From Fair.org via Romenesko:
New York Times columnist Tom Friedman in 2003: “The next six months in Iraq — which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there — are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time.”
Friedman in 2004: “Iraq will be won or lost in the next few months.”
Friedman in 2005: “I think the next six months really are going to determine whether this country is going to collapse into three parts or more or whether it’s going to come together.”
Friedman in 2006: “I think that we’re going to know after six to nine months whether this project has any chance of succeeding.”
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Funny quotes. But is it limited to the journalists though, that’s the thing. The administration has adopted that mantra too.
Howeever, it’s just too easy out to say “The next six (anything)” – because it’s not based on any hard deadline.
Like that other favorite rightwing radio mantra, “You know, it’s a matter of ‘if’ not ‘when’ we’ll be attacked again.”
False security in both arguements, yet still a win-win for the right. If we don’t get attacked, well, then see that? The government protected us! (Never mind that terrorist waited eight years between WTC attacks. But hey, why let facts ruin a successful GOP talking point.
On the other hand, if we do get hit, the response will be “See that? We told you so!”
Stay on target…
Stay on target..!
Friedman has said many foolish things over the years…I’m still reeling from reading his cheery book on globalization, which I was assigned in business school.
Only after 9/11 — which people like Friedman had absolutely no clue would be a result of globalization — did it occur to me to read Stiglitz’s “Globalization and Its Discontents.”
I don’t have lexus/Nexus, but somewhere Freidman said not once, but twice, in his column that the Iraq war was so necessary that it was all right for the administration to lie us into war. Wish I had the dates.