'll be a better liberal, stop thinking Arabs are capable of democracy

[BurtWorm]

FRIEDMAN: Look, I understand people who opposed the war. Some opposed it for military reasons, because they’re against war, some opposed it because they hate George Bush, some opposed it because they didn’t believe Arabs are capable of democracy. I wasn’t in that group. I really believed that finding a different kind of politics in collaboration with people in that region was a really important project.

ASHBROOK: And do you really believe –

FRIEDMAN: I’m really sorry. Next time — Next time Ishwar <caller>, I promise, I really promise, I’ll be a better liberal. I’ll not in any way support any effort to bring democracy to a country ruled by an oil-backed tyranny. I promise I will never do that again. I promise I’ll be a better liberal. I will view the prospect of Arabs forging a democracy as utterly impossible. They’re incapable of democracy. I agree with you on that now.

ASHBROOK: You’re going to sarcasm. We can feel you’ve taken your licks on this.


<Quoted on Think Progress>

It's clear he doesn't realize how much he gives away about himself with such a response. Number one giveaway: He doesn't understand that opposition to the war was rooted in reasoned skepticism over the soundness and integrity of every case the Bushists made for it, which makes you feel certain he wanted war all along--or else was too dumb to see through the Bushists' lies. I think he just wanted war, which makes me think further that it's because of his own anti-Arab prejudice. He seems to think that Arabs are incapable of creating their own movements toward democracy without the assistance of SuperAmerica condescending to kick Saddamn's ass and lay the foundations of democracy for them.

[texastoast]

1. Report from the front lines

A Marine commander (with 17 years in the military) came back from the front lines to give a talk about his experience. He was very skeptical that the Iraqis could democratically govern themselves. He said that those people are tribal and are used to the baddest dude on the block running things and that without a strong leader (read despot like Saddam), things go to hell in a handbasket rather quickly. So far, that Marine commander has been spot on, I'm truly sad to say after all the sacrifices both Americans and Iraqis have made. We are not going to change those folks without their being willing. The end.

P.S. Bush is an idiot and lied to us all and should be impeached right away.

[windbreeze]

13. That is exactly what no one took the time to understand

before * committed us to this bullshit "war"...
windbreeze

[marmar]

2. Friedman's anti-Arab racism isn't even thinly veiled anymore.

He's pretty blatant about it.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Wihtout knowing what Ishwar said, the ThinkProgress piece is fairly useless

because he might have been a real jerk, for all we know.

[BurtWorm]

6. I can't listen to the clip. Have you listened to it?

http://websrvr80il.audiovideoweb.com/il80web20037/ThinkProgress/2007/friedman2.mp4

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. It seems to start where the written bit does (n/t)

[carolinayellowdog]

4. Three straw men attacked in one breath

He does NOT understand people who opposed the war. In thousands of discussions online and in person, I never once encountered anyone saying "all war is wrong, therefore this war is wrong." Nor anyone arguing that Arabs are incapable of democratic reform. Nor anyone who opposed the war *because* they hated Bush. That a so-called journalist and public intellectual would make so many baseless accusations is hardly surprising in light of the degradation of discourse in this country. He demonizes "good liberals" as being anti-Arab and anti-democracy. Where else have we heard that?

Like Andrew Sullivan, Friedman's hands are dripping with the blood of hundreds of thousands, and he can never for one moment face the fact that he was a willing propagandist for the greatest foreign policy disaster in our nation's history. Rather than face their own catastrophic wrongness, they try to focus on accusations that those of us who *were* right about this war were right for the wrong reasons.

May he live to see his reputation in tatters.

[Demit]

5. I think he reveals just how completely he feels he is a true member of the elite.

In the way the neocons do—that ordinary people are not wise enough to engage in debating matters of state, which are properly the purview of the elite few. (And of course Friedman counts as one of them by virtue of his wife's wealth.) Witness how speciously he dismisses all opposition to this war. I'm tired enough of the meme that people oppose Bush's policies because they hate him (it's backwards—people have come to hate him because of his policies. It's a common-sense rebuttal that I simply never see). But to hear a supposed thinker repeat the charge as though it makes sense just boggles my mind. All three of his "reasons" are facetious. He delegitimizes those who oppose his view, by mocking them. He is a charlatan. I am looking forward to the day when the neocons are thoroughly discredited; I am hoping it will thoroughly discredit him too.

[Marr]

12. Well said.

Men like Friedman seem to believe that they have a national voice because they have some special wisdom or intelligence. Their opinions are no more valid than anyone else's- quite the opposite, in fact- since they're so married to ideology. Friedman has a national voice because his opinion is also the opinion of Wall Street, period.

[tblue]

8. "bring democracy to a country ruled by an oil-backed tyranny"??? Oh, is THAT what we're doing? I

thought we were bringing oil-backed tyranny to a people tormented by a Saddam-backed tyranny and brutal economic sanctions. Stupid me. Yes, just look at that democracy free from oil-backed tyranny. See how it thrives. I'm so glad Friedman straightened me out.

[baldguy]

9. The British said the same thing about the Israelis after WWII.

[Crunchy Frog]

10. The Tom Friedman disease.

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/12/tom-friedman-disease-consumes.html

[Marr]

11. Some people opposed the invasion because it was clearly

stupid policy, based on lies. Tom Friedman 'wasn't in that group', either.

And the notion that the Bush Administration is doing this to spread democracy is beyond laughable. They do everything they can to undermine it *here*.