This is a column by Thomas L. Friedman who supports the war in Iraq.
I'm sure there will be more focus on attacking the messenger instead of discussing the message, but i think he raises some valid points about how comitted america really is about long term global leadership.
THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2005
There is no doubt that Lance Armstrong's seventh straight victory in the Tour de France, which has prompted sportswriters to rename the whole race the Tour de Lance, makes him one of the greatest American athletes of all time. What I find most impressive about Armstrong, besides his sheer willpower to triumph over cancer, is the strategic focus he brings to his work, from his prerace training regimen to the meticulous way he and his cycling team plot out every leg of the race. It is a sight to behold. I have been thinking about them lately because their abilities to meld strength and strategy - to thoughtfully plan ahead and to sacrifice today for a big gain tomorrow - seem to be such fading virtues in American life.
Sadly, those are the virtues we now associate with China, Chinese athletes and Chinese leaders. Talk to U.S. business executives and they'll often comment on how many of China's leaders are engineers, people who can talk to you about numbers, long-term problem-solving and the national interest - not a bunch of lawyers looking for a sound bite to get through the evening news. America's most serious deficit today is a deficit of such leaders in politics and business.
John Mack, the new CEO at Morgan Stanley, initially demanded in the contract he signed June 30 that his total pay for the next two years would be no less than the average pay package received by the CEOs at Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. If that average turned out to be more than $25 million, Mack was to be paid at least that much. He eventually backed off that demand after a howl of protest, but it struck me as the epitome of what is wrong in America today.
We are now playing defense. A top CEO wants to be paid not based on his performance, but based on the average of his four main rivals! That is like Lance Armstrong's saying he will race only if he is guaranteed to come in first or second, no matter what his cycling times are on each leg.
I recently spent time in Ireland, which has quietly become the second-richest country in the European Union, first by going through some severe belt-tightening in which everyone had to sacrifice, then by following that with a plan to upgrade the education of its entire work force, and a strategy to recruit and induce as many global high-tech companies and researchers as possible to locate in Ireland. The Irish have a plan. They are focused. They have mobilized business, labor and government around a common agenda. They are playing offense.
Wouldn't you think that if you were president, after you had read the umpteenth story about premier U.S. companies, such as Intel and Apple, building their newest factories, and even research facilities, in China, India or Ireland, that you would summon the country's top business leaders to Washington ask them just one question: "What do we have to do so you will keep your best jobs here? Make me a list and I will not rest until I get it enacted."
And if you were president, and you had just seen more suicide bombs in London, wouldn't you say to your aides: "We have got to reduce our dependence on Middle East oil. We have to do it for our national security. We have to do it because only if we bring down the price of crude will these countries be forced to reform. And we should want to do it because it is clear that green energy solutions are the wave of the future, and the more quickly we impose a stringent green agenda on ourselves, the more our companies will lead innovation in these technologies."
Instead, we Americans are about to pass an energy bill that, while it does contain some good provisions, will make no real dent in U.S. gasoline consumption, largely because no one wants to demand that Detroit build cars that get much better mileage. We are just feeding Detroit the rope to hang itself. It's assisted suicide. I thought people went to jail for that?
And if you were president, would you really say to the nation, in the face of the chaos in Iraq, "If our commanders on the ground say we need more troops, I will send them," but they have not asked. It is not what the generals are asking you, Mr. President - it is what you are asking them, namely: "What do you need to win?" Because it is clear we are not winning, and we are not winning because we have never made Iraq a secure place where normal politics could emerge.
Oh, well, maybe we have the leaders we deserve. Maybe we just want to admire Lance Armstrong, but not be Lance Armstrong. Too much work. Maybe that's the wristband we should be wearing: Live wrong. Party on. Pay later
And if you were president, would you really say to the nation, in the face of the chaos in Iraq, "If our commanders on the ground say we need more troops, I will send them," but they have not asked. It is not what the generals are asking you, Mr. President - it is what you are asking them, namely: "What do you need to win?" Because it is clear we are not winning, and we are not winning because we have never made Iraq a secure place where normal politics could emerge.
I just finished reading Gen. Tommy Franks' book. Seems that every time George W. talked directly to Franks, he asked what else was needed. Usually, the answer was not more forces, but less politics so he could carry out his battle plan.
Darn it dean, i wanted some flame throwing (i even had the suit on).
I think that perhaps friedman is making too much of a pointy argument, especially when it comes to Iraq. He does make one decent point imho when he suggests that the best way of getting rid of the problem in middle east is to remove the lever they have by getting rid of the oil dependency. Oil is what is paying for the insurgency, oil is what is spreading the religion of allah in the form of extremist wahabism across the world. Oil is at the core of the problem in the middle east and i think it would be great if we could find a way to remove the sheiks base of power by denying them their source of revenue.
Darn it dean, i wanted some flame throwing (i even had the suit on).
I think that perhaps friedman is making too much of a pointy argument, especially when it comes to Iraq. He does make one decent point imho when he suggests that the best way of getting rid of the problem in middle east is to remove the lever they have by getting rid of the oil dependency. Oil is what is paying for the insurgency, oil is what is spreading the religion of allah in the form of extremist wahabism across the world. Oil is at the core of the problem in the middle east and i think it would be great if we could find a way to remove the sheiks base of power by denying them their source of revenue.
oh, well i guess today was not a fight day...
If you believe oil is the root of all Evil in the Middle East then you are merely buying into the simple answer the entertainment media is regurgitating. Terrorism started heating up in the 1980's as a means of getting or forcing media coverage.
It started rather benignly with Hijackings and slowly escalated into bombings and murders of greater size and intensity. Since it is driven by the media with an entertainment slant, each episode needs to be more appealing or appalling than the previous one.
Terrorism is now a means of bitter hate mongers to gain power and prestige by selling their message of hate. Just as Hitler did they use transference to place the blame on another group, and focus the groups energies of hatred toward an achievable goal, such as a bombing. When it happens they claim a victory. The victim responds with lethal violence in kind, which further feeds into the "hate mongers" propaganda machine.
It's a cycle of violence that can only be broken by those who are in it. Only an Islamic "Martin Luther King" or "Gandhi" figure can save the Islamic World. Without such a savior who embraces peace, non-violent protest, and self respect the world, and especially the Middle East, will be locked in this cycle.
Until that time comes, I will be keeping Muslim Hell packed with fresh souls.
...and what do you suppose funded those movements in the 80's?
hint: all you need to do is overlay a population chart next to an oil exploration chart.
This is no different than the cold war. Russia wasn't defeated by bullets, russia was defeated because it went nearly bankrupt. Do the same to the muslim states and the problem goes away. Not a quick fix but if real money is put into it, it can be done much quicker than the cold war imho.
Sure money makes the "Hair Band" style antics of UBL possible. However, any sicko with a bucket of gasoline and a pack of matches can kill hundreds if not thousands. Take for example the crazy South Korean guy that killed over 120 people with a soda bottle full of gasoline, and a lighter.
It's insanity and hatred that kills. Money is merely an enabler.
That is a stupid argument that serves no purpose. With money comes resources to pay and manipulate others to be trained tools used to do the killing. There has been no guerilla/insurgency/terorists that has had any longevity without significant assets either through sale of contraband or from external sources.
That is a stupid argument that serves no purpose. With money comes resources to pay and manipulate others to be trained tools used to do the killing. There has been no guerilla/insurgency/terorists that has had any longevity without significant assets either through sale of contraband or from external sources.
So what does this money buy? More dead people or more internal power for those who control the money? The ability to kill and terrorize is not in any way associated with money.
Sure the hype and "showmanship" of flying planes into buildings can't be done without money. But Ted Kizinsky, the "beltway sniper", and a South Korean mental patient prove that terrorism and mass killing doesn't require money.
People need to wake up to the fact that the media attention is what the terrorists want. They will continue planning bigger and more theatric attacks to get the desired attention. The media is the enabler.
Ask the Russians how mush it cost the terrorists to kill a bunch of school children?
I disagree. Ted Kazynski never changed the way you live your life.
Terroristic organizations like OBL and Hamas has changed the way you live your life. None of these terroristic organizations would be in existence without money.
Money is what funds these organizations, it's what keeps them alive and it's what buys them influence. Sure, it won't stop whack jobs like Ted Kazynski or the BTK dude, but it will stop the big things that changes our everyday lives, like the bombing of the US embassy in africa, the USS cole, the everyday IED's in Iraq, it stops the event in Bezlan -the list goes on and on.
What, is this thread just for people in Japan to post in?
Hijack - feel any of the quake? /Hijack
Yeah it was a nice one! Lasted a while too. Glad it was located way to the North in more rural areas. Luckily no tsunami to speak of either. Last one of the coast up there caused a little one.
-SD
"We are all fleas on the back of mother earth, and she is a hound that likes to scratch!"
I disagree. Ted Kazynski never changed the way you live your life.
Terroristic organizations like OBL and Hamas has changed the way you live your life. None of these terroristic organizations would be in existence without money.
Money is what funds these organizations, it's what keeps them alive and it's what buys them influence. Sure, it won't stop whack jobs like Ted Kazynski or the BTK dude, but it will stop the big things that changes our everyday lives, like the bombing of the US embassy in africa, the USS cole, the everyday IED's in Iraq, it stops the event in Bezlan -the list goes on and on.
Sure money makes their current tactics and showboating possible, however they could do more damage with less money. I have war gamed some of these tactics and it could be much worse. The London bombers proved that. It only takes hatred and a hard heart to murder.
Terrorism is now a means of bitter hate mongers to gain power and prestige by selling their message of hate.
When folks are so hopelessly brainwashed by their government that they actually state something like this as fact then all I can say is behold the power of inculcation.
Americans are not like alot of other folks. You can steal an American's property, imprison and torture his parents, and kill his children and though he might get mad he won't do much about it. In some other parts of the world people are much more like Charles Bronson in "Deathwish" and go out and do something about it.
Alas, there is no "message of hate" just alot of pissed off people running around and we just got to face the facts that unlike Americans we aren't just going to be able to calm them down with a few kind words and the promise of more material things.
When folks are so hopelessly brainwashed by their government that they actually state something like this as fact then all I can say is behold the power of inculcation.
Americans are not like alot of other folks. You can steal an American's property, imprison and torture his parents, and kill his children and though he might get mad he won't do much about it. In some other parts of the world people are much more like Charles Bronson in "Deathwish" and go out and do something about it.
Alas, there is no "message of hate" just alot of pissed off people running around and we just got to face the facts that unlike Americans we aren't just going to be able to calm them down with a few kind words and the promise of more material things.
Hmmm... it's Americas fault. Sweet! Glad we wrapped that up. I'll call Bush and conference with Rummy and the JCS. We will just have our soldiers lay down their arms and go hug a few Fundamentalist Muslims. Since they are all peace loving guys, they will see our new outlook and embrace us as brothers.
Wake up! By Federal definition almost any radical or semi radical Mosque is a hate group. If you were a Catholic Church that preached what most Imams do, you would be shut down, and possibly jailed.
When you are dealing with large ignorant populations, they are easily controlled by emotion. The Imams are playing on the most powerful emotion called hate. Hate which is fueled by anti-American news created by slanted coverage.
Are you inferring that the London Bombers were under fire from American troops and responded in turn. Bullshit! They were average kids growing up listening to Pop music and experiencing things that average kids do. It wasn't messages of peace and love that caused them to want to murder innocent women and children, it was messages of hate.
Yeah it was a nice one! Lasted a while too. Glad it was located way to the North in more rural areas. Luckily no tsunami to speak of either. Last one of the coast up there caused a little one.
-SD
"We are all fleas on the back of mother earth, and she is a hound that likes to scratch!"
I was on my way to the US when the quake hit me. It was a fairly big one. I was on the ground floor at tokyo bay and it created waves which where fairly sizeable. The movement lasted for a good minute or so. A buddy was in a highrise at the 25th floor, he told me that the movement lasted for a good 5 minutes before the highrise settled in.
I was on my way to the US when the quake hit me. It was a fairly big one. I was on the ground floor at tokyo bay and it created waves which where fairly sizeable. The movement lasted for a good minute or so. A buddy was in a highrise at the 25th floor, he told me that the movement lasted for a good 5 minutes before the highrise settled in.
I was up at the 31st floor of the Intercontinental Hotel in Yokohama having diner with a friend when the big quake before this last one hit. That was a wild ride! A few people got up and ran out, and our waitress nearly blew chunks. Nice!
Linear Mode
