Posted on 10/24/2004 12:05:36 PM PDT by baseball_fan
I was speaking the other day with Scott Pelley of CBS News's "60 Minutes" about the mood in Iraq. He had just returned from filming a piece there and he told me something disturbing. Scott had gone around and asked Iraqis on the streets what they called American troops - wondering if they had nicknames for us in the way we used to call the Nazis "Krauts" or the Vietcong "Charlie." And what did he find? "Many Iraqis have so much distrust for U.S. forces we found they've come up with a nickname for our troops," Scott said. "They call American soldiers 'The Jews,' as in, 'Don't go down that street, the Jews set up a roadblock.' "
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It seems like it always falls to President Bush who is doing his best just to get re-elected. Could Tom Friedman call on the American Jewish community to bring pressure to bear on Sharon and the "Israeli Hezbollah" as he calls it to help protect Bush's flank given how much he is trying to do to stand up a democracy in Iraq? Maybe this is already happening, in which case it makes it more understandable for Thomas Friedman to go back and reexert pressure on the President after helping to organize the political cover for President Bush to do so. Short of this, he would seem to be making the argument to elect Senator Kerry. Not knowing the details, who knows what the real answer is?
I'm pretty sure our Soldiers have "pet names" for some of the Iraqis also...Most streets are two ways.
Rabin had the correct view? Is this the same Rabin that fired on (and sank) the Altalena with M. Begin on board, and full of weapons that could have been used to defend Israel in the 48' war of independence? Is this the same Rabin who was willing to give up Judea and Samaria, and even contemplate turning over Jerusalem itself? Make no mistake about it, Friedman is a sellout. It's only fitting that he's working for the NY Times.
More global-testing, put-our-faith-in-diplomacy flaccidness. The fact is, the war against Israel is very popular in Palestine. How is it that some stuffed-shirt State Department types are going to change that elemental fact?
"Haji" is the term of choice, I understand.
Tom is off his meds again. Where's the video of the "Jewish Hezbollah" beheading people?
Maybe it was the prisoners at Abu Ghraib who had panties placed on their heads.
I ask all FReepers to pray for the safety of my son in the IDF, who is on duty in the Jordan Valley.
FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel ping list.
WARNING: This is a high volume ping list
Actually I think he's working for the Saudis.
Regrettably, this is just more brain-addled, Muslim-appeasement drivel from Mr. Friedman. It is the usual porridge of lefty arguments: Americans in Iraq are bad; Jews in the West Bank are bad; its Israel-US's fault that the Muslim terrorists hate us; and if only the US would pull out of Iraq and if only Israel would agree to make itself defenseless to the PLO thugs, all would be right again in the Middle East.
Looks like TF took a three month sabbatical and came back just as biased and as antagonistic to Israel and the Bush administration as when he left.
So what else is new, I guess.
Prayers offered for your son - - -
That Freidman is a useful idiot is a given. But it's also true that Americans are the new Jews in the eyes of an envious, embittered, dog in the manger world. How dare we have a robust economy? How dare we work hard and enjoy individual freedoms? How dare we be happy and creative? The Jews made the desert bloom when Arabs preferred to sit around, whine, and beg for handouts. Americans are the new Jews and wear the label proudly.
"Enemies. France German, Iran"
Don't forget about Russia.
Enemies. France German, Iran"
Don't forget about Russia
Nope. Russia isn't our enenmy. They got their own Islamic Terrorist threat. Putin said he hoped Bush got re-elected. We may diagree on tactics but Russia agrees the war should be fought.
"Nope. Russia isn't our enenmy. They got their own Islamic Terrorist threat."
So do France and Germany (not to mention the rest of Europe). That doesn't make Russia our friend. The Russians worked against us just as hard (actually more) than France and Germany during the lead-up to Gulf War II.
(a) Is Friedman making the argument that a global intifada is developing - the mirror image of Sharon associating America's war on terror with Israel's struggle against Palestinian suicide bombers - only now it is America's presence and influence in the Middle East that is resented?
(b) Is this isolating America now along with Israel?
(c) Might this isolation in the world that Kerry talks about become one of the key issues leading to the President's defeat?
(d) Would Kerry who is more associated with European and U.N. opinion have a different policy regarding the Middle East and Israel/Palestinians?
(e) Is there a danger of this global intifada irrationally morphing into a modern nazism via Al Qaeda?
(f) Would the American Jewish community work to give Bush some political cover in isolating what Friedman considers political extremism, thereby countering Kerry's charge of increasing isolation?
(g) If it is not considered political extremism on the part of Sharon and the "Jewish Hezbollah" as Friedman calls it, how do you see this global intifada playing itself out? Only after the standing up of democracies in Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea and a Palestinian state?
(h) As such does Israel want to be known as in the front of this movement of liberation and democracy, one step of which is gaining regime change from Arafat and fair elections among the Palestinians?
Thanks
Don't waste your time asking questions about Tom Friedman's article. Everything he says is B***S***
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