Tom has gone bonkers:

Tom Friedman writes a column in the New York Times today entitled Our War With France. Let's look at some of what he says:

FRIEDMAN: What I have no doubts about, though, is that there is no coherent, legitimate Iraqi authority able to assume power in the near term, and trying to force one now would lead to a dangerous internal struggle and delay the building of the democratic institutions Iraq so badly needs. Iraqis know this. France knows this, which is why its original proposal (which it now seems to be backtracking on a bit) could only be malicious.

OBSERVATION: Sometimes quicker is better. Winston Churchill said this about India in 1947: "A fourteen-month time interval is fatal to an orderly transfer of power" since it gives extremists on both sides time to organize.

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FRIEDMAN: France seems to have given no thought as to how this would affect France.

BUT A FEW SENTENCES EARLIER HE WROTE: France wants America to sink in a quagmire there in the crazy hope that a weakened U.S. will pave the way for France to assume its "rightful" place as America's equal, if not superior, in shaping world affairs.

So there is some thought about how this would affect France. Or maybe not. Or something.

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FRIEDMAN: ... France has never been interested in promoting democracy in the modern Arab world, which is why its pose as the new protector of Iraqi representative government — after being so content with Saddam's one-man rule — is so patently cynical.

OBSERVATION: Unlike the United States' pose as the new protector of Iraqi representative government - after being so content with Sadam's one-man rule (in the 1980's).

posted by Quiddity at 9/18/2003 07:13:00 AM