Standing By Your Sex-Hobbyist -Man; Because It's Your Fault Too?

OY! FRIEDMAN'S DONE IT AGAIN

We've tried writing Friedman a letter: HERE. Guess we're all peons to even be on his radar.

I have openly admitted he's been my least favorite columnist for years. Unfortunately, like a bad accident on the Grand Central Parkway I can't ignore him.

He seems to keep coming back like a bad rash.

He even kinda, sorta wrote what he hopes passes for an apology. Friedman admitted 9/11 made him... er, "us" stupid.

Granted, I don't know if I trust the NIE report fully. Iran is definately to be watched, that's for darn sure. But now Friedman's back again. Every "Friedman Unit" or two, he cycles back around. With more of his "badness."

Thomas Friedman's Flawed Analogy on Iran
By William Hartung

I've had a hard time taking Thomas Friedman seriously ever since his advocacy of the war in Iraq. But I have to acknowledge that there are still occasions when he's right on the money -- as he has been in urging cooperation between the U.S. and China on clean energy technologies.

Unfortunately, Friedman's punditry may be taking a turn for the worse. His article in today's New York Times is one of his most illogical and ill-considered since his "invade Iraq" days.

In suggesting that the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran has reduced U.S. leverage in moving Tehran towards capping or eliminating its nuclear enrichment program, he uses one of the most tortured (and inaccurate) analogies I have seen in a long while.

Here it goes. He compares Iran and its nuclear program to a drug dealer who has paused in his activities after years of producing and selling heroin:

"Gulf Arabs feel like they have this neighbor who has been a drug dealer for 18 years. Recently, this neighbor has been very visibly growing poppies in his back yard in violation of the law. He's also been buying bigger and better trucks to deliver drugs . . .," says Friedman.

And the metaphor goes on: after police pressure, our unfriendly neighborhood drug dealer shuts down his heroin laboratory; the police have now declared that this rogue poppy grower is not a drug dealer any more, but only by taking a narrow, legalistic interpretation of that term. But the neighbors aren't convinced -- it's not as if he's just growing flowers for the fun of it, and as recently as 2003 he was turning his poppy crop into heroin.

Does this analogy make any sense? Well, no. First of all, unlike the heroin dealer, Iran has never successfully manufactured the product in question (a nuclear weapon). It doesn't even have enough poppies (enriched uranium) to make the product, and is still having considerable difficulty learning how to grow them. Meanwhile, there are neighbors who do know how to make the product (nuclear weapons) and have significant stockpiles of it. Not to mention the chief of police (the United States) who has one of the largest stockpiles of the product in the world and is in the midst of building a new improved production facility. Last but not least, the chief keeps saying that he can't rule out the idea of burning down the alleged drug dealer's house if he doesn't agree to stop growing poppies.

I know, it's a bit elaborate, but blame Friedman; it's his metaphor, not mine. But the main point is that by echoing the Bush administration's after the fact "spin" on the NIE's findings, Friedman is contributing -- consciously or not -- to the larger effort to dismiss the impact of the estimate.

As these things go, the NIE was reasonably clear: the 16 intelligence agencies involved have concluded that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program four years ago and that there is no indication that it is poised to re-start it. Rather than treating this as good news that will give diplomacy more time to work, President Bush has suggested that the fact that Tehran once had a program means it is time to ratchet up the pressure even higher than it was when the administration's assumption was that there is currently a program under way.

The NIE on Iran is a positive development, and for once the intelligence community was allowed to state its conclusions without interference from the Cheney/neo-con wing of the administration. The NIE should be a building block for a more reasonable diplomatic strategy -- far from reducing U.S. leverage, it might actually make it easier to bring countries like Russia and China on board for a workable joint strategy, as occurred with North Korea.

Or maybe Iran is the nuclear equivalent of a recidivist drug dealer. Friedman reports, you decide . . .

SOURCE