[Vision2020] Friedman's NYTimes Op Ed Column re American policyonIraq and who's really insulted

[Sunil Ramalingam]

Interesting you produce these generalizations, Pat.  Knowing all, you 
remember that Friedman was one of the biggest cheerleaders for this war, 
don't you?  Yep, that columnist for the 'liberal New York Times' couldn't 
support the war enough.  And that Chalabi shill Judith Miller of the Times  
reproduced the lies on which the Administration based its war plans as well 
as it's doggie-bag of post-war plans.

So why are we in Iraq?  And how does Bush plan to improve the mess he's 
made?

Sunil


>From: "Pat Kraut" <pkraut at moscow.com>
>To: "vision2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Friedman's NYTimes Op Ed Column re American 
>policyonIraq and who's really insulted
>Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2006 19:14:56 -0800
>
>The thing is Linda that those in the military just don't see Bush the same 
>way you and the NYT does. They hate what Kerry has said about them since 
>the 1970's and they do not hate Bush. I know you'd like them to hate Bush 
>but they just don't. Cindy Sheehan does and some military do but not nearly 
>enough to throw Bush out. I believe this is why Kerry's joke, botched or 
>not just does not sit well with those fighting people. The NYT is a failing 
>paper and when they all get home it is going to get worse for them. Fewer 
>and fewer people believe them no matter what they say...and when they 
>decide to give up their sources to the feds they may well be in more 
>trouble. I believe they should be tried for treason...I know you don't but 
>you must understand that far more do than believe Bush should be impeached!
>
>
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Linda Pall
>   To: vision2020 at moscow.com
>   Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 1:36 PM
>   Subject: [Vision2020] Friedman's NYTimes Op Ed Column re American policy 
>onIraq and who's really insulted
>
>
>   November 3, 2006
>   Op-Ed Columnist
>   Insulting Our Troops, and Our Intelligence
>   By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
>   George Bush, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld think you're stupid. Yes, they 
>do.
>
>   They think they can take a mangled quip about President Bush and Iraq by 
>John Kerry - a man who is not even running for office but who, unlike Mr. 
>Bush and Mr. Cheney, never ran away from combat service - and get you to 
>vote against all Democrats in this election.
>
>   Every time you hear Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney lash out against Mr. Kerry, I 
>hope you will say to yourself, "They must think I'm stupid." Because they 
>surely do.
>
>   They think that they can get you to overlook all of the Bush team's real 
>and deadly insults to the U.S. military over the past six years by hyping 
>and exaggerating Mr. Kerry's mangled gibe at the president.
>
>   What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to the U.S. military 
>than to send it into combat in Iraq without enough men - to launch an 
>invasion of a foreign country not by the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming 
>force, but by the Rumsfeld Doctrine of just enough troops to lose? What 
>could be a bigger insult than that?
>
>   What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women 
>in uniform than sending them off to war without the proper equipment, so 
>that some soldiers in the field were left to buy their own body armor and 
>to retrofit their own jeeps with scrap metal so that roadside bombs in Iraq 
>would only maim them for life and not kill them? And what could be more 
>injurious and insulting than Don Rumsfeld's response to criticism that he 
>sent our troops off in haste and unprepared: Hey, you go to war with the 
>army you've got - get over it.
>
>   What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women 
>in uniform than to send them off to war in Iraq without any coherent 
>postwar plan for political reconstruction there, so that the U.S. military 
>has had to assume not only security responsibilities for all of Iraq but 
>the political rebuilding as well? The Bush team has created a veritable 
>library of military histories - from "Cobra II" to "Fiasco" to "State of 
>Denial" - all of which contain the same damning conclusion offered by the 
>very soldiers and officers who fought this war: This administration never 
>had a plan for the morning after, and we've been making it up - and paying 
>the price - ever since.
>
>   And what could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and 
>women in Iraq than to send them off to war and then go out and finance the 
>very people they're fighting against with our gluttonous consumption of 
>oil? Sure, George Bush told us we're addicted to oil, but he has not done 
>one single significant thing - demanded higher mileage standards from 
>Detroit, imposed a gasoline tax or even used the bully pulpit of the White 
>House to drive conservation - to end that addiction. So we continue to 
>finance the U.S. military with our tax dollars, while we finance Iran, 
>Syria, Wahhabi mosques and Al Qaeda madrassas with our energy purchases.
>
>   Everyone says that Karl Rove is a genius. Yeah, right. So are cigarette 
>companies. They get you to buy cigarettes even though we know they cause 
>cancer. That is the kind of genius Karl Rove is. He is not a man who has 
>designed a strategy to reunite our country around an agenda of renewal for 
>the 21st century - to bring out the best in us. His "genius" is taking some 
>irrelevant aside by John Kerry and twisting it to bring out the worst in 
>us, so you will ignore the mess that the Bush team has visited on this 
>country.
>
>   And Karl Rove has succeeded at that in the past because he was sure that 
>he could sell just enough Bush cigarettes, even though people knew they 
>caused cancer. Please, please, for our country's health, prove him wrong 
>this time.
>
>   Let Karl know that you're not stupid. Let him know that you know that 
>the most patriotic thing to do in this election is to vote against an 
>administration that has - through sheer incompetence - brought us to a 
>point in Iraq that was not inevitable but is now unwinnable.
>
>   Let Karl know that you think this is a critical election, because you 
>know as a citizen that if the Bush team can behave with the level of deadly 
>incompetence it has exhibited in Iraq - and then get away with it by 
>holding on to the House and the Senate - it means our country has become a 
>banana republic. It means our democracy is in tatters because it is so 
>gerrymandered, so polluted by money, and so divided by professional 
>political hacks that we can no longer hold the ruling party to account.
>
>   It means we're as stupid as Karl thinks we are.
>
>   I, for one, don't think we're that stupid. Next Tuesday we'll see.
>
>
>
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