Tom Friedman is wrong

CNN ^ | June 9, 2003 | Mark Shields

[Rennes Templar]

WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate) -- Tom Friedman of The New York Times is an absolutely terrific columnist. He has won a roomful of prizes -- including a couple of Pulitzers.

And he has earned all of them, along with the uncommon respect of his colleagues for being a reporter first and then a columnist. This week, Friedman wrote a column that made me so angry I now write to rebut it.

[Rennes Templar]

Tom Friedman is (gulp) right.

[rs79bm]

I understand your reason for posting, but I hardly ever read anything from Mark Shields. He's an idiot.

[rs79bm]

Maybe Mr. Shields isn't giving enough credit to the brave men and women of our armed forces for taking out these facilities during the war. Obviously, they would have used them against our toops, which is why we took them out.

[glock rocks]

I thought Jim Robinson only allowed posts in News from reputable sources.

[mystery-ak]

Please, Mr Shields...do not speak for the military....My son was mobilized and missed his Junior year at ISU...he sat for several months at Fort McCoy until he was de-mobilized...he was so upset that I couldn't reason with him...upset that he didn't get to go to Iraq...*hardship duty*...STFU.

[Wolfstar]

Ummm...message to Mark Shields: You wrote that we have failed to find any "...lethal weapons of mass destruction." So does that mean you think there is such a thing as non-lethal WMD? Mark, muh boy, maybe you should first do a study on lethal vs. non-lethal WMD, before writing a column critizing another writer.

[Timeout]

Mark Shields is another Sore Loserman.

[MattAMiller]

Is some sort of self mortification really necessary for patriotism to be authentic?

[meenie]

The real question is how much this will affect Bush's re-election. The majority of people don't like to be mislead.

[Richard Axtell]

"As the duplicity and deception of Vietnam and Watergate remind us, the credibility of an American leader is indeed perishable. A leader who misleads his countrymen reaps the whirlwind. The leader's punishment is the people's mistrust. Mistrust breeds cynicism; cynicism breeds alienation. That could harm the United States more gravely than any "unmanned aerial vehicles" from Baghdad."

Tell me Mark... what "whirlwind" did President Clinton reap for his duplicity and deception that directly lead to the attack on 9/11? And what evidence that credibility ever meant anything to you or the left during the 8 years of insane Clinton Apologesia we had to convulse our way through in the last decade? Mistrust is reaping a whirlwind, witness the implosion of the New York Times, the leftist broadcast media, and CNN... your current employer. The Fox is in the henhouse, and you idiot chickens look like dinner to Rupert. This is going to explode in the laps of the desperate partisan Democrats that are ginning up this firestorm... and they will deserve every bit of shrapnel they absorb.

[mystery-ak]

I worry about that too,considering how this is snow balling....told my hubby about it when he called last week...he just laughed.

[Wolfstar]

Yup, a certifiable idiot. See my post #6 for a little proof. While I'm at it, his oh-so-condescending comment about the 12 service members from Mexico, Guatemala and the Philippines is breathtaking for its phony attempt to connect with the Left's favorite political straw man — "the poor."

A little reality check here for Markie poo: Of the 260 million or so residents of this great nation, only a fraction of one percent ever attend a state dinner. But, of course, what good is a Leftist rant without at least one swipe at "rich Republicans" who don't understand "the poor." As in this line: "Their fathers were not Pioneers for Bush."

Oh, but for shame, Markie, muh boy. While you were writing your rant using the blood of our 177 honored dead, you didn't break down their race and gender! (Where's Jesse Jackson when you need him?!)

[Wolfstar]

Who says we were misled? The Left and a few members of the far-Right fringe? Whether or not it affects the President's reelection depends in great measure on whether those of us who know the truth work hard to keep reminding the public of that truth.

[rs79bm]

Of course people don't like to be mislead. Who's to say we didn't take these facilities out during the war? You know if there were a bunch of Iraqi troops mobilized around a certain WMD location that we would have taken it out.

[L`enn]

The real question is how much this will affect Bush's re-election. The majority of people don't like to be mislead.

It will not affect it one bit. This story is blowing right over the head of the general population. The people that hate Bush are soiling their pants over it. To everyone else it is a big *yawn* . Kind of reminds me of the way Iran-Contra was in the 1980's.

[rs79bm]

Oh, but for shame, Markie, muh boy. While you were writing your rant using the blood of our 177 honored dead, you didn't break down their race and gender! (Where's Jesse Jackson when you need him?!)

Jesse Jackson is busy counting his children.

[Wolfstar]

Grin...

[Restorer]

Mark would have a decent point if we had a draftee army with student deferments like we had during Vietnam. But we don't. Every single soldier in Iraq was a volunteer. And from what I hear, they were almost unanimously happy to be there.

[Wolfstar]

While I would quarrel that Mark Shields has ever had a decent point about any subject [wink], I agree with the premise of your post.

[NovemberCharlie]

Tom Friedman is (gulp) right.

Don't worry; he got over it in his latest.