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Wednesday, February 07, 2007

And we should listen to Tom Friedman....why?
Posted by Jill | 7:05 AM
FAIR has already kindly noted the Shifting Goalposts of Tom Friedman over the last four years in his effort to sound like a Very Serious Person on Iraq.

It's astounding that now that having been so utterly full of shit for so long, Friedman tries it again today:

Listening, from Moscow, to the debate in Congress about Iraq is troubling: it sounds as if the American people are being offered two routes to a dead end: either follow President Bush and have troops surging into a roiling civil war, or go with one of the Congressional resolutions and denounce the surge, but without any alternative strategy for securing U.S. interests.

I believe there is an alternative strategy, but it will take two concrete numbers to implement: a date — Dec. 1 — and a price — $3.50 cents a gallon. Let me explain.

What is the U.S. interest in Iraq right now? It’s to quell the civil war enough so the parties may eventually reach a negotiated settlement, and if that proves impossible, to get America out of Iraq with the least damage to our interests.

We will not quell this civil war with a surge of troops alone. The only thing that will do that is a power-sharing, oil-revenue-sharing deal between the parties. The only way we will get serious negotiations going is with leverage that America does not now have: leverage on the parties inside and outside Iraq. Negotiating in the Middle East without leverage is futile. These folks know how to calculate the balance of power down to the last ounce.

So how do we get leverage? The first way to do that is by setting a firm date to leave — Dec. 1. All U.S. military forces are either going to be home for Christmas 2007 or redeployed along the borders of Iraq, away from the civil war.


We can't even get Republicans in this country to agree on "revenue sharing" with anyone other than the preposterously wealthy; how on earth can Friedman expect three warring tribes to agree on "revenue sharing" from oil revenues?

Friedman also forgets how little "oil revenue" will be left after American companies get finished stuffing their pockets.

When you think of how many people are doing what I'm doing right now -- toiling away in their messy home offices, writing because if we don't we'll go mad -- and this guy is getting paid a six-figure salary for writing this drivel, it's enough to make one weep.

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