"We hit Iraq because we could." That's the only true statement here.

and i used to think he was a strait shooter,what a phony blowhart.

Friedman lives in the fantasy bubble of a liberal internationalist - not far away from the neconservatist view of the "non-American" world.

Jonny said, "But watch this video clip all the way through and try not to hate the man." You Libs are full of hate in your heart. You need to find Jesus, so you can get love in your heart. Say no to hate, say yes to true tolerance and diversity.

What a jerk. The next time he thinks we should use the big stick and start a war he should be the first one in line to go. Talk is cheap when you send someone else to get shot at.

Sorry folks, I found nothing he said offensive! Quite the contrary, everything seemed right on. . .

IF you read Friedman carefully, you'll find that while he's overly enthusiastic concerning the good things about globalization, he is well aware of the downsides as well and often talks about what govts and other bodies ought to do to truly level the economic playing field.

And remember, right or wrong, we "won" the war; it was the peace we screwed up....

Dear Tom and Ken, "We won the war..."?
Tell that to the thousands of young American men and women who were killed; to the 25 thousand+ who had their arms, legs, heads, faces and brains blown;to the many young men and women who will wake up at night screaming from the horrors that they have witnessed; to the millions of Iraqiis who were displaced ; to the hundreds of thousands Iraqiis who were killed. The lies, justifications and the post-mortem truth-telling is enough to drive all the christians,jews and pagans out of the temples!
Do you Tom Friedman really believe this will make the suicide bombers stop? Will the $3 Trillion+ dollars spent make us all sleep better at night. Was it really to make the USA and Israel safer?
Israel has 150 nukes, they've walled in the Palestinians and peace still seems so distant.
This war was so unnecessary and immoral. Tom, your words aren't worth the price of gas?

I have to admit that for me, Friedman is in a state of total denial. This state of denial is founded upon a neocon logic that apparently has a deep seeded place in the American subconscious—a sort neocon shadow complex in which a Power elitism has been supplanted into Americans creating the false belief that the best means (as well as “the right”) to implement American foreign policy is via the use of unilateral military force. More than likely this Power Bubble was generated at the end of WWII and since then the US has asserted itself around the world by means of military invasions and CIA engineered coups. We have paid a severe price for this flawed mentality and yet this flaw is hardly noticeable among the American public because consent has been won by a skillful use of Hollywood film where our actions are justified and glorified as being “heroic”.

True enough South Korea can stand as an example of where the US managed to create something that is indeed worthy and decent—but it is the South Korean people who kicked out the military junta we had set up as their ruler and it is their will that created a democracy along the lines of something more in common with Western democracies in general but unheard of in Asia as a whole. Still the crimes committed by the CIA in Iran and beyond have come back to haunt us directly. The inability of American politicians to recognize that the situation in Israel is threatening our position in the world is beyond belief but to listen to the heads of the US speak of “regime change” as though it were an American right to determine the leadership of foreign states is a denial of the very reality from which our history as a nation arose from. It is in fact this “regime change” mentality that threatens us.

REGARDLESS—The true bubble of 1990’s is the power bubble that was created by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which left the US as the uncontested “superpower”. The means by which the US solved international problems in the 1990’s was not by means of diplomacy but rather it was accomplished by military means. In the 1st Gulf War we succeeded and in Kosovo we succeeded but in Somalia we failed. Still whether one was in Europe or the Middle East or Africa or Asia or Latin America, the view of this power exhibition was not popular.

The 1st Gulf War left Iraq intact with Saddam in the seat of power but most importantly it saw Saddam’s entire WMD arsenal destroyed. The very reason for not invading Iraq in Gulf War I was the power vacuum that would arise in the Middle East if Iraq were to disappear as a power buffer in relation to Iran—that alone ought to have meant that the Bush should have been stopped from invading Iraq—because of “National Security”, yet the argument used by Bush to invaded was also based on national security—which means that what determines national security in the US is in a state of contradiction but where it is obvious that the President’s definition has be proven to be wrong. Similarly in Kosovo and in general the meltdown of Serbia control over the former Yugoslavia left a fear in the EU that the influence of this meltdown could spread and destabilize Europe. Czechoslovakia did actually divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but the effects of the Balkan meltdown has not spread. Still when we look at Kosovo we are talking about an interpretation of State Sovereignty and the consequences that can arise by simply declaring “Kosovo” can secede from Serbia but Northern Ireland cannot or there are a number of examples in Europe alone where this sort of succession mentality is not desirable or consider that it is okay for Turkey (A NATO alliance member) can view Kurds as terrorists but without the support of the Kurds the US ability to stabilize Iraq is impossible. In other words the idea that the US can assert its power behind the guise of a war on terrorism will fail because it lacks a credible foundation—the contradictions are too great and the consequences will ultimately undermine and destroy the US itself. This is what I would call the “power bubble” and as we have witnessed the power bubble is not economically feasible.

We presently live in a nation of no rights and yet the War on Terrorism as an answer to 9/11 has yet to seriously punish or weaken “terrorists” or “terrorism” but it has severely punished the American people and the consequences of the flawed and bungled policies of George W. Bush are just about to make their impact felt on the world—the consequence will be an explosion of global terrorism as food prices go up by several hundred percent and the price of energy continues to skyrocket—the answer to terrorism and terrorists can for the most part only be answered by those tools of power that one has at their disposal that increases our strength—war does not do this—war divides and alienates. Thus it is far wiser to place the burden of violence solely upon the terrorists and to attempt to address and solve key issues in the world—such as the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, where Israel cannot be allowed to skate on the “democracy card”, the “anti-Semitic card” but rather that they are confronted directly with the “apartheid card” which Carter and Tutu have recently concentrated on.

It would seem to me that the real “bubbles” in the world are not those proposed by Friedman’s neocon analysis but rather they reside in the American Power Bubble, which means “The Dollar Bubble” the “Budget Deficit Bubble” the “Military diplomacy Bubble” and of course the consequence of these bursting bubbles is the food crisis Bubble. Not only is Friedman’s “advertisement” a lie (it is claimed the War is over and we have won)—the Iraq War is not over but rather just begun—the war that faces the US and the Industrialized Nations will be a global one and it consists in the consequences of the Bozo the Clown Politics of the Bush administration. Friedman’s view is of a world that no longer exists and the faster one adapts to new realities the greater the chance to survive. The neocon philosophy is not only a dead one but it represents a threat to our well being and to the well being of the world. The time for a counter purge is NOW!