Tom Friedman: Iraq, Still Inscrutable
Tom Friedman is back from his book writing sabbatical and working his column again. But before we talk about Tom's column, I have a war story for you.
First of all, you should know the difference between a fairy tale and a war story. A fairy tale begins with, "Once upon a time." A War story begins with, "Now, y'all ain't gonna believe this s**t."
So yesterday it's close to 5:00 and I'm trying to gut it out and finish the draft of a marketing letter I'm about to do a mass mailing on. I was fat, dumb and happy when I heard the sirens go off warning of bad weather. So I ran over and turned on the TV. I found out Omaha was about to get hit with a major thunderstorm featuring 90 mph winds and hail and that it was about 10 minutes away.
My home office is in the basement, so my dogs and I were already where we needed to be. The storm hit and we lost power. In fact the power didn't come back on for me until 9:30 the next morning. The storm was quick, but exceptionally violent. If you've watched ESPN today, then you know the place where the Olympic swim trials are taking place had the roof blown off. We had a lot of trees down in my neighborhoods, but no major injuries to my knowledge. Across the river in Council Bluffs, though, we had two killed when a tree fell on their car.
We have some inconvenience now, but its nothing like the flood victims in Iowa and Missouri. We're counting our blessings here and wishing those impacted by the flooding well.
Anyway, back to Tom's article. I think Tom does an excellent job of presenting the dilemma Iraq poses for the next President. Thanks to what has been done already, there are no easy choices no matter who is elected.
Here's a link.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/opinion/18friedman.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
First of all, you should know the difference between a fairy tale and a war story. A fairy tale begins with, "Once upon a time." A War story begins with, "Now, y'all ain't gonna believe this s**t."
So yesterday it's close to 5:00 and I'm trying to gut it out and finish the draft of a marketing letter I'm about to do a mass mailing on. I was fat, dumb and happy when I heard the sirens go off warning of bad weather. So I ran over and turned on the TV. I found out Omaha was about to get hit with a major thunderstorm featuring 90 mph winds and hail and that it was about 10 minutes away.
My home office is in the basement, so my dogs and I were already where we needed to be. The storm hit and we lost power. In fact the power didn't come back on for me until 9:30 the next morning. The storm was quick, but exceptionally violent. If you've watched ESPN today, then you know the place where the Olympic swim trials are taking place had the roof blown off. We had a lot of trees down in my neighborhoods, but no major injuries to my knowledge. Across the river in Council Bluffs, though, we had two killed when a tree fell on their car.
We have some inconvenience now, but its nothing like the flood victims in Iowa and Missouri. We're counting our blessings here and wishing those impacted by the flooding well.
Anyway, back to Tom's article. I think Tom does an excellent job of presenting the dilemma Iraq poses for the next President. Thanks to what has been done already, there are no easy choices no matter who is elected.
Here's a link.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/opinion/18friedman.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
I think this is excellent analysis by Thomas Friedman. To me, national security, Iraq and the Middle East situation is still a big gorilla in our living rooms.
On Jan 20, 2009, the man sitting in the White House will inherit this situation, and will have to actually establish a foreign policy that makes sense, and then, actually implement that policy. And answer for the intended and unintended consequences of that policy.
Good luck. I wish him well with that.
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Jim,
A very worthy comment to Friedman's article.
Think about the Iraqis and their reaction as they listen to this very public debate. For them, this is somewhat like being the defense for a football team who knows the play that has been called in the huddle.
Hopefully there will be debate questions framed around this perspective.
Senator McCain, you have just been elected President. The Joint Chiefs and the CENTCOM Commander are both telling you this operation cannnot be sustained with the force we have. Would you be willing to expand the force by re-instituting a lottery draft? Why or why not?
Senator Obama, you have just been elected President. The State Department and the Joint Chiefs are telling you that withdrawing our forces on the timetable you propose will result in a blood letting making the last 6 years look a finger prick in comparison. What will you do to prevent that carnage?
What other questions would you readers like to ask?
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I will put on my partisan hat for this debate question.
Senator Obama, in all respect, you have often said that you have superior judgment because you spoke out against going into Iraq.
At the time, you were an Illinois State Senator. When you came to that decision, did you have access to the intelligence information others who voted for Iraq had? If not, what information or beliefs did you use to form your opinion? Is this how you will make decisions as president?
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Here is another look at progress in Iraq. While the viewpoint is clearly partisan, I have not heard much about the facts presented in this piece.
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/07/ruh-roh-iraq-reaches-15-of-18.html
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