Reply #6: One Small Point, Ma'am [View All]

"The bottom falling out of support for the war" would be this: a widespread sense of urgency about ending the venture yesterday, if not sooner. It is quite true that people in appreciable majorities do not support the war, think it is a bungle managed incompetently, and so forth. But it is also a fact that they do not deeply care about this feeling, that it is not strong enough to lead many yet to demand immediate action to see that view realized as policy. A full-bore, undeniable civil in Iraq would certainly create and spread such a sense of urgency quickly.

Of course, Friedman's comments about our people wanting to spread democracy in the Middle East cannot be allowed to pass without a whiff of grape at least: that si one of the more nonsensical statements the fellow has ever made. The people of this country do not give a tinker's damn how the people fo the Middle East are ruled, so long as they continue to sell us oil. To the degree the people are interested in the subject, they mostly consider it to be the case that the people in the Middle East hate us, and therefore would tend to view democracy in the region as about the least desireable thing conceivable, as it could only empower that popular hate further.

"People are not nearly so stupid as they are given credit for."