Curtain down on War of Many Friedmans
It seems Thomas ‘Give War A Chance’ Friedman may finally have moved on:
Obviously, no one wants to just pick up and leave, and leave behind some kind of humanitarian disaster. But at the same time, just kind of dragging it out and waiting for the Iraqis to figure it out on their own also strikes me as slightly irresponsible.
But it’s been a long road for Friedman:
The next six months in Iraq — which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there — are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time.
- New York Times, 30/11/2003
What I absolutely don’t understand is just at the moment when we finally have a UN-approved Iraqi-caretaker government made up of — I know a lot of these guys — reasonably decent people and more than reasonably decent people, everyone wants to declare it’s over. I don’t get it. It might be over in a week, it might be over in a month, it might be over in six months, but what’s the rush? Can we let this play out, please?
- NPR’s Fresh Air, 3/06/2004
What we’re gonna find out, Bob, in the next six to nine months is whether we have liberated a country or uncorked a civil war.
- CBS’s Face the Nation, 3/10/2004
Improv time is over. This is crunch time. Iraq will be won or lost in the next few months. But it won’t be won with high rhetoric. It will be won on the ground in a war over the last mile.
- New York Times, 28/11/2004
I think we’re in the end game now... I think we’re in a six-month window here where it’s going to become very clear and this is all going to pre-empt I think the next congressional election — that’s my own feeling — let alone the presidential one.
- NBC’s Meet the Press, 25/09/2005
Maybe the cynical Europeans were right. Maybe this neighborhood is just beyond transformation. That will become clear in the next few months as we see just what kind of minority the Sunnis in Iraq intend to be. If they come around, a decent outcome in Iraq is still possible, and we should stay to help build it. If they won’t, then we are wasting our time.
- New York Times, 28/09/2005
We’ve teed up this situation for Iraqis, and I think the next six months really are going to determine whether this country is going to collapse into three parts or more or whether it’s going to come together.
- CBS’s Face the Nation, 18/12/2005
We’re at the beginning of I think the decisive I would say six months in Iraq, OK, because I feel like this election—you know, I felt from the beginning Iraq was going to be ultimately, Charlie, what Iraqis make of it.
- PBS’s Charlie Rose Show, 20/12/2005
The only thing I am certain of is that in the wake of this election, Iraq will be what Iraqis make of it—and the next six months will tell us a lot. I remain guardedly hopeful.
- New York Times, 21/12/2005
I think that we’re going to know after six to nine months whether this project has any chance of succeeding. In which case, I think the American people as a whole will want to play it out or whether it really is a fool’s errand.
- Oprah Winfrey Show, 23/01/2006
I think we’re in the end game there, in the next three to six months, Bob. We’ve got for the first time an Iraqi government elected on the basis of an Iraqi constitution. Either they’re going to produce the kind of inclusive consensual government that we aspire to in the near term, in which case America will stick with it, or they’re not, in which case I think the bottom’s going to fall out.
- CBS, 31/01/2006
I think we are in the end game. The next six to nine months are going to tell whether we can produce a decent outcome in Iraq.
- NBC’s Today, 2/03/2006
Can Iraqis get this government together? If they do, I think the American public will continue to want to support the effort there to try to produce a decent, stable Iraq. But if they don’t, then I think the bottom is going to fall out of public support here for the whole Iraq endeavor. So one way or another, I think we’re in the end game in the sense it’s going to be decided in the next weeks or months whether there’s an Iraq there worth investing in. And that is something only Iraqis can tell us.
- CNN, 23/04/2006
Well, I think that we’re going to find out, Chris, in the next year to six months — probably sooner — whether a decent outcome is possible there, and I think we’re going to have to just let this play out.
- MSNBC’s Hardball, 11/05/2006
(via FAIR)
posted by Jacob A. Stam at 9/21/2007 02:41:00 PM
8 Comments:
Wel, well done Jacob.
The bugger needs to brought to book. The great media cheerleader.
Did he recruit Hitchens?
Yo, Compadre!
The historical stuff was compiled by the folks at FAIR.
The 'War of Many Friedmans' line was, I think, Tim Dunlop's. He proposed a unit measurement of time to be known as the Friedman, equivalent to around six months.
Then I heard Tom say that on Lateline last week, and I thought, Yes! Finally, at last, the poor man's found closure.
And how nice for him.
By the way, what are you working on now? I saw something about it at Harry's, but couldn't find any clarification about it on the thread.
Yo Jacob!
Or, should I say fellow “sick, very sick leftie racist”, liar and bigot.
Fuck Harry and his blog. He has little idea who the hell I am. One tires of his full-of-himself, more aware than thou overbearing drunken abuse. Arrggh!
Indeed I am working on something else. A more “technical” piece on the unit – the Silver Shields – that featured in the Gabiene thingy. The publisher didn’t have the room for some 5,500 words. So he commissioned a 2,300 word bit about the history and arming of the unit itself. Nice one: there is huge controversy over just that. Much academic ink spilled in the “peer reviewed” articles.
Me? In typical fashion, I distilled the arguments and simply went with my view. Stuff ‘em.
Should result in many letters to the editor I’d think.
Can’t put it up on the site, wouldn’t now anyway, as I’m certain there might be commercial how’s-you’re-chookies about the fact that Ancient Warfare are paying for the damn thing. Could send it to you privately if you’ve an interest though.
Good to hear from you, Michael (or may I call you 'Bertie'?).
Yes well ... Harry's just zis guy, you know???
(But do beware, your comment here could be construed by bigoted fuckheads as a "slimy, sneaky, etc." attack-whatever-blah-blah-blah-ah-fuck-it.)
As a matter of fact, I'd be very interested to read your work, though be aware that you may be casting pearls before swine leftie commie hatespeakers.
Sorry, had a rather solid night of rah-rah, I'll get back to you old chap.
Let the comment be construed however: it's a blow off stem thing. I have little liking for being publicly called a "sick, very sick racist" not to mention liar and hater.
One too many times. Apparently I missed the "whimsy" and "no verbal" cues. Seemed ubandantly clear to me. Were it the other way round...ahh well, what's to worry?
I'll send it to your email later today - after the editor finishes his touch-up job on me.
I knew right from the get-go that there were no WMD (jeez louise, they'd already been bombed back to the stone ages, they were lucky to have a working Swiss Army Knife between them); and I have long declined to get uppity about abandoning Iraq to whatever nasty fate its inhabitants are inclined to inflict on one another, but even my goodwill is reduced to the odd drop.
Didn't we decisively win WWII and make a goodly start on reconstruction all over the damned world, all in LESS than six years?
Of course. Aside from the background that the meeja so uncannily forgot, the cheerleading was just so palpably hysterical.
Yeah, there's certainly a case for just leaving them alone and letting them sort it out for themselves.
But there's all them oils there, see...
Oops, I've reverted to type again.
Hatespeak! Racism!
" Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, emphasized that the increase in American troops over recent months had shown substantial results, putting “extreme pressure” on foreign terrorists operating in Iraq."
He reckons another one year ought to do it.
(NY Times, today.)
Why do they insist on predicting time lines?
It's like predicting Armageddon. Time and time and time and time again, everyone prepares, and the date is wrong, hopes are dashed, another new date is set.
Post a Comment
<< Home