Friedman, Dope

Thomas Friedman loots the recycle bin for another "we can still win this thing" column about Iraq in today's NYT. Let me address a few things Friedman asserts.

From the NYT

Iraq is inching toward a dangerous tipping point - the point where the key communities begin to invest more energy in preparing their own militias for a scramble for power - when everything falls apart, rather than investing their energies in making the hard compromises within and between their communities to build a unified, democratizing Iraq.

OK, this has already happened. SCIRI is pretty much is the law in the south, the peshmerga rule the north, and the Sunni insurgents, were they not busy fighting the federales and the Americans, would be ruling the central and western part of the country. The Sunni insurgents would also be fighting with the Shia and the Kurds for a stake in the oil game.

Friedman

Our core problem in Iraq remains Donald Rumsfeld's disastrous decision - endorsed by President Bush - to invade Iraq on the cheap. From the day the looting started, it has been obvious that we did not have enough troops there. We have never fully controlled the terrain. Almost every problem we face in Iraq today - the rise of ethnic militias, the weakness of the economy, the shortages of gas and electricity, the kidnappings, the flight of middle-class professionals - flows from not having gone into Iraq with the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force

This is all true. The only people who don't believe this live in a big house on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Friedman

Maybe it is too late, but before we give up on Iraq, why not actually try to do it right? Double the American boots on the ground and redouble the diplomatic effort to bring in those Sunnis who want to be part of the process and fight to the death those who don't.

HA HA HA HA! You naive fuck. Where the fuck do we get another 130,000 troops for Iraq without breaking the Army. We would have to get international troops to join us and nobody, not even Tony Blair, is going to lift finger number one to help George Bush.

Friedman

We've already paid a huge price for the Rumsfeld Doctrine - "Just enough troops to lose." Calling for more troops now, I know, is the last thing anyone wants to hear. But we are fooling ourselves to think that a decent, normal, forward-looking Iraqi politics or army is going to emerge from a totally insecure environment, where you can feel safe only with your own tribe.

This is also true. We have paid a huge price for the Rumsfeld Doctrine, but in this administration accountability is a word that only describes your accountants ability to cook the books.