He's right about that. Bush could have launched those missiles, planes, and ships at anyone with any connection to terrorism and the American public would have supported him. I really don't care whether we leave Afghanistan and Iraq in smithereens....Bush's action will discourage anyone else from taking us on. And that's the unvarnished truth. Does that make me Godzilla?
Friedman was on PBS News Hour last week saying the most intelligent things about Iraq I've heard anywhere. (He was pro-war before the war.) He went to Iraq a week or so ago, flew over it, drove through it, talked to everyone, and reports that the country has obviously been a worse wreck from Saddam's regime than anyone could have imagined. Farms have not farmed for decades, business people have done no business...the country is horribly poor and dysfunctional. It's NOT our fault, Friedman stressed over and over. But now we're stuck with trying to fix enough of it to get it moving in some positive direction .....
We need that oil money to pay ourselves back for the cost of liberating Iraqis. And for the decades-long task facing us of educating those people so they don't blame everything on us. We really did not hurt them. Friedman said this quite plainly. But unless we start moving the country in a positive direction very soon, the Iraqis will turn their anger on us. Not good.